Feeling wild? Let's formulate a Sweet Potato Ale!

Cap'n Jewbeard · 10-24-2006, 04:54 PM

Hey gang...

Okay, so here's where we stand. I was reading the "Thanksgiving Ale" thread, where the initial poster made an off-hand, joke-y reference to a sweet potato ale.

So I thought (and here I quote): "Wha-wha? Well... why not?"

So I've done a little research on a partial mash recipe. My hope is that it will come out tasting a little like the pumpkin ale, but maybe somewhat sweeter. The biggest challenge, and what I need the most help with, is figuring out what the sweet potatos will add as far as fermentable sugars/starches, and how to extract them.

Apparently one already exists in Japan, called Imo, I think.

This is a recipe I found for a regular potato brew, using (I think) all-grain plus extract... (I know that's a contradiction, bear with me).

Meister Potato Brau (for 5 gallons)

5 pounds 6-row domestic barley malt, crushed
2.5 pound grade A Idaho potatoes (washed and grated)
3 pounds M&F pale unhopped malt extract
1/3 oz Burton salts
1 tsp. Irish Moss
1.25 oz Hallertauer leaf hops
1 oz Cascade leaf hops
ale yeast
sugar (or whatever) for priming

Her notes (some of them, anyway): "The grains I prepare by submitting them to a protein rest at about 122 F for 45 minutes. During this time I boil the shredded potatoes in a second pot. This boiling serves to gelatinize the starches in the potatoes, maaking them easily converted to sugars by the active enzymes in the barley grains. As I noted above, potato starch is easily gelatinized; it is not necessary to boil the potatoes prior to adding them to the mash. However, by adding the boiling potato soup (this is what your kitchen will smell like at first) to the mash, you can conviently raise the temperature of your mash up to 155 F, an ideal temperature for converting the starches to sugars."
"Maintain the temperature of the mash using whatever methods you currently use until all of the starches have been converted to sugars. Lately this has taken me between 30 and 45 minutes. Use an iodine test to determine when this conversion is complete. Sparge as you would do with any other all grain beer, discarding the spent potatoes, no matter how strong an urge for cooked, shredded potato you develop during the mashing procedure."

Again, my goal is to alter the recipe to make it more hearty, more sweet-potato friendly, and make it doable on an electric stove top. (I'm not ready for an AG setup yet). I might also add in some specialty grains, to give it some more character.

I am seeking advice and consent- maybe this could be the Big New Thing for HBT.

Glibbidy · 10-24-2006, 04:57 PM

What will they ferment next?

Cap'n Jewbeard · 10-24-2006, 04:59 PM

Dunno yet, but as you are a Legendary Alchemist... might I pick your brain? Any thoughts on how to do this?

**Pumbaa** · 10-24-2006, 05:04 PM

Quote:

The biggest challenge, and what I need the most help with, is figuring out what the sweet potatos will add as far as fermentable sugars/starches, and how to extract them.

I have no clue on how much fermentables you'll get from them but I would guess it would be a lot. Figure Vodka is made from taters so I would assume there is a whole lot of sugar in them bad boys. It wouldnt make sense to try to make vodka from something that would take forever to concentrate.

As for extracting the sugars I would guess mashing in the way discribed in her notes would be fine. You might want to add some rice hulls or something, since the sweet taters are going to be a big gooey mess, to help prevent a stuck sparge

Cap'n Jewbeard · 10-24-2006, 05:07 PM

I'm thinking I might just dump the potato pieces in a grain bag (with the other grains- or maybe use two) and do kind of a half-sparge, where I suspend the bag over the pot and pour 150-F water through it. This seems to have worked on previous brews.

Here are some notes on a sweet potato ale made by a microbrew-pub in Connecticut:

"With the Sweet Potato Ale, the spices dazzle your noze before your lips reach the glass. The molasses and vanilla captivated my palate, as they emphasized--then hid--the sweet potato flavor from one sip to the next. I believe that if there's any justice in the craft brew world, sweet potato varieties will supplant pumpkin as the selected holiday brew for Thanksgiving from New Haven to Newport Beach."

So- molasses...vanilla... are those flavor notes that will be produced by malts, or do I need to formulate the recipe with molasses and vanilla in it? This may require a call to that brewery...

**Brewpastor** · 10-24-2006, 05:16 PM

I say the Sweet Potatoes should be baked for about an hour at 425, maybe even an hour and a half. This will get the sugars nice and carmelized with a bit of roasted/burnt sugar tones as well. Then rice the works and toss it in the mash. In the case of a partial, well I am not sure. I would like to have it in the mash with all that grain. Maybe a mini-mash. I also would let it constitute about 1/4 of the fermentables from an all-grain vantage point. So if I was using 10 pounds of fermentables I would use something like 7 pounds of 2-row, 2.5 pounds of riced sweet potatoe and .5 pound of Crystal malt. Maybe something like 30 IBUs? Probably one of the C varieties.

**Brewpastor** · 10-24-2006, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by P funky

I'm thinking I might just dump the potato pieces in a grain bag (with the other grains- or maybe use two) and do kind of a half-sparge, where I suspend the bag over the pot and pour 150-F water through it. This seems to have worked on previous brews.

Here are some notes on a sweet potato ale made by a microbrew-pub in Connecticut:

"With the Sweet Potato Ale, the spices dazzle your noze before your lips reach the glass. The molasses and vanilla captivated my palate, as they emphasized--then hid--the sweet potato flavor from one sip to the next. I believe that if there's any justice in the craft brew world, sweet potato varieties will supplant pumpkin as the selected holiday brew for Thanksgiving from New Haven to Newport Beach."

So- molasses...vanilla... are those flavor notes that will be produced by malts, or do I need to formulate the recipe with molasses and vanilla in it? This may require a call to that brewery...

My opinion would be to forget the vanilla and IF you used molasses use only a bit to offer some hint, but my sense is the sweet potatoe will offer the tones you would be wanting from the molasses and so I wouldn't use it.

Maybe this needs to be a beer on the sweeter side, maybe in the 1.070 range, with a mash temperature around 154-156.

**Brewpastor** · 10-24-2006, 05:21 PM

It sound be a very orange colored brew IMHO

Wheat King · 10-24-2006, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brewpastor

I say the Sweet Potatoes should be baked for about an hour at 425, maybe even an hour and a half. This will get the sugars nice and carmelized with a bit of roasted/burnt sugar tones as well.

i dont know much, but i like the sounds of that.

Cap'n Jewbeard · 10-24-2006, 05:23 PM

That sounds very good, and I will most likely follow your suggestion (with only a tiny, tiny bit of vanilla, in case it disappears during mashing- I will definitely caramelize/roast the potatoes first).

What do mean by "ricing" it? Should I buy a Honda Civic and put a needlessly loud exhaust system on it?

Just kidding... but really, what does "ricing" mean?