Sweet Potato Beer - Golden Age of Piracy

I used to have a book, which I can no longer find.. which had in great detail the food stuffs pirates created and consumed during the golden age of piracy. Particularly there was a beer from sweet potatoes that was made when pirates took to shore for extended periods of time. I can't find this book.. although I'm sure I have it somewhere. And I thought it was Daniel Defoe's "A General History of The Pyrates". But basically there was a description of making beer from sweet potatoes (as well as making pancakes). For the beer.. if I recall, they basically just boiled sweet potatoes into a mush then let the mush sit in a barrel of water for a few weeks while it fermented.

Has anyone else come across this information, can you tell me the source (because I can't remember for sure) and if it's been tried? Obviously I don't expect something like this to turn out as anything more than some awful swill whose only redeeming quality is.. alcohol. But I'm still interested in any other information I can find on it. I originally started brewing years ago due to historical interests (brewing historical brews.. basic ales, meads, etc.)

Anywho.. any information is appreciated. I've considered a few times of just tossing some boiled sweet potato mush into a covered bucked and see what happens. LOL

Could be useful. The gluten free brewers have done something like this and will likely do it again. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/s...-enzymes-lot-interesting-possibilites-210086/ and https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/sweet-potato-mash-experiment-211386/

Here's some from back even further https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/feeling-wild-lets-formulate-sweet-potato-ale-15416/

I didn't see anything in the book about yamm or sweet potato beer when browsing from http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/historyfiction/item.aspx?id=joh though I did see parts about date palm wine and arrack (a sort of molasses like liquid).

My brother has made a beer with sweet potatoes in the mash. He said he couldn't really taste the sweet potato until it had aged about 6 months and then it was like drinking sweet potato pie (that was a positive comment).