Re: Unusual fruits and homebrew
- From: Kyle <abuse@localhost>
- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:06:33 +0000 (UTC)
you've definitely got some interesting ideas, and I do suggest you
explore them! However, using a barleywine as a base might not be the
best way to get a feel for the impact of the fruit... first off, a BW
will take a significant period of time to age. Second, do you have a
good barleywine recipe to start from? I've always viewed barleywine
as one of the more significant homebrewing investments-- they're
(relatively) expensive to brew, then you've got to wait a long time
for the results. Only after that do you know whether or not it was
worth it.
It might be more worth your time starting with a pale ale or blonde
ale recipe and scaling up from there. Turn around time will be on the
order of a month or two instead of 6-12 months (or greater) for a BW.
-Kyle
In article <YcCdnfrRAeZe4j7ZnZ2dnUVZ_uidnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Jacob Johnston <aracauna@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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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