Tamarind lambc recipe advice?

I tried a can of tamarind juice for the first time last week. Very interesting stuff. I was struck by how much the complex flavor profile was reminiscent of a young lambic/geuze or a light saison.

Has anyone out there tried using tamarind in pale sours? If so, I'd be interested in amounts, what form (fresh, juice, paste), etc. as well as (obviously) tasting notes. Any proteins to be concerned with? I can probably find sugar content on my own. Any special issues with enzymes, wild yeasts/bacteria?

I'm thinking a fairly lightly flavoured base lambic recipe, either paste or fresh tamarind in secondary, no oak or spices...advice?

Sounds good, I think you're on the right track tamarind has a nice spiciness to it already. Go with a lambic or sour blonde and let it age as any other fruited ones and add the paste or shelled tamarind. Or for something a little quicker to test out the flavors do a Berliner Weisse.

Much like any fruit/spices/herbs, I'd recommend using the whole, shelled tamarind vs the paste. I eat lots of thai and vietnamese food and have tried nearly every tamarind paste, sauce, concentrate I could find and none of them have that distinct sour/sweet complexity you get from using the whole pods.

I've been considering a sour brown with tamarind, but was wary of overpowering the base beer so I've got a grain alcohol/tamarind tincture going to do some sample tests with other sours.

Tamarind is also REALLY high in tartaric acid, so depending on how much you use you might wanna cold crash a while before bottling/kegging, unless you want wine diamonds in your beer, which could be cool too though people might ask what sour candy you used in it.

I've only done beer, mead, and fruit wines (no grape yet)...what are "wine diamonds"?

I've never brewed a lambic, so take this with a bit of shell.

I replaced some lme in a DfH 60-minute IPA with 350ml of Bright (brand) tamarind juice. While good, the tamarind did NOT come through strongly. If I redo my 60-minute Tamarindia Ale, I will double the juice (and reduce the hops).

As one who also has sought after tamarind in most formats, I agree that tamarind on the pod tastes different and could give a very good result. But at least for IPAs I'd stick to the juice or a "tea" from the paste heated so long as to mostly disolve the paste.

DarkBrood said:

I've only done beer, mead, and fruit wines (no grape yet)...what are "wine diamonds"?

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Wine diamonds are precipitated out of solution in tartaric-acid heavy wines etc. that become solid at cold temps in the form of potassium bitartarate. Many high-quality estate bottled white wines have them, considered a sign of quality, as the wine was not cold stabilized/filtered before bottling, hence it's artisan status. Would it happen in beer? maybe, if enough tartaric acid were present. I can tell you that tamarind mead WILL throw them once cooled.