Brewing a Tzatziki Sour Beer – Cucumber, Mint & Madness?
Brewing a Tzatziki Sour Beer – Cucumber, Mint & Madness?
Ever tried a beer that tastes like Greece… and loved it? In this post, I brew a Tzatziki Sour using cucumber, mint, salt, and a sourdough starter — all inside a 1-gallon iGulu system. Here’s how it turned out and what I learned from this refreshingly weird experiment.
When I first joked about brewing a Tzatziki Sour, I didn’t expect to actually do it. But here we are. And yes, I fermented a beer with cucumber, mint, salt — and even used sourdough starter as the combined lacto and yeast source. This is part 4 of my Sour Beer Experiments, and it’s one of the weirdest brews I’ve ever done.
Why a Tzatziki Sour?
Let’s be honest — I love pushing boundaries. Some of you have called it obsession, I call it science. But truth is, this obsession started years ago. I actually tried a tzatziki sour at the London Craft Beer Festival — and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The flavors stuck with me. So when I began the sourdough beer experiments, I knew it was finally time to try brewing my own version.
Ingredients Breakdown
Cucumber, Mint & Salt
These are the soul of tzatziki. I used peeled cucumber to avoid bitterness (I also chopped the ends of the cucumber for the same reason), then shredded the cucumber and pushed it through a sieve to extract only the juice. I added the juice to my fermenter. I made a tea from boiling water, two mint tea bags (100% mint), and a Swedish “Kryddmått” (1ml) of non-iodized salt. I let the tea cool down and added it into the fermenter as well. It’s weird. But it works.
Malt & DME
I kept the base simple: 500g of wheat DME. Light, neutral, and perfect for showcasing the unusual flavors.
Brewing Process & Fermentation
I brewed this batch in the iGulu F1 — a compact, one-gallon system that makes weird experiments like this totally doable. All the ingredients, including the mint tea and cucumber juice, went in from the start. Fermentation kicked off at around 20°C and I gently ramped the temperature during the process. As always, I fermented under pressure.
For fermentation, I pitched my sourdough starter, which provided both the lactic acid bacteria and wild yeast. Everything went smoothly, and after about a week, the beer was ready for its first tasting — which I shared in a behind-the-scenes video for The Brew Crew (my Patreon supporters). I then let the beer condition for another week in the iGulu F1 before filming the final review for YouTube.
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I even sent a sample to the Lab Doctor. He was out foraging spruce tips but took a moment to analyze the brew. Surprisingly, no rant this time. Instead, he noted that while this beer finished at 1.015 (in line with the rest of the sourdough experiments), only the banana sour had dropped lower — thanks to co-pitching (fermenting with two strains) using Angel Yeast WA18.
What really stood out was his take on adding ingredients before fermentation. He praised the simplicity of adding the cucumber and mint at the start — it eliminated oxidation risks, kept things clean, and still preserved the delicate aromatics. Turns out, volatile flavors like mint and cucumber can survive fermentation when handled right.
Tasting Notes
The pour had a tight white head and nice haze. The aroma and taste was light tartness, fresh cucumber, minty herbal character, and just enough salt to make you wonder what is this sorcery?
Would I Brew It Again?
Absolutely. Not every day — but for a fun, warm-weather beer? Yes. Also, it would pair perfectly with Greek food. It’s also a fun beer to give away as a gift.
Want to try this yourself?
Follow along in the video.
That´s all Beer Bitches!
– DrHans
What’s Next?
I’m already planning:
-
A super bitter sourdough beer
-
Dry hopping experimentsA Pizza Beer
- LingonBerry Sour
- Sura skallar Sour
-
These experiments are only just heating up.
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