Mayhaws in Mead

[Redhawke]

I would like to know if anyone here has any experience using Mayhaws in their meads. It is a very tart fruit that grows in the deep south. We have always used them to make jelly. We sometimes make straight Mayhaw jelly or cut it 50/50 with Dewberries to make my favorite jelly.

I have searched this board and the internet with only two hits and havent been able to get any follow up to see how they turned out.

Ideas, comments or suggestions are all wanted and welcomed.
Thanks
Redhawke

 

[magno]

I have never had mayhaw jelly, but my grandmas prickly pear jelly was an inspiration to make prickly pear mead.

If you like it cut with dewberries, I would make the mead like that.

I used 5.5 lbs prickly pear fruit, 20 lbs honey and champagne yeast.

I will open it up early next month, but it tasted great when I bottled it.

- magno

 

[Redhawke]

Magno,
Thanks for the hint, I wish we had more of those prickly pears here in E. Texas as everyone seems to love it when they use them for mead. They are very scattered here and very hard to get your hands on.

I am planning to make a port like mead with a friend of mine in July, we already have 20lbs of Dewberries picked and frozen. I am thinking of trying a 75% Dewberry and 25% Mayhaw mix. My thinking is that the Mayhaws will off-set some of the sweetness of the Dewberries and help to round the flavor of the Faux Port mead with the help of a bit of Oak. My friend has one gallon of this in secondary aging right now and it has gone well so far but he used bought mixed berries and I would like to only use what is local and repeatable. The Mayhaws were a second choice after our very tart blackberries that dont appear to be making a showing this year.

I would like to find someone who has used Mayhaws in mead to get an idea of the correct ratio to mix for a good flavor. This mead will in the end have a good grade of brandy added to get the alcohol up to 20%. We plan to use a medium yeast to leave a bit of the honey sweetness, nose and flavor. Thats the plan at the moment but ya know how plans are, they always change.
Thanks again Magno:rockin:

 

[kid mode]

wow, I was just thinking about a mead with local fruit. There are tons of loquat trees in Savannah. (Sometimes pronounced lumquat) No, they're not kumquats. They're more like slightly tart apricots. I might have to try them in a gallon. They also make excellent jam.

 

[zoebisch01]

wow, I was just thinking about a mead with local fruit. There are tons of loquat trees in Savannah. (Sometimes pronounced lumquat) No, they're not kumquats. They're more like slightly tart apricots. I might have to try them in a gallon. They also make excellent jam.

Sorry to butt in, but those loquats would probably make an awesome addition to a wheat beer.

 

[kid mode]

yeah, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. I'm all set to brew a lemongrass wheat next week. What proportion would you recommend?

 

[zoebisch01]

yeah, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. I'm all set to brew a lemongrass wheat next week. What proportion would you recommend?

Not a clue man. Having never made a Loquat Hefe I'd have to take a stab in the dark. But I think in general a rough guide for fruit in the secondary is 1lb for 1 gallon....I think . I'd go with a very simple 60/40 wheat/2row around 12-15 IBU, get the WLP380. Ferment around 65 to 68 ish. Then when primary winds down and you rack I'd add the fruit to the secondary for the full effect (not sure if you have to prep it?).

The name could be : Wollmispelwiessen. I think .

A good hop choice would probably be Hallertau most of it in for bittering...but a little flavor would probably go nice.

 

[kid mode]

I'm gonna mark that down as an upcoming brew. What do you think of Tettnanger hops for a wheat beer? I was going to do a 75 min boil for my lemongrass wheat with tett at the beginning and cascade somewhere near the middle. I'm looking for some of that citrus flavor.

 

[zoebisch01]

I'm gonna mark that down as an upcoming brew. What do you think of Tettnanger hops for a wheat beer? I was going to do a 75 min boil for my lemongrass wheat with tett at the beginning and cascade somewhere near the middle. I'm looking for some of that citrus flavor.

Sorry to take this OT.....Yup Tettnanger would work great. You may even want to look at Sorachi Ace.

