Cleaning out the beer closet

And now, a guest post from one of my beer heroes, Ken Hilton.

What happens when you have been brewing for competitions for a couple of years? It is simple…..you have amassed so much beer that the closets have been overflowing for what seems a beer eternity. Meaning, no more brewing until you drink up the stashes of delightful delectables…..or pour out the crap.

Well, the last 2 weeks has been the latter….with a few surprises. Most of the stash is 2-3 years old, well beyond hope of redemption for the lighter varieties, but still within finding yet another “oh, wow, Dude” beer tucked away somewhere. Here’s the drill……take one of each of the 47 varieties and chill them down. Resist the temptation of falling back to the “standards” and drink 2-3 of the 47 each night with the ultimate aim of determining which ones stay in the closet for consumption, which ones get poured out, and which ones go to “Joe the next-door-neighbor who drinks crap beer anyway”.

Here’s the tally. Joe got the soapy tasting dunkelweizen and foamy English Pale Ale. The darker beers seemed to hold up fairly well, so saving them for BBQ nights seems appropriate. The Royale Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout hit the drains….went down kinda “chunky”. And then there were the surprises. One bottle left of the Sweet Spiced Kumquat Orange Tripel….poured nicely, darker than I remember, slightly oxidized sherry-like character. Oh My!!!!  What a wonderfully delightful beer. This one brings back memories of the competition in which it was entered in Charlotte…..the U. S. Open. As I recall fondly, a remark was made by one of the Best of Show judges….something to the effect of “anyone having enough balls to put kumquats in a beer”. Truly classic memorable comments. That’s what homebrewing is about…..pushing the limits of creativity. This one probably stays a memory…to difficult to even comprehend brewing it again.

And, there was the Belgian Dark Strong that was so hot and alcoholic and so overpoweringly “dark-fruit-prune” character that it was hardly drinkable. Now, complex, mellow, warming, lucious and exotic. Alas…..only 2 bottles of this one left.

And the tale goes on. The moral to the story…….put some brews away. Practice patience and self-restraint. Indulge yourself over the holidays with some old friends, some good music, rich foods, and surprise brews out of the closet. You might just surprise yourself…..and resurrect some fond memories of times past.

Oh, the real drill of this exercise is to make room for the 20 cases of meads made over the last year of competitions…..so that 2 or 3 years from now, I can do the same voyage of discovery with the meads.

Persimmon Mead from the Dragonslayer

I’m not the only person that turns to Ken Hilton for a little brewing advice. That being the case, and with some inquisitiveness from a reader about his persimmon mead, I’ve got the inside scoop for you today. As an added bonus, Ken gives us a gander at the flavors of his childhood with a recipe for persimmon pudding.

Here it is….early fall in eastern NC. Fall is my absolute favorite time of year….chilly nights, comfortable days, leaves starting to turn to their glorious hues of yellow, orange, red….and time for the State Fair. When the first frosts begin to rest gently over the landscape, my thoughts turn to the bounty of the fall harvest and childhood memories of the season. Pumpkins, collard greens, salt-cured country ham (started last year), and one of the most delectable treats you have ever put in your mouth….persimmons. If you are lucky, you may even have a copy of “Granny Hinkle’s ‘ol fashioned persimmon pudding”….a rich, sweet, gooey, spicy desert.

Persimmons are almost a thing of the past. Finding wild persimmons is akin to knocking in a “hole-in-one” on a 500 yard Par 5 at the British Open on a windy day. If you are lucky enough to spot a persimmon tree in the wild, don’t tell anyone about it and keep going back regularly after the first frost. Make friends with the landowner. Good wild persimmons will be almost mushy soft and sweet. Picked any earlier, and you mouth will turn inside out with the astringent, mouth-puckering sensation akin to dosing your mouth with a tablespoon of alum.

