persimmon beer

**truckmann** · 06-09-2009, 04:24 PM

Ok here is a strange old time recipe. Don't suppose anyone has actually ever tried this?

Euell Gibbons' Persimmon Beer - uses Diospyros virginiana (common, or american persimmons)

Quote:

Persimmon Beer
This recipe, was offered by Euell Gibbons in his 1962 book, "Stalking The Wild Asparagus". Euell said, "I think it is a waste of good persimmons, but I have some friends who always very willingly dispose of any I make." This recipe is used by permission.

Ingredients:

10 pounds of wheat bran
1 gallon of pulp from very ripe persimmons

Bake this mixture like pones of cornbread until it is brown and firm. Break the pones into small pieces and put through a food chopper using a coarse plate. Dump the ground mixture into a 5 gallon crock and fill the crock not quite full of boiling water.

As soon as the crock cools to the point of barely being warm, stir in 1 package of dry yeast mixed with a little of the liquid from the crock. Keep the crock covered with a cloth. It will ferment furiously for a few days but keep watching it and in about a week it will start settling down. The moment it becomes still and clear, bottle and cap it tightly. Store it in a cool, dark place an in about 3 weeks it will be ready to use.

Phunhog · 06-09-2009, 04:32 PM

I don't know about that recipe?? I am planning on making a persimmon braggot this fall/winter for my holiday brew. I have a great old persimmon tree in my backyard that yields a ton of fruit. Might as well put that fruit to some use!! Cheers!!

**truckmann** · 06-10-2009, 03:18 AM

A friend of mine who likes to drink my beer asked me about this recipe because he has several persimmon trees at his house. He is thinking about trying it out. Looks a little scary to me, but what the hell it should be an interesting experiment.

I was thinking about trying to get some persimmons from him for a mead this fall!

Danek · 06-10-2009, 12:07 PM

I think persimmons are what we foreigners call sharon fruit. I split a small batch of pale ale and I racked some of it onto four macerated sharon fruit / persimmons. The beer took on a lovely color, but tasted like ass - the fruit had a pungency that overwhelmed the beer entirely. So I suspect to get the best from these, it'd be advisable to brew something other than a pale ale.