Re: Unusual fruits and homebrew
- From: "Ric" <replytogroup@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:01:06 GMT
Pear makes an outstanding wine. Let me know if you're interested, and I'll
post a recipe.
"Jacob Johnston" <aracauna@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:YcCdnfrRAeZe4j7ZnZ2dnUVZ_uidnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm in the process of moving back to the place where I grew up and will
have access to plenty of fruit. My parents (about a mile away) have
scuppernong vines that are extremely prolific (and pretty old as my great
grandparents planted them), pear trees, pecan trees, a fig tree, and a
plethora of wild blackberries in the woods. On our property we have
blueberry bushes, and a healthy persimmon tree. In addition to the fruit
on our property my family usually goes to a local strawberry farm and
picks up about 20 gallons of fresh, vine-ripe strawberries to put up each
year and the prime peach land is within an easy drive (and I'm planning on
planting a few peach trees on my property anyway).
Now the pecans, I know what to do with. I've talked to the brewster at
Lazy Magnolia about how they work with the pecans in their pecan nut brown
ale and will probably take the easy access to do a pecan brown ale of my
own. It's some of the other fruits I want suggestions about what base beer
to use. The whole thing that got me started was the HeBrew Genesis 10:10
which uses pomegranate juice to good use in my opinion. The base beer is a
moderately hoppy barleywine more or less and the pomegranate flavor meshes
well with both hops and malt to make a pretty seamless beer. I'd like to
try to avoid the stereotype fruit wheat if at all possible, but I'll be
brewing a lot more after I move down there and I'd love to make some
really interesting fruit beers to make use of our own produce.
I know with the scuppernongs I'm on my own, but I was kind of thinking a
British-style barleywine or Belgian strong ale as I've picked up hints of
that in some of those beers before. In case you're completely lost, it's a
wild grape native to the southeaster coastal states. It has a thick,
leathery skin that you don't eat, but a rich, sweet fruit that's only
vaguely like a regular grape. I love them, though. The domestic version is
usually reddish and called a muscadine, but the wild variety that most
people where I'm moving keep is a greenish-brownish gray when ripe.
It's mainly the persimmons (never eaten one despite growing up with a
grandmother who grew them and loved them), figs, pears, blueberries and
blackberries that I'd really like some ideas other than american wheat to
work with. Anyone had a persimmon? What's it like? What hops would you
think work well with it? What beer style do you think it's best suited to
complementing? Same questions for the other fruit? The persimmons look
like they'll be maturing just about the time we finish moving in. The
blueberries may still be producing, but I think they're peaking right
about now and the blackberries will be past their prime by the time I get
to brew again (they've already peaked and started winding up). The peaches
will have to wait until next year as the season finishes up pretty soon
and I won't get a chance to work with good peaches until next summer. The
figs are still green though and the pears aren't even close to being ready
yet.
Actually, I think my access to local fruits may be the best thing to
happen to my brewing (besides the fact that I won't have easy access to
good beer, which will require me to brew more often).
Jacob
.
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