Rowan berries in ale

[JKaranka]

I was reading about the use of rowan berries in Welsh ales of old and I was wondering if anybody had used them. I have no idea how much to use or when. The only thing I know is that they have to be heated up to remove some nasties in them.

I was considering the following options:
a) add them to the mash... they'd help with the drainage plus they'd get heated up
b) add them at the end of the boil, again, they'd get heated up (maybe I should give them a bit of a boil first)
c) add them for a day in the fermenter, like dry hopping but after baking them a bit

Considering using 50-100g, not sure if that's enough or too much.

Right now I was thinking about getting to an OG of around 1.080:
5kg pale malt
1kg wheat malt
0.5kg rye malt
900g honey

25g of challenger at 60 for 20IBU.

[wilfh]

I've made a liqueur from them before. Go easy on the quantity as it has quite a strong medicinal taste( or at least it did to me)

[seymour]

I'm intrigued by your question, but can't answer from experience because we don't have those trees over here. I like the look of your strong ale recipe, in any case.

We had an interesting thread a couple years ago about Chequer Tree Fruit, which are botanically related:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=53215

[lord.president]

I made a rowan wine. It was bitter as hell after a week,before I ditched it. I had to chuck the bucket out as well,it was stinking.

[seymour]

Did you freeze/thaw them first to reduce astrigency?

[stuey]

Following a request from a regular customer we primed a batch of bottled session ale with his home made rowan syrup... The resulting beer had the most awful astringent metallic taste about it... Apparently one of his regulars loved it!

[JKaranka]

Looking forwards to this then!

[Deebee]

We make a kind of jelly ( not jam) with these. boil them and either have it on bread or with certain meats.
They are not to my taste, rather bitter and can be medicinal too

[wilfh]

It's definitely an acquired taste