Rowan Berry Beer?

[Kikinho]

Hi everyone; this is my first post here and looking forward to many more in the future, its a great looking website!

I remember my Uncle once telling me, many years ago, that you could make a type of beer from Rowan Berries, but can't find a recipe for it anywhere. I was sure he used to mash them all up in a large barrel on the farm, but the rest of the process was all magic as far as I was concerned at my then tender young age! I might be confusing it with one the many other concoctions he produced though. Is this just my imagination running wild or could this be a better way to use them than the mountains of jelly we normally make!

Thanks in advance!

Tom

 

[British Red]

Never heard of it, but two of my books holds a recipe for Rowanberry Wine so I guess it is feasible. Either way the alcohol just needs sugar, water, yeast a slightly acid environment and a few nutrients so provided whatever else you add isn't actively poisonous it should be okay. Palatable is another question of course

Rowan has been used in jellies and jams amongst other things so no fears there.

Nothing in any of my books on beer though. I could probably fake a recipe if you like but can't vouch for its taste as it would be blind guesswork!

Red

 

[Kikinho]

Must have been wine then; he used to make a rather good elderberry wine so I guess it was an extension of that recipe. I'll google it and see what comes up!

Thanks Red.

 

[gregorach]

Here is a simple recipe for rowan berry wine.

I'm very curious as to what it tastes like. Rowan's one of those fruits that has a pleasant taste in there somewhere, if you could only get past the awful bitterness. I'll maybe have to give this one a shot once I've freed up some demijohns...

 

[Daegurth]

food for free says it can be brewed into ale, which is what i assume your undle was talking about. it also says it can be distilled into alcohol (moonshine style, i assume it means).

i'll have a look for ale recipies...

hmm. that's 3 sites i've found that say it used to be made by the welsh, but the secret's been lost. maybe you should talk to a brewer of normal ale, and see how it might have been done.

 

[gregorach]

Well, I'm a home brewer... And I have no idea how you'd use rowan berries in an ale. However, if we're talking a traditional old-fashioned ale that means no hops, so perhaps the berries were used to provide bitterness and some preservative qualities. Given the relative crudeness of traditional brewing techniques it's probably not that complex, but it would take quite a lot of experimentation to find a good approach, and the result probably wouldn't be to modern tastes.

[Technically, the term "ale" always used to refer to an unhopped fermented malt drink, while "beer" is the hopped version. It's only in the last century or so that the two terms have come to be more-or-less interchangeable.]