 

[Redhawke]

No prob Z1, I was hoping to generate some discussion about Mayhaws or using local fruit to brew with, mostly mead on this end but its all good.

Kid Mode, yes I think you should explore using local fruit as its something that is repeatable. The frozen fruit that you buy is good if it hasnt been sorbated or in some way preserved but nothing taste better than fresh vine or tree ripened locally grown fruit. Both Schramm and Papazian discuss and advise this in their respective books. The thing about using local fruit is that you know from year to year what you will be getting and how to tweak your recipe for best result. The frozen stuff may come from one part of the country this week and somewhere else the next day or week.

Dont get me wrong I'm not against using frozen or packaged fruit from a store but its a last resort for me. The past year has borne out the fact to us that if quality goes in the fermenter quality comes out.

We are leaving next monday for a the hill country (Central Texas) to visit an aunt and they have Loquats and lots of Apple orchards out there, we plan to visit them and find out how they taste. We missed the apples but the Qwats are ready now according to our Aunt. I let you know our impressions when we return.

 

[kid mode]

Redhawke- That would be great. You're one of the first to know what fruit I'm talking about. It sounds good in a wheat; but, I won't get to that right away. I'd still love to try a mead(or is that a metheglin?) I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip.

 

[Redhawke]

Kid Mode,
Actually that would be a melomel, mead made with fruit addition. A metheglin would be a mead made with spices.

On the Loquats, we have never seen or tasted one, we were planning this trip while my Aunt was here in East Texas visting her sister (other Aunt) and she invited us to spend Memorial Day weekend plus a few extra days to miss the traffic. We were visiting them and had taken along a bottle of our JAO mead to share as we all played 42 (dominoe game) and like my wife those ladies fell in love with their first taste of mead. The aunt from Central Texas started telling us all about what was grown out there and that we should take a little extra time to visit some orchards while we were out that way so the ladies came up with the plan and I now get to fly fish in the Colorado river at Colorado Bend State Park for 4 days and then go down to a little town in the middle of nowhere name Camp Verde for an additional week or so to fish in the creek that runs through her place and to visit several historical sites along with the orchards.

Talk about hitting the grandslam, I did it, and its all been the wifes and the two Aunts planning so it should be a nice trip all in all. I did manage to throw in the visit to the state park for 4 days but the wife just kinda skipped over it and went right on with the planning, we have been getting all our camping gear ready for the last two day and plan to leave next Monday.

I'll let ya know how it goes and what I think of the Loquats when we return if we ever do...............:rockin:

 

[Moonpile]

There should be a thread or maybe a page on the wiki about local fruits and herbs and when they're in season (maybe by region like Mid-Atlantic, Northwest, etc), along with tips on procuring and using them.

For example, I've been wondering what the best way to get a lot of dandelions is. I kind of missed the window here in MD, so I'll have to wait until next year, but I'm thinking we just post on craigslist asking to come pick dandelions on someone's pasture.

 

[Redhawke]

Moonpile,
I think that would be a great idea but most of that data is available though your local county extension agents office or web site. The only real problem I see though is that most areas are so diverse that only a few miles away the fruit grown is totally different so the data base would be huge.

Just in the surrounding 3 counties we have different fruit that will grow in one place but not the other. In my home county we have cultivated Mayhaws and some muscidine grapes, in the county north of us we have strawberries and blueberries, to the north west we have more blueberries and peach orchards and just beyond that a few apple orchards.

 

[Moonpile]

I'm thinking very generalized advice, like kinds of fruits and herbs to look for in generalized areas and general advice on obtaining it. I've never even heard of a Mayhaw before this thread.

If something doesn't grow by me, but does grow a few hours' drive away, I might go to the trouble of tracking it down when it's in season.

Anyway, Mayhaws certainly sound like they're tasty from the description I read. Good luck if you make a melomel.

I (with my brewing buddies) just made my first mead in many years and my first 5 gal batch and we're looking forward to more meads, metheglins, melomels, and whatnot!