Unfortunately, I have not found any wild persimmons for years here in eastern NC. But a friend of mine gave me some Oriental persimmons from his father’s tree. Just before Halloween, you may notice some ornamental sized trees in yards in which people have hung miniature plastic pumpkins for Halloween decorations. Kinda’ like hanging plastic Easter eggs at Easter time. Look again!!!!! Those fake pumpkins may just very well be real Oriental persimmons ripening, awaiting someone to pick them and make some persimmon pudding….or some Persimmon Mead. Oriental persimmons are not astringent like their wild kin, but they are also not as flavorful…pound for pound, so you have to cook them down a bit more for the pudding. But, they are great for mead.

I am sharing this recipe for this Persimmon mead, because it is special….not because it has won several awards, but because of the people behind it. My friend Dale gave me the honey for this mead….eastern NC fall harvest wildflower honey. The persimmons came from his father’s tree, picked lovingly by all who attended Dale’s father’s funeral on that glorious fall day. I gave Dale a bomber to open up this fall.

Hallalujah Celebration Persimmon Mead

5 qts wildflower honey
4 gallons water
2-1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
Lalvin D-47 dry yeast (hydrate 15 minutes before pitching)

Filter the water, bring it to a boil, cut the heat and add the honey and yeast nutrient,stir, cover and let stand 20 minutes to pasteurize. Chill the must and pitch the yeast. Ferment in primary at 68 degrees F for one month.

Rack the mead and add 3 qts of Oriental persimmon pulp (pasteurized at 160 degrees F for 20 minutes…do not let the temp go higher or you may get pectin haze. I pasteurized and canned the fruit earlier.) Let the secondary fermentation go for 6 weeks, then rack the mead off the big pile of persimmon flesh in the bottom. You will lose at least a gallon. Add 2-1/2 tsp acid blend  to enhance the acidity level and 1 tsp Sorbistat K to prevent further fermentation. 24 hours after the Sorbistat K, add 1-1/2 -2 cups of honey to sweeten the mead. Stir of swirl gently to dissolve the honey. Let the mead sit until it clears, racking several times. Bottle, put it away in a closet for 6 months. Enjoy!!

Persimmon Pudding

Mix 2-1/2 cups Oriental persimmon pulp, 1-3/4 cup whole milk (or half & half), 1 stick melted butter, 2-1/2 cups flour, 1-1/2 cups brown sugar, 4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (preferably China Cassia cinnamon). Bake at 325 degrees F for 1-1/2-2 hours. Let it sit a while….have a good mead…and serve warm (not hot).

Thirsty Thursday–To Michael Jackson

It’s a sad day in world of beer. Michael Jackson has passed.

I can’t say as I’ve had the opportunity to meet this beer guru, and it would be beyond pointless for me to wax philosophically on his contributions. I can only sit here and stare reflectively and respectfully at this man’s beer wisdom, writing, and, is it blasphemy to use the word discipleship? Go to Lew Bryson or All About Beer for inspiring firsthand accounts.

It made sense for me to drink something special today. Unfortunately, I live in a rural place where one can’t just run to the corner store and pick up a Thomas Hardy to pay tribute. Instead, I went to my cellar to find something good. Oddly, I came up with a mead, rather than a beer or a Scotch whisky.

I guess it’s fair to say there’s some explaining to do, since Jackson’s distinguished himself in the realms of beer and whisky. Suffice it to say that no matter how great I think my homebrews are, and whatever the coolness factor of anything commercial I might have tucked away for a vertical or a special occasion, they just didn’t measure up. They weren’t appropriate. They weren’t good enough. They weren’t special.

The mead was a gift from my good friend Ken Hilton. He’s a stellar homebrewer. He took the Carolina Brewer of the Year title in 2005, and is currently in the running for Meadmaker of the Year. I guess he needed something else to be great at. More importantly, this dude is just a good guy. I’ve been saving this bottle of Maple Black Walnut Mead since Christmas. I thought I’d drink it on my birthday. I was wrong.

This was made for Michael Jackson Day. I shared it with my wife, Michelle; my brother-in-law, Kyle; and my new beer buddy, Jimmy. Kyle and Jimmy weren’t familiar with Michael Jackson, so I had to lay down some background. And I had to explain Ken, as well. They didn’t know it, but Michael Jackson impacted them.

The mead was soft and delicious, as I’d known it would be. It was worthy. We raised our glasses…

To Michael Jackson!