Mesquite Molasses Beer

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GTG said:
Steeped the 2 lbs of pods in 1 gallon of water at 155 for 90 minutes.
Topped up to 2.5 gallons
3 lbs Wheat DME at start of boil
1/2 oz Mt Hood
1/2 oz Hersbrucker
1/2 oz Mt Hood
3 lbs Wheat DME at 15 min to go
.75 lb piloncilo sugar at 15 min to go
Trappist Yeast
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Sounds good. I brewed up 12 gal of mesquite ale two weekends ago, which used up the last of my pods. Need to find some time to harvest some more before it's too late for the year.
 
Here's my 2 lbs of pods in various shades of roastness.
MesquitePods1.jpg


Here's my results after creating the extract from them.
MesquitePods2.jpg


The extract had a great aroma and had flavors of coffee and vanilla.

GTG
 
Just read the whole thread, and I may be too late, but I'm in Tucson and someone mentioned late September might be a good time to harvest pods. I have been planning on doing something like this but have procrastinated on researching until now. I think I'll take a hike and look for some nearly dried beans on the tree (natural Tucson grown mesquite not any in the yard, hoping for the Honey or Velvet variety, don't recall ever seeing the screwbean around here). Any opinions from the Tucson folk on here about whether or not I'm too late?
 
It seems that the trees are on different schedules all over town this year, but I know I've seen some good pod loaded trees as recently as a couple days ago. You should be able to find plenty if you do some searching.
 
Found some trees today out near the S end of Houghton, two varieties, some yellow and some with reddish streaks. Are the red beans from the Velvet Mesquite? I made sure to only pick from naturally growing mesquite as I wanted the native flavor and not the landscape varieties that some here have said may taste chalky. Got em drying in the side yard, will probably try to grab some more over the next week.

Thx for the info, I'm looking forward to trying a few different ways of prep for these beans. I plan on oven roasting some as mentioned in this thread and maybe getting some processed later this month by the local hammer mill folks. I am surprised it took me this long to try doing somethng with mesquite other than sweeping up the dropped beans.
 
Henrythewound said:
Found some trees today out near the S end of Houghton, two varieties, some yellow and some with reddish streaks. Are the red beans from the Velvet Mesquite? I made sure to only pick from naturally growing mesquite as I wanted the native flavor and not the landscape varieties that some here have said may taste chalky. Got em drying in the side yard, will probably try to grab some more over the next week.

Thx for the info, I'm looking forward to trying a few different ways of prep for these beans. I plan on oven roasting some as mentioned in this thread and maybe getting some processed later this month by the local hammer mill folks. I am surprised it took me this long to try doing somethng with mesquite other than sweeping up the dropped beans.
Click to expand...

The red/pink streaks are a common occurance with pretty much all varieties. I think it has something to do with soil and water conditions. The trees you were harvesting from are most likely velvet mesquites. The local hammermill people (desert harvesters) have some good info about harvesting and storage on their website. They also have an annual mesquite pancake event and milling every Nov near dowtown/UofA that's a lot of fun.

http://www.desertharvesters.org/mesquite-in-the-kitchen/harvesting-processing/
 
Hell_Fish said:
How did any of the brews come out?
Click to expand...

My mesquite wheat came out great. I've got one champagne bottle left. May drink it this weekend as I brew up a roasted mesquite/black sphinx date stout. Everyone that tried the mesquite wheat raved about it. In hindsight I should have saved some for a contest but then there's always next year. My step son and his wife really enjoyed it, I'm sending them enough pods to do a batch soon.

GTG
 
I have also brewed and bottled a roasted mesquite stout with local grown black sphinx dates. I'll update with tasting notes as it matures a bit. If anyone is interested, I have been scouting local trees and will be harvesting pods starting in late summer as they begin to ripen. If anyone is interested in using some that doesn't have access to them, I will be happy to work out trades with them for other brewing ingredients/equipment. If there's some interest, I'll take it to the Classifieds forum.
Thanks,
GTG
 
So I have access to a few different varieties of mesquite with varying colorls of pods that I am ging to start harvesting next week. I will plan on getting 2 pound batches for people since that seems to be a decent amount of pods to do a nice batch of beer. If anyone is interested in a trade or just buying some, let me know. I should be able to fit 2 piounds in a large USPS flat rate box. I'll give updates and post pictures next week.

Thanks,
GTG

GTG said:
I have also brewed and bottled a roasted mesquite stout with local grown black sphinx dates. I'll update with tasting notes as it matures a bit. If anyone is interested, I have been scouting local trees and will be harvesting pods starting in late summer as they begin to ripen. If anyone is interested in using some that doesn't have access to them, I will be happy to work out trades with them for other brewing ingredients/equipment. If there's some interest, I'll take it to the Classifieds forum.
Thanks,
GTG
Click to expand...
 
GTG,
Whereabouts are you collecting? I'll be collecting this weekend as well (both mesquite and carob that grows at the UofA). I'm just not 100% sure where to collect. I was thinking about collecting the velveteen mesquites along I-10 (and giving them a good wash before processing) because the trees are loaded and are all about 8 ft tall (perfect for picking).
 
I wash them and let them dry very well , then roast them. I am in Peoria and will be collecting about 2 blocks from our house.

GTG

evanos said:
GTG,
Whereabouts are you collecting? I'll be collecting this weekend as well (both mesquite and carob that grows at the UofA). I'm just not 100% sure where to collect. I was thinking about collecting the velveteen mesquites along I-10 (and giving them a good wash before processing) because the trees are loaded and are all about 8 ft tall (perfect for picking).
Click to expand...
 
evanos said:
GTG,
Whereabouts are you collecting? I'll be collecting this weekend as well (both mesquite and carob that grows at the UofA). I'm just not 100% sure where to collect. I was thinking about collecting the velveteen mesquites along I-10 (and giving them a good wash before processing) because the trees are loaded and are all about 8 ft tall (perfect for picking).
Click to expand...

