Cucumber soda?

[gravityspiral]

My sister has been a huge supporter of my homebrewing despite her being a recovering alcoholic and never being able to actually sample any of my experiments. I've made sodas from extract kits and syrups before but she is a really big cucumber fan and I'd like to try my hand at making a cucumber soda for her.

I know the standard for 5 gallons is about 8 cups of sugar, but I'm wondering what you guys think is a good place to start as far as how much cucumber to use for a 5 gallon batch? I'll probably also add some mint to it.

 

[MrFoodScientist]

My standard is 10 cups of sugar/gallon, but that's just me.

I've done a cucumber melon soda before, but it ended up being pretty pulpy. I used about 1/2 of a medium cucumber for 1 gallon. If you're doing straight cucumber, maybe use a whole cucumber per gallon. I diced it up, heated my sugar with a small amount of water and then poured the hot syrup over the cucumber and melon to macerate, then mashed it up and squeezed out the juice through a sieve. That left me with a nice syrup to add to carbonated water.

Are you planning on kegging or bottling this?

 

[brewtoplease]

Hmm I think I will give this a shot

 

[gravityspiral]

I was planning on kegging with potassium sorbate then bottling from the keg after carbing. I was going to get a good rolling boil to add the sugar, then steep the cucumber while it cools with immersion chiller, then add the k sorb and pour through a strainer straight into the keg.

Thanks for the advice on quantity - I was going to use WAY more than that so I'm glad I asked first.