Unique Mashing ingredients

Anyone out there ever used dates? They have an amazing flavor and would contribute
a fair amount of sugar maybe some fermentable and some not.

I guess it would help to know the chemical make up of their sugars - but I reckon one could just mash them in like anything else - maybe even add them to the boil? I don't perceive any tannins in them.

I suppose I could test this theory by boiling some dates for an hour and tasting the result.

There's only one way to find out!

I've had date wine, haven't made any. Much like raisins, the flavor changes radically when the sugars are fermented. You might want to track some down.

I'm off to North Africa soon and may fetch a few kilo back.
How many do you need for a gallon of wine.

I think there is a lot of sugar in dates. I wonder if they even need to be mashed?

orfy said:

I'm off to North Africa soon and may fetch a few kilo back.
How many do you need for a gallon of wine.

Click to expand...

Orfy- I found this on Jack Keller's site. I can't vouch for it (and I HATE dates) but here it is:

DATES
I have made date wine several times with mixed results. Most of it is okay, but some is exceptional. The quality of the dates undoubtedly has something to do with this, but so does age. Young date wine is far, far inferior to well-aged date wine. If you are going to make this wine, plan on setting it aside for two or three years and let it really shine when you drink it.

Date Wine
1 lb chopped pitted dates
1/2 lb barley
1 orange thinly sliced
1 lemon thinly sliced
2 lb 2 oz granulated sugar
1/2 whole nutmeg (not grated)
water to one gallon
yeast nutrient
wine yeast
Chop the dates and slice the citrus, transferring to a soup pot. In a separate pot, boil the barley in 7 pts water for 10 minutes, then strain the liquor onto the chopped dates and sliced citrus. Add the half-nutmeg and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat and simmer for 12 minutes. Strain the liquor into a primary into which the sugar and yeast nutrient was placed. Stir to dissolve, top up to one gallon, cover primary, and allow to cool to 70 degrees F. Add activated yeast and ferment 5 days, stirring daily. Pour into secondary, top up and fit airlock. When wine begins to clear, rack and move to cooler place. Rack into bottles when completely clear and stable. Although this wine is drinkable right away, it will improve dramatically with prolonged aging. [Adapted from C.J.J. Berry's 130 New Winemaking Recipes]

Good luck with it.

Ooooo, that sounds nice.
I can by a Kilo and eat half.....

So I imagine a few hundred grams in a 5 gal batch of some generic pale malt would be a good place to start if adding to a beer.

Sounds interesting. 1 gallon test batch to check?

...How about prunes?