Has any one have experience and good success brewing with dates (the fruit). At what stage you add the fruit ? any winning recipe ?
I have used dates as a source of wild yeast before. Long ago I made the "Really Old Style" 6000-year old recipe for Sumerian beer recipe as given in BYO magazine from about 10 years ago. First made a date wine with nothing but water and crushed dates, let that ferment for a few days, then brewed the rest of the beer and pitched the entire date wine as the "yeast starter". It produced a bit of sulfur which quickly faded and resulted in a clean beer that actually medaled in competition. I wouldn't brew it again, as sour fruity bacon is not really my thing personally. If you want to use dates, I would recommend that you brew and pitch your desired yeast as normal, then after the first 3-4 days of active fermentation crush or puree the dates in a little clean water or vodka or beer, then add to the primary. This will give a chance for your desired yeast to take hold and perform a good portion of the fermentation before the dates add their own character and possible wild yeast. Also, since dates are primarily just big balls of sugar, crushing or pureeing them in some liquid will ensure the sugars will dissolve in the fermenting beer and not just sink to the bottom and fester for weeks. If mashing, you might want to mash for less time, maybe just 30 minutes tops, to limit fermentability of the wort. If using extract, you should be fine with this addition. Definitely don't add any additional cane sugar or candi sugars to the recipe since the dates contain very simple sugars that are highly fermentable and will tend to thin out the beer quite a bit. You might even want to consider addition of a small amount of lactose, which is an unfermentable sugar, to improve the body of the finished beer and prevent it from turning out too dry and thin.
Do you rub them directly on your forehead or are you making a cream and applying that? I know when I brow dates I like to rub them direct, you get better penetration that way. You need the essential oils and sugars to really get down in there!
