Rhubarb, cooked or raw?

Mevdog · Jun 8, 2019

Hey guys,

Ive got a saison that’s pretty much finished fermenting and I was looking to add some rhubarb to most of it.
How would you recommend adding the rhubarb?
I’m thinking either blending and cooking it down a bit to reduce risk of infection or just blending raw. I’ll add both to a mesh bag in the keg.

Any huge difference in taste or preference?
Or any reason not to blend?

Cheers

Xeno · Jun 8, 2019

Boil it in minimal water, strain it, ditch the rhubarb or make a crumble, add the liquor to your brew.

Rhubarb is seriously messy and cloggy, do yourself a favour and use the liquor and not the fruit.

Slid · Jun 8, 2019

Yesterday I bottled a rhubarb Saison. The rhubarb was 2 kilos, frozen and then then defrosted and added for 5 days after 8 days fermenting the wort, in nylon paint straining bags.

Chopped the stalks quite small before freezing and although there was some considerable debris left at the end, it was less than I thought. I had a taste of the hydrometer sample (1.000 with Belle Saison) and it was pretty good, although the rhubarb presence was not really that greatly noticeable.

Totally agree with Xeno that you do not want to add it to a beer, unless you can get it back out easily. So - two approaches already - probably both perfectly viable.

Would not think that chucking it in a blender is going to be a good move.

Mevdog · Jun 8, 2019

Cheers guys, I wouldn’t dream of chucking it in the keg without a mesh bag to put it in, and I hope that in the bag all mess and clogging will be contained. Blending should just help release all the juice, as long as the motor can handle the stringy rhubarb.

Interesting that 2kg didn’t provide a greatly noticeable flavour slid, was that in a 20l batch? Do you think that as you added in primary, the yeast was still active enough to ferment the rhubarb flavour away?

matt76 · Jun 9, 2019

Out of interest, has anyone ever considered or tried rhubarb essence? According to Google you can get it for a quid in Waitrose (analogous I guess to vanilla essence that you'd put in cakes).

I wondered if this might be a lot less faff???

(That said, I totally get the desire to do things from raw ingredients, otherwise I'd brew extract instead of AG!)

Slid · Jun 9, 2019

Mevdog said:
Cheers guys, I wouldn’t dream of chucking it in the keg without a mesh bag to put it in, and I hope that in the bag all mess and clogging will be contained. Blending should just help release all the juice, as long as the motor can handle the stringy rhubarb.

Interesting that 2kg didn’t provide a greatly noticeable flavour slid, was that in a 20l batch? Do you think that as you added in primary, the yeast was still active enough to ferment the rhubarb flavour away?

OK, so the batch was the "usual" 25L. After 8 or 9 days fermenting, most of the bubbling is usually over, so maybe not too much loss of flavour? I don't really know, of course, but I was quite pleased with the outcomes, at least initially. It is one I might do again this summer, if there is any more Rhubarb!