Brewing with tamarind

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Did you pick up a secret ingredient yesterday? Remember it is sweet tamarind!

But bottom line answer is I do not have a recipe yet.
 
Thanks for the link Bob.
I need to formulate a recipe for a beer that contains Tamarind as I assume the OP does. In the Philly area they have a home brew competition where they provide a secret ingredient, which was given out yesterday. It is called sweet tamarind and looks like it is a paste form.
I like the american wild idea, or I am thinking lighter beers to make sure the tamarind stands out, as that is a requirement. There seem to be some traditional tamarind pairings that also can frequently be found in beer.
 
I grew up in Puerto Rico with a tamarind tree in my backyard. If you guys could someday provide an update on what base styles you went with and some tasting notes it would be greatly appreciated!

I've never tried sweet tamarind, but the tamarind I grew up with was slightly tart and sour. I would guess many of the beers with those same flavor descriptions would be a great starting point.
 
I think it would be great in a wit. I've never had beer with tamarind, but mead with tamarind can be spectacular. In case you want to do something wacky, tamarind pairs really well with green papaya...
 
It could be risky, mostly due to the clove notes, but you could use a hefe yeast which would also have the banana notes you were seeking.
 
Have you ever had tamarind? If not, drink a bottle of Jarritos Tamarindo soda. Yummy soda.

If you get the sweet tamarind, I suggest making a tamarind milk stout.
 
I think anything light will allow the tamarind to overpower the beer, this is potent stuff. I would think something with a strong malt background to compliment the flavor, maybe a brown ale. You can find fresh tamarind or tamarindo in most Latin/Hispanic grocery stores. You can also steep it like tea to pull out the flavors.
 
I was in Los Angeles last fall during LA beer week. I encountered a collaborative brew ( one of the breweries was called Eagle Rock) that was a Saison made with tamarind. The beer was pretty good, and if I remember correctly they used the pulp, seeds, skins in the brew. The tartness of the tamarind really went well with the spiciness given off by the saison yeast.
 
BishopGary said:
I was in Los Angeles last fall during LA beer week. I encountered a collaborative brew ( one of the breweries was called Eagle Rock) that was a Saison made with tamarind. The beer was pretty good, and if I remember correctly they used the pulp, seeds, skins in the brew. The tartness of the tamarind really went well with the spiciness given off by the saison yeast.
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Sounds awesome. I like the idea of creating something that resembles a fruit lambic without having to wait a year or more. I'm pretty sure I have access to tamarind pods at the Mexican store. I may try this myself.
 
I had the idea of a Tamarind dark mild kicking around in my head for quite a while and kept putting it off in favor of other brews. Might have to fit that one in come fall.
 
Went to the local Mexican store yesterday to get stuff to make carne asada and they had a giant bin at the front of the store full of tamarind that made me think of this thread. When you guys finalize your recipes be sure to post what you ended up doing. The Chili Tamarind idea above is a great one, chili powder and tamarind go together really well, so I would imagine using either anaheim chilis or jalapeno or serrano would work, depending on the heat you wanted.
 
stvcoburn said:
I think anything light will allow the tamarind to overpower the beer, this is potent stuff. I would think something with a strong malt background to compliment the flavor, maybe a brown ale. You can find fresh tamarind or tamarindo in most Latin/Hispanic grocery stores. You can also steep it like tea to pull out the flavors.
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This is an interesting conundrum. Yesterday we took some tamarind concentrate from the market and mixed it in with a variety of beers to see how it tasted. It seemed to make beers with heavy hop flavor overly bitter. I thought a Berliner Weiss might work, it did not, just too funky. I just blended in to much in real heavy beers, and some got a metallic flavor. I also expected Old Chub to fare well but it just accentuated a bitter taste that we did not like.

It seems malty beers fared best. Fullers London Pride seemed to take the tamarind flavor better than most. Another surprise was it Goose Island Sumertime where it stood out clearly but did not create off flavors. It seems more research is needed.
 
brucedelta said:
This is an interesting conundrum. Yesterday we took some tamarind concentrate from the market and mixed it in with a variety of beers to see how it tasted. It seemed to make beers with heavy hop flavor overly bitter. I thought a Berliner Weiss might work, it did not, just too funky. I just blended in to much in real heavy beers, and some got a metallic flavor. I also expected Old Chub to fare well but it just accentuated a bitter taste that we did not like.

