Mayhaw Beer

[finchlake]

I've been looking around in the swamps here in NE Louisiana and the Mayhaw's will be ready in a couple of weeks. I always make mayhaw jelly. Is it possible to make Mayhaw Beer?

I use a steamer to steam the juice out of the berrys for making the jelly. I'm thinking that this juice would be sterile, since it had been steamed. Maybe the hot steamed mayhaw juice could be cooled and added to the ferminter with the cooled wort.

In what proportions would I add the mayhaw juice to the wort?

What kind of reciept would I use?

What kind of Yeast?

Who would help me drink it?

FinchLake

 

[zoebisch01]

I am not sure, but what is Mayhaw? I know of MayApple , but am not sure if this is what you are referring to.

If this is the case, as I recall it is a delicate fruit. So you would want a very light style beer to go with this. Wheats are commonly used, or at least brews that have a portion of Wheat in them...but I would shoot for something 'plain Jane' like a Pale Ale, or if you had a way to Lager a light lager.

I am venturing a guess about 1 lb / gal that you would add into the secondary. You could make a juice ahead of time based on say 4 or 5 lbs of the fruit, and then pour that into the secondary. You want a clean, dry fermenting yeast like Nottingham. At least, that is how I would approach it for starters because you want the flavor of the Mayhaw to come through.

 

[finchlake]

Here's a link to the Louisiana Mayhaw Assoc.

http://www.mayhaw.org/

Mayhaw is the best jelly in the World. I tried Mayhaw wine at the Mayhaw Assoc once, it was great. I have not advanced into making wines yet. We put the juice in cakes, or just about anything.

Thanks for your suggestions, I think your right about a light style to let the mayhaw flavor come thur. I didn't think about a wheat beer, but that may be just what I need.

FinchLake

 

[zoebisch01]

Ok, gotcha. Never heard of em

Yeah, maybe an American Wheat, but keep the hops low. Just balance the bitterness, and maybe consider using an noble hops for some flavor and aroma, but keep it in the background. You might want a small amount of Crystal to bring through a bit of Caramel, but use like a Crystal 10. I'll tell you a secret about acidic fruits in beer. Acid will help balance your malt sweetness, so you want to keep your IBU levels to keep the beer slightly towards malty when you are formulating the recipe. That way your finished product will lean more towards balanced.

 

[pjj2ba]

Think crab apple - they are very closely related. I'd take a hydrometer reading of the steamed juice from the Mayhaws and also of your cooled wort. Then decide what you'd like the final OG to be and add enough of the juice to dilute the wort to that level. You may want to make your wort a little extra strong

Here's a sample calc.

Wort OG = 1.060 (5 gal.)
Juice OG = 1.005

You want 1.045 for the mix.

(60 x 5 gal) + (5 x X gal) = 45 x (5+X) gal

300 + 5X = 225 + 45X

75 = 40X

or X = 1.875 gal of juice at OG 1.005 to dilute 5 gal of wort @ 1.060 to 1.045.

Plug in any values you want for OG and volume and the formula should still work.