Update: Rhubarb Raspberry Hefe and Cider Update

Just a couple things to update on the brewing front:

 Opened a bottle of the Rhubarb Raspberry Hefeweizen ... Yummy!

The first taste you get as you drink it is a nice tart taste from the rhubarb and then as it finishes and goes down the back of the throat you get the sweetness of the raspberries.  Pleased with the carbonation level on this one (4 tablets) still have to open a 3 and 5 tablet.  Anyway really pleased with the way this turned out in the end.

CIDER UPDATE
Added the yeasts to the carboys on Saturday.

In the the first carboy I used White Labs Belgian Saison yeast which is a classic Saison yeast from Wallonia. It produces earthy, peppery, and spicy notes. Slightly sweet.

 In the second carboy is White Labs Hefeweizen  IV yeast which has a large clove and phenolic aroma and flavor, with minimal banana. Refreshing citrus and apricot notes. Crisp, drinkable hefeweizen.

Currently both are bubbling away...and I am not sure if it is the light or what but the one on the right with the hefeweizen yeast looks like it is lighter in color...or it could just be my brain playing tricks on me...

Anyway I can't wait till these are ready to sample.

Bottling the Rhubarb Raspberry Wheat

Well Summer is half over and at least I finally got around to bottling the Rhubarb Raspberry Wheat.  It sat in the secondary for just over a month because of a vacation home to WV, the extreme heat and humidity, and just general procrastination


My original plan for priming was to use two different priming methods: Priming Tabs and sugar cubes
Unfortunately I was unable to find sugar cubes at the store but did end up purchasing a new type of conditioning tabs that are supposed to allow you to have a bit more control the carbonation levels.

So as an experiment I did the following:

22oz Bottles - 8 conditioning tablets

12oz bottles with 3 conditioning tablets: 3

12oz bottles with 5 conditioning tablets: 3

12oz bottles with 4 conditioning tablets: 12

I also didn't get as many bottles as I usually do from a 5 gallon batch because some of the Rhubarb didn't get totally pureed and was clogging the tubing and bottling wand.   This  made it difficult to fill the bottles since the pieces Rhubarb were preventing the tip on the end of the wand from closing.  I ended up tossing the bottling wand (needed a new one anyway) along with the tubing

Overall my initial tasting of the beer is promising and I can't wait to try it once it is conditioned. This batch has also made me want to do 3 gallon batches and move to kegging as soon as possible.

Summer HefeWiezen Part Duex

Last night I racked my HefeWiezen to the secondary and added the two summer ingredients which will make this a one of a kind homebrew: Raspberries and Rhubarb

I have been wanting to use rhubarb for sometime now and figured that a wheat beer would be the best base beer for this endeavor.  Because rhubarb is very tart I decided that to try and balance it out I would add a "sweet" berry.  The first choice was Strawberry but after some research I found that real strawberries don't work that well in beer and I have had success with the Razzburly Cream Ale (eventually to be reviewed here) and figured to go with what I know.

The Rhubarb came from my girlfriend's mother which she grew in her garden and the raspberries were frozen organic berries from the store. Both were frozen (break down the cell walls) and taken out the freezer three days prior to racking the beer.

Not wanting to just dump the rhubarb and raspberries into the new carboy, I put both in the food processor to make a puree

Rhubarb

Rhubarb and Berries

Pureeing the two allowed me to sample the mixture so that I could find a balanced taste between the tangyiness  of the rhubarb and the sweetness of the berries.  I then added it to the carboy

In to the Carboy

Here it is almost 24hrs later:

I will probably let it sit like this for 2-3 weeks before bottling it. I am going to estimate that by the time it is ready to bottle it should be about 5% ABV

I am really looking forward to the time when this is ready to try