It seems malty beers fared best. Fullers London Pride seemed to take the tamarind flavor better than most. Another surprise was it Goose Island Sumertime where it stood out clearly but did not create off flavors. It seems more research is needed.
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What form was the tamarind concentrate in? I don't think I've ever seen that before. Cool test, though.

bobbrews said:
@fastricky

You live in NYC. Any Latin grocery market.
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Yep. In CA we have them all over the place, but I'd have to imagine NYC would have plenty of specialty markets.
 
ktblunden said:
What form was the tamarind concentrate in? I don't think I've ever seen that before. Cool test, though.
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It came in a jar and I would say it looked most like a chocolate syrup in consistency. We put it in a squeeze bottle and went to a place with a big selection, some people thought we were putting chocolate syrup in the beer and asked what we were doing, others just gave us funny looks.

Bottom line is my brewing partner got it and I do not know where, I will ask. She works professionally developing recipes as a food scientist, so she has all kinds of stuff that she gets when she see's something interesting.

I think I succeeded in attaching an image of the label.

photo(5).JPG
 
Did you look at the ingredient list? A lot of the indian brands contain salt and other stuff. Id try to find a block of tamarind paste and use that. Much purer flavor...

brucedelta said:
It came in a jar and I would say it looked most like a chocolate syrup in consistency. We put it in a squeeze bottle and went to a place with a big selection, some people thought we were putting chocolate syrup in the beer and asked what we were doing, others just gave us funny looks.

Bottom line is my brewing partner got it and I do not know where, I will ask. She works professionally developing recipes as a food scientist, so she has all kinds of stuff that she gets when she see's something interesting.

I think I succeeded in attaching an image of the label.
Click to expand...
 
HokieBrewer said:
Did you look at the ingredient list? A lot of the indian brands contain salt and other stuff. Id try to find a block of tamarind paste and use that. Much purer flavor...
Click to expand...

The one I posted is just Tamarind and high fructose corn syrup, so it will make if sweeter I expect.
 
Anyone try to make anything yet? For those who didn't get the package, it was basically wet sweet tamarind with seeds. Very sticky, kind of tart. Honestly, I'm not sure the flavor will come through in a beer. We only received 14oz I believe and I'm sure a lot of that weight is the packaging and seeds. I think you would need a light style for any of the flavor to come out.
 
BrewThruYou said:
Anyone try to make anything yet? For those who didn't get the package, it was basically wet sweet tamarind with seeds. Very sticky, kind of tart. Honestly, I'm not sure the flavor will come through in a beer. We only received 14oz I believe and I'm sure a lot of that weight is the packaging and seeds. I think you would need a light style for any of the flavor to come out.
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I agree the lighter beer is required to get a tamarind flavor to show up. Also found it does not go will with strong hop bitterness.
We split up a batch into several gallon fermenters and have test batches fermenting. I ended up finding a pure tamarind extract at the market which we used for the test batch. Will see what works well with the tamarind and then go in that direction for the final brew.

But this weekend am doing a sour cherry saison
 
So have any of these Tamarind beers been brewed yet? I'm friends with a Thai restaurant owner, and she gave me a pack of tamarind paste/pulp and explained how she prepares it for use in sauces (boils and strains to skins/seeds/ excess solids out). I'd love to hear the results from these brew-experiments!
 
Lavender_Pepper said:
So have any of these Tamarind beers been brewed yet? I'm friends with a Thai restaurant owner, and she gave me a pack of tamarind paste/pulp and explained how she prepares it for use in sauces (boils and strains to skins/seeds/ excess solids out). I'd love to hear the results from these brew-experiments!
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I used tamarind in a test batch with Lime, which overpowered it, and mango, in which you could still taste the Tamarind. We did not like either of these beers enough to want to do a full 5 gallon batch, so we skipped working further with it. I do not have enough time to bother brewing something I do not think I will like, even if it is for a contest. My local club is doing a contest with a concept of basket ingredients like chopped, and I am much happier with that brew.
 
One of the best meads I ever had was a tamarind mead. It was a project 2 years in the making.

Aside from that: a tamarind american wheat could be nice. My issue with tamarind is how intense/one dimensional it's flavor is. Perhaps a tiny dose of tamarind in a mango wheat beer (?) would be fun.

Tamarind saison/wit seems promising.

I'd like to try it in a big IIPA too.
 
With sweet tamarind I would think an American wheat hopped with citra would be great.
Tamarind can be found at Latino or oriental stores. You can get it in paste, dried blocks or the actual pods.
 
Is there a difference between the fresh tamarind sold as "sweet tamarind" and the tamarind paste used for asian cuisine ?
Is it just the quantity of sugar ?

I'd love to make some kind of tamarind grisette. Or a tamarind imperial brown.
Do you think 2 kgs of paste would be enough for 30 liters of beer ?
 
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