Persimmon Bock

[Arpi]

Hi All,

After a lot of looking, I couldn't find many persimmon beer recipes. My father in law's tree produces by the millions so making beer out of it seemed a logical choice. Made it last night, and this morning it appears to be happily bubbling away. Just thought I'd share.

Following recipe is an interpretation/adaptation of the Penguin Maibock in Papazian's Complete Joy of Home Brewing, and inspired by what I read looking for a recipe, and what I had laying around.

10 Lbs Munich malt extract
1/2 lbs victory malt
Mt hood boiling
Cascade flavor
~5 Lbs Hachiya Persimmon pulp (frozen, thawed and rid of the water that was released after thawing, hard bits and the skins removed)

2 gal water, 150F, 30 min steep of the victory malt grains
Add 1 oz Mt Hood
Add Munich malt syrup
30 min boil

Add .5 oz Mt Hood
15 min boil

1 oz Cascade
15 min boil

Turn off heat, add persimmon pulp. I used a steeping bag to minimize later filtering hassle

Add to 2.25 gal cold water, cool to 68F
Pitch 833 bock yeast in 1 liter wort. I made a starter only 6 hrs in advance.

Update 1:
Next morning fermentation was bubbling happily. When I came home, I witnessed agressive fermentation: the lid blew off of the bucket, airlock was clogged too. I ended up with more water than I planned for (I did not account for the 1L yeast starter and had 2.5 gal of cold water).
Morning 2: airlock clogged with brew again. I will transfer some brew to a second bucket when I get another lid+airlock

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Good timing (for me). I was just given a create of persimmons. I have never even eating one. My first thought was what can I ferment with these. Maybe I should follow your lead and make an all grain version of this, it looks good on paper.

 

[Arpi]

If you've never had them before, make sure what type you have. You likely have either the flat, apple-like type (kaki) or the pointy type (hachiya). See here wikipedia

The "pointy ones" must be *really really* ripe before consuming or they are inedible, incredibly astringent. When they ripen, they're almost jelly like, sweet and delicious. The "flat ones" can be eaten before they are super ripe but I think for a beer, you want either type to be ripe and at their sweetest.

I was going for a malty, lighter colored beer at first (Maibock), but then I saw the barrel of munich malt at the beer brew supply store and changed my mind on the spot and I think it will be more like a doppel bock given the amount of syrup I used. I think this will work well with the persimmon flavor.

 

[Arpi]

Good timing (for me). I was just given a create of persimmons. I have never even eating one. My first thought was what can I ferment with these. Maybe I should follow your lead and make an all grain version of this, it looks good on paper.

Make sure to use ripe fruit, especially with the pointy shaped variety I used. They are horribly astringent when not completely ripe, they have to turn almost jelly like.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

They look like orange tomatoes. I'll let them ripen a while then taste one. Is there anything common that they are similar to?

 

[Arpi]

There are 2 kinds available to us here have a look at this site http://localfoods.about.com/od/persimmons/tp/persimmons.htm

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Here is link OP provided to answer my question. (OP apparently is very new and Mods are trying to approve posts to battle spam). http://localfoods.about.com/od/persimmons/tp/persimmons.htm