I have just returned from the James Squire brew pub in Russel st after enjoying a pint of the PBA off tap. I must say it was very enjoyable. The aroma was good, the pepperberry came through on the tongue - no heat or spice more just the fruit. The beer had good body and fullness and had a nice clean finish. I would certainly have had another one or two but I was on the motorbike so had to stop at just the one. It will be on keg there for a couple of weeks so get down and try it. Also they have the original trial batch brewed at the Squires brew pub in Docklands - they call it the lash. This beer has a lower FG than the one at Russel st (which was made by the boys up in Syd) by a plato or two and also has a bigger whack of Pepperberry in it. I hope to get down there next week as there is only one keg left and it would be good to try the difference. I will also buy a bottle or two tonight to make a comparison to the kegged beer I tried today which I thought had more flavour than the bottle sample I had a week or two ago.
This is the recipe I made for my TV show:
Native Pepper Berry Ice Cream
500 mls of full cream milk
5 egg yolks
200g of white sugar
1 tbls freeze dried ground Pepper Berries
vanilla pod
Rind of one orange
Put milk in a saucepan and heat gently. Add the Pepper berry powder, vanilla beans scraped out of pod and the pod also and the orange rind. Heat to combine all the flavours but dont boil then let it cool down a little. Beat egg yolks and sugar together. Add some of the warm milk to the beaten egg and sugar combo to combine and warm up and then add the egg mixture to the milk. Return to the stove and continue to heat, stirring often until the mixture thickens enough to lightly cover the back of the spoon make sure you do not bring it to a boil.
Remove from heat and strain discarding the solids. Chill in the freezer and then mix in ice cream maker as per instructions for the mixer.
Note: the freeze dried pepper berries are fruitier and have much less heat than the air dried pepper berries. If you made this recipe with ground air dried pepper berries it would be very hot. Also the freeze dried pepper berries make a vibrant purple ice cream where as the air dried will make a much darker midnight blue coloured ice cream. You could also add the Pepper Berries to the custard mixture right at the end of the cooking process, before you chill it this would probably retain the vibrant colour as I found once the pepper berry powder had cooked in the milk mix it lost some of its vibrancy and took on a slightly grayish tinge.
