Beer Forum

New user. First post.

I have access to several acres of mesquite trees in Texas. Lots of free mesquite beans. I've heard there is such a thing as mesquite beer, but I can't find any evidence of it with an internet search.

Has anyone ever heard of mesquite beer? And more important, does anyone have a recipe for it?

Or mesquite wine or liquor. A shame to let the cattle eat all the beans.

Thanks.

Mike

I have seen some vague references to the mesquite beans being ground to a flour and then being used to brew a beer, but not enough info to figure out anything resembling a recipe.

There is a brewery over in Tempe, AZ that brews a blonde ale using mesquite honey.

My thought would be some kind of a light ale using mesquite smoked malt with a combination of chipoltes and new mexico chilies.

I know it's not much help, but it's the best I can do. Let us know if you come up with something.

By the way, welcome to the forum!

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

I would suggest just smoking some 2row with mesquite then brewing a rauchbier with that.
Or, smoke the hops with the wood. A guy in our club smoked the hops and made a killer smokey IPA.

Welcome! Where in TX are you?

I'm in central Texas. Hill country.

Thank you all for the input. I'm talking about a small-scale, no experience, bathtub-gin type of operation. I used to drink a lot of beer (Shiner bock) but I've never made any. This idea occurred to me though, and I thought I'd seek out information.

Anyway, the mesquite beans have a high sugar content and a molasses taste, so I was thinking along those lines...use the beans in a fermentation process or something. Mesquite wood has a good reputation for smoking barbecue and such, but it's the beans I was considering using.

I'll read through the site as time permits and see what information I can pick up. Meanwhile, if any of you come across a mesquite beer recipe, please keep me in mind. I did a web search for mesquite beer and found only one mention:

http://www.thebackpacker.net/worldbeers ... dbeers.htm

Thanks again.

Mike

There is actually a Mesquite smoked beer here in Dallas. It just won Specialty Beer (Gold) at Gabf. It Is at Humperdinks in Dallas. Drop the Brewmaster a line and see if he will give you any tips. OF cours I could go try it being it is only like 5 miles away from me. That and I can look out my back yard and see Mesquite TX.

I have made a Mesqiute Barley Wine, the mesquite beans add a nice carmel like flavor to beer, the hop profile in an American Style Barley Wine blends well with the sweetness of the mesquite beans. I recommend collecting ripe (tan) color meaquite beans as soon as they fall from the tree. Break them into 1" to 2" pieces and boil them down in a large brew kettle, I used 10 pounds of beans in a 7.5 gallon kettle with a false bottom and topped off with water, I boiled the beans for about two hours adding water to keep it above the beans, then I drained the liquid, discarded the bean husks and boiled the liquid down to 1 gallon of concentrate with a gravity of 1020 (not bad, but I'm not sure what was fermentable vs. non fermentable, that is for another day), I added the gallon of mesquite concentrate to the boil at the start and made a 10 gallon batch of American Style Barley Wine, this was three years ago and I am still breaking into the aging bottles from time to time and it is tasting better all the time, I'm getting ready to make another batch probably this weekend.

Prost,
DR, Arizona Society of Homebrewers
Chandler, AZ

Well, there you go, and from a first time poster no less!

Welcome to both of you!