Autumn Seasonal Beer Crazy Betty's Sweet Potato Pie Ale (AG)

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RandomBeerGuy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2011
Messages
748
Reaction score
87
Location
Tacoma
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP011 European Ale
Yeast Starter
No
Additional Yeast or Yeast Starter
No
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.052
Final Gravity
1.009
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
21.0
Color
15.3 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
7 @ 69-70
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 @ 67-70
Additional Fermentation
None
Tasting Notes
Sweet and Spicy.
Grains:

6.5 lbs 2-row US pale
1.5 lbs Munich 10L
1 lbs Caravienne
.5 lbs Caramunich
.5 lbs Special B

Hops:

1 oz Kent Goldings @ 60
.5 oz Fuggles @ 25

Misc:

Light Brown Sugar @ 60
2 Tbsp Cinnamon @ 5
1.5 tsp Powdered Ginger @ 5
2 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract (Primary)
.5 tsp Nutmeg @ 5
2 cans of Yams (Orange and Purple label) Forgot the name. 1 can of potato in mash 60 min, 1 can in boil.
1 Tbsp Irish Moss @ 10

Yeast:

WLP011 European Ale

Mash:

Mash Grains and 1 can of potato with 12.5 qt water @156F for 60 min, Sparge at 168F until reaching desired boil amount (I just fill my kettle until it hits around 6.5 or 7 gal), Bring to a boil add in the 2nd can of potato, brown sugar and first hop addition (Goldings), @ 25 add second hop addition (Fuggles), @ 10 add Irish Moss and add chiller to kettle to sanitize, @ 5 add in the spices, Flame out start cooling until 70F, add to fermenter, take hydrometer reading, Pitch Yeast WLP011 and vanilla, Primary 1 week, Secondary 2 weeks, Bottle or keg, Let sit until you want to drink it. I would suggest wait for a month to let flavors mature.

I will try to take a picture and add it so you can the final product.

Cheers, :mug:
 
This is too wild! I just brewed an almost identical recipe (same hops, yeast, most of the same grain, steps, 2 cans, etc) and was even planning on adding vanilla extract. Any tasting notes? I'm pretty anxious to see how this one turns out!
 
I have to say that is super wierd. But great brewers think alike right? When I get home I'm going to pop one open to see hows the carbing/flavor going. I will let you know and post a picture.
 
sweet potato pie ale.jpg

Tasting Notes: I had a friend over to help.

So I get cinnamon and caramel flavors. Mouthfeel is moderate. This was an early tasting about 1 week. I'm going to try and leave it alone until october. Hope you like it. Pretty tasty :tank:
 
Very nice! Definitely glad to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to try this either! :mug: I'm pretty anxious to see how mine turns out but it's still fermenting away, just brewed it over the weekend. I'm debating, but I might try adding some sweet potatoes to the secondary just to see if I can push any more sweet potato flavor into it. Are you liking how it turned out so far? Anything like you expected? I'm guessing worst case scenario it will make a tasty, spicy brown/amber ale or something, so can't be a total loss either way! :rockin:
 
So far its ok, I wish it was sweeter than it is. Next time I brew this I will probably add the spices during secondary and add the vanilla in the bottling bucket/keg. When yours gets done post a pic and lets compare just for fun. Hope yours turns out. Would you bake the potato to kill the bad bacteria/yeasts? Then I wonder if it just adds starches? Keep me posted.

Cheers,

:mug:
 
Yeah, that's the only thing I'm afraid of, that it won't turn out quite as sweet. I have it in mind as a dessert beer more than anything, but I guess we'll see. I chose that yeast because it is lower attenuating too, in hopes of leaving some residual sweetness. One thing I did do differently that I forgot to mention, is I also added lactose to the boil, which I'm hoping also comes through with more sweetness along with a creamy mouthfeel.

I do plan to bake the potatoes to kill bacteria, etc but I also figure it might carmelize some sugars and ideally leave some flavor, but who knows. There hasn't been much info on using sweet potatoes, so we're kind of in uncharted territory in a lot of ways! Since it's still in primary, I'm going to sample it once I'm ready to secondary it and I'll probably add some more spices accordingly too, but we'll see.

I'll be sure to keep you updated with pics and tasting notes, I'm hoping to rack it in another week or two and should at least have some initial details. Cheers!
 
Looks like I found this thread just in time. I am planning on doing a sweet potato beer this weekend. This recipe is right in the ballpark of where I already was. I suspected that sweet potatos might ferment down pretty dry, so was considering adding some lactose for sweetness and perhaps even some dextrine malt for extra body. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions?
 
Looks like I found this thread just in time. I am planning on doing a sweet potato beer this weekend. This recipe is right in the ballpark of where I already was. I suspected that sweet potatos might ferment down pretty dry, so was considering adding some lactose for sweetness and perhaps even some dextrine malt for extra body. What do you guys think? Any other suggestions?