 

[Redhawke]

Moonpile,
That is not suprising, some of the people who live here never have either. The gathering of Mayhaws near my home has been a lifelong adventure each year since I was a small child. Mostly only known to those who made their own jelly and the gathering passed from generation to generation. They have figured out how to grow them on dry land and a few have started up small Mayhaw orchards in my area so they are much more accessible to everyone. We normally gathered them in the flooded river bottoms by wading the back water or sometimes in boats. We would shake the short little trees and they floated on the surface of the water to be picked up or dropped in boat bottoms covered with tarps or old sheets. They normally fell in April or May and being in the Hawthorne family the name over time developed into Mayhaw.

I think your idea would be especially helpful to folks just getting into mead or those who had relocated to a new and unfamiliar area. The really cool thing about your idea is that locals could post their personal knowledge of local fruit, possible sources and you cant beat first hand info.

They have a very unusual flavor and can be very tart but do add a delightful twist to things when added. If you ever get down south check them out, being in Md. I doubt you will find them up your way.

BTW welcome back to mead making, we have only been brewing it a little over a year now and are finally tasting the rewards of our labors. We hope to build a revolving stock of honeywine so we will have it available year round. This particular mead will be one that we plan to serve at our sons wedding in about 3 years, its a long term project including extended aging and oaking. Hey, if they dont get married we will still enjoy the mead and good cigars at that time...

 

[Redhawke]

Kidmode,
We finally made it back home, hey I wanted to stay but the wife had other plans. I will try to keep this short.

The trip to Colorado Bend State Park was great other than the river being to high to wade fish it. The wildlife was amazing, the deer cover the park in the mornings and evenings and the birds were everywhere with many breeds sighted that were new to us. We did locate a couple of remote spring fed swimming holes to play in during the heat of the day. Didnt get to fish but very relaxing and enjoyable.

The trip down to my Aunts home was nice and once we got there it began to rain and we were rained in for two days as the spring fed creek that crosses her property flooded and had the road under about 6-8 feet of water. We did get to visit a few orchards mostly apple while we were there but the Loquats were not ready so we didnt get to try them. My Aunt loves them and said we should come back July 4 when they will be ready hopefully. At any rate the trip was great and we cant wait to go back.

We have two meads waiting to be racked so we need to get busy here in a day or so and get it done. We have all our fruit gathered for the Faux Porto Mead we plan to brew in July just waiting on honey and yeast selection now. Being away so long sure causes things at home to pile up on ya but we sure had a blast while we were gone.

 

[mgayer]

Redhawke,
I come back home to the south Texas area once a year and would really like to know where the Mayhaw orchards have sprung up. I would like to get a few pounds to bring back to the North west Missouri area.

I have Apple, Crabapple and Rasberrys growing in the yard and cannot hardly keep up with them once they start falling. Way to many pies and cobblers! I live close to Saint Joseph, Mo. and also wonder if the Mayhaw would grow here?

 

[Redhawke]

Mgayer,
I know where two orchards are located, one is near my home town of Diboll, Tx the other is down in Livingston Tx. about 40 miles south of me. I will be glad to get their contact info for you if you would PM with what you need. I have to say at this point I am in no way shape or form connected to either orchard and have only done business with one of them. I understand the orchard in Livingston does sell young trees if you would like to try them. I am not sure how far north they will grow but have heard of them being grown in Arkansas, not sure which part.

Both farms are near Hwy 59 so you can find them on the map. I have discussed this fruit with our county extension agent and we are concidering putting in a few trees ourselves along with some of the newer varieties of thornless blackberries.

 

[kid mode]

Redhawke-
Sounds like you had a great trip. I'm planning on some time in the north Georgia mountains this fall.
I ended up going with a pretty straight forward mead with a little ginger and orange peel and another pyment. They both smell great so far. It was quite a brew day with those and a lemongrass wheat beer.
I'll be waiting to hear how your meads turn out.