Personally I would stay away from I-10, or other busy roadways. There's a lot of pollution that can get into the trees through the soil, which doesn't wash off. Try residential areas or open desert away from major roads.

This is from the desert harvesters website linked above-
desert harvesters said:
Where NOT to harvest
Do not harvest from areas that are polluted or contaminated. These include:
- Highway corridors and other areas with high volumes of vehicular traffic and air-borne pollutants
- Areas where there is known or suspected use of pesticides or herbicides (you don’t want your pods to come into contact with soil that is sprayed with Round Up)
- Avoid trees with roots that are in the direct vicinity of telephone poles because they are treated with toxic wood preservants
- Avoid trees that are receiving high volumes of polluted runoff. Sources of such pollution can include oil and brake fluid accumulating on streets or pesticides from non-organic farms and yards.
- Avoid gathering pods from the ground where there is likely to be animal waste such as dog and cat droppings.
Click to expand...

Hoping to get an afternoon free sometime this week to harvest some more pods myself. I'll be harvesting in my neighborhood just N of the UofA, and at some family and friends homes in semi-rural areas NW of town.

My brewing partner infused some cheap whiskey with roasted mequite pods last year, and we drank some earlier tonight. It's quite tasty!
 
igliashon said:
Does anyone have any idea the PPG of mesquite pods?
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It varies quite a bit between species, but they supposedly average ~30% sucrose by weight, and extract potential will vary depending on the efficiency of the technique used. I would estimate ~12 ppg, but that's really just an educated guess.
 
Well, an educated guess is better than I can do, and at least it gives me a ball-park starting point, so thanks! I just ordered 10 pounds of these guys so we'll see what 2 lbs in a 3-gallon batch does as far as gravity goes. I'm really excited to try these...I'm gonna start with a basic (gluten-free) pale ale and also try them in a (gluten-free) porter after that.
 
Did you order them online? I haven't been able to find a good source for them yet that hasn't already ground them up as flour.

GTG

igliashon said:
Well, an educated guess is better than I can do, and at least it gives me a ball-park starting point, so thanks! I just ordered 10 pounds of these guys so we'll see what 2 lbs in a 3-gallon batch does as far as gravity goes. I'm really excited to try these...I'm gonna start with a basic (gluten-free) pale ale and also try them in a (gluten-free) porter after that.
Click to expand...
 
Never got a reply from them, I guess they're busy gathering mesquite pods before the monsoon rains get here.

GTG

GTG said:
Thanks, sorry I missed that link. Looks like they're offering a better deal than I can currently. I emailed them to see what variety they are shipping currently. The ones I am currently getting are velvet.

GTG
Click to expand...
 
I've read the whole thread a couple of times but I have a question I don't think I've seen. Do I harvest green pods and dry them or do I pick the brown ones. I've got lots of mesquite trees around, some of the pods are green, some are already brown.
 
corkybstewart said:
I've read the whole thread a couple of times but I have a question I don't think I've seen. Do I harvest green pods and dry them or do I pick the brown ones. I've got lots of mesquite trees around, some of the pods are green, some are already brown.
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Pick them when they're brown and fall off of the branches easily. If you have to tug at all, they're not ready. You can also harvest from the ground if they're clean, dry, and haven't been rained on.
 
I have 2 gallons of extract waiting for a gluten free brew with sorghum. Got great dry velvet pods. Really curious as to how it all plays out. Maybe chilies or something.
 
Well just placed my order for my attempt at a mesquite belgian.

9lbs White Sorghum Syrup
Extract of 2 lbs Mesquite Pods, dried, no roast
Styrian Goldings 0.75@ 60 mins
Styrian Goldings 0.75@ 15 mins
Fermentis Safbrew T-58 Dry Ale Yeast

Will be my attempt with this year's harvest.
 
GTG, let us know where you get your syrup from, would be interested. Also am curious if they are North American or South American (or other) sourced.

Update on my belgian: OG was 1.071, down to 1.019 today. It moved .02 in the last day so it isn't done yet, but I am kegging for a party saturday so it better be done by Thursday morning!

Taste: Sweet like a light molasses but light bodied. Get a lot of the spice from the yeast through. Will be cloudy since I am not using a secondary. Wish I had room to let this go further, but next week I start my holiday ale and need the ferm chamber free.
 
So far this year I've brewed two different mesquite beers. The first was a saison made with some purple mesquite pods that I found. I used them to make an extract along with some pilsner, orange rind and juice fermented with dregs from Great Divide's Colette. The second beer I did won a silver medal recently for Other Smoked Beer in a local competition. I have some really nice old growth, center cut mesquite that I used to smoke 3 lbs of pods for 3 hours in my smoker at 250 - 275 degrees. I then used the pods to make an extract that was added to a few other basic malt extracts. I added 1 lb mesquite/citrus honey and fermented it with an English ale yeast on about 2 oz of the same center cut mesquite wood. I can post recipes if you are interested.

GTG
 
CeeJay said:
GTG, let us know where you get your syrup from, would be interested. Also am curious if they are North American or South American (or other) sourced.
Click to expand...

Not sure of the type of trees that they use but I assume that they're the NA varieties.
I found the syrups on ebay first but here is a link to the product site -
http://cherisdesertharvest.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=43_37&product_id=80

ANd here's a link to the ebay listing -
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesquite-Bean-Syrup-7-oz-Cheris-Desert-Harvest-/120963625859
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesquite-Be...359?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d400912f
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mesquite-Be...945?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d4008f91

GTG
 

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