Mine is still finishing up but I stole a sample the other day and it was very tasty! I definitely would recommend the lactose, I had the same idea in mind for added sweetness/body and can't say I regret it yet. I'll hopefully be kegging this sometime this week or next and should have some better feedback for here. :mug:

EDIT: Scratch that "kegging this sometime this week", I forgot that I'm planning to add a vanilla bean and a touch of spices to it before kegging, but I'll try to grab some more before/after samples for that too :)
 
Let me know about how the spice character in your is. Don't forget to throw up a picture. I'm leaving mine alone until october. I'll keep you posted.

Cheers.
 
Just drew a sample before adding vanilla and a touch more of spices. Tasting notes so far, rather sweet with slight undertones of spice. If you really think on it you can taste hints of sweet potato but definitely not strong. It's say it reminds me a bit like a brown ale with light spices. I'm going to be very careful with adding spices to this one, as a little seems like it will go a long way, but I'm not quite satisfied with where it's at. More details to come :rockin:

Photo Sep 29, 18 32 17.jpg
 
Sweet, the color is about the same. Looks awesome. Hope it turns out the way you want it to. Once you add the vanilla let me know if you can taste it during your next sample. Even though I used vanilla I don't taste in the brew itself. I tried another bottle today and its very spicy. Still very drinkable. Tasting Notes of nutmeg and cinnamon this go around.
 
Alright, I brewed this yesterday with a few changes to the recipe. Here's my recipe:

6.5 lbs Marris Otter
3 lbs Sweet potato boiled for 45 minutes and mashed
1.75 lbs Brown sugar
1.5 lbs Munich
1 lb CaraVienne
.5 lb CaraMunich

1 oz Tettnang @ 60
1 oz Palisades @ 30

8 oz Lactose @ 5
1 tsp Cinnamon @ 5
.5 tsp Nutmeg @ 5
.25 tsp Allspice @ 5

Windsor Ale yeast

Batch Size: 5.5 gal
O.G.: 1.064

Mashed at 158 for 60 minutes. My iodine test was good at the end of the mash, but the hydro sample at the end of the boil still had a starchy flavor to it, but lots of malty sweetness too. Hopefully the starch either settles or fades with time. I will probably adjust the spices in the secondary as well. I'll keep you posted.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I added 1 tsp Calcium Chloride to the mash to accentuate the maltiness and 1 tsp amylase to help convert the sweet potatoes. Not sure if that was needed or if it helped, be we're experimenting here right?
 
Experimenting is correct. That's awesome that we inspired you to brew a sweet potato ale. When I brew this again I will cut down on the spices. Let us how your turns out and post a pic to compare and have some tasting notes.:mug:
 
Took a hydro reading today: 1.030. Not good. It's also very cloudy. I'm chalking both up to starch. I added 1 tsp amalyse enzyme to the fermenter to try and get the gravity down some. My hope is that a bunch of ungelatinized starches made it into the kettle, where they were gelatinized during the boil. The yeast cannot eat the gelatinized starches, so the gravity is still high. If I'm correct, the amalyse will break down the starch into sugars which the yeast will then eat up. I just hope it doesn't get too thin on me. :mug:

Edit: Oh yeah, I tasted the hydro sample too. It tastes like a$$. It's still pretty green though. Needs more spices for sure, but I'm going to work on the F.G. first.
 
There's activity in the airlock again after adding the amylase, so it's finding something to break down into sugar. I'll take another reading in a couple days and see where I'm at. I'll update this thread when I do.
 
I am about to brew a sweet potato beer of my own and all this talk of starch and its effects are making me question how to go about the process. Please let me know what you are finding. Thanks.
 
I have posted my findings here already. If you don't understand what's going on with the starch, I suggest you read more about the mashing process and gelatinizing starches. From my experience, it seems that a decoction mash is the way to go when using sweet potatoes. There is activity in this thread again: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/sweet-potato-mash-experiment-211386/ Hopefully the folks over there will keep us updated with the results of their batches.
 
For my process I placed the sweet potato in the mash and in my kettle to boil down. Mine turned out great. No issues. I would just add less spices for me due to it was overly spicy for my taste. Another brewer also brewed this without issues. So far imrook has had issues. If your using canned potato then mash and boil. If using fresh potato then slice, bake them until soft, mash/boil. I will be doing this recipe again probably in December. Hope when you brew this you dont have issues. Keep us posted.
 
For my process I placed the sweet potato in the mash and in my kettle to boil down. Mine turned out great. No issues. I would just add less spices for me due to it was overly spicy for my taste. Another brewer also brewed this without issues. So far imrook has had issues. If your using canned potato then mash and boil. If using fresh potato then slice, bake them until soft, mash/boil. I will be doing this recipe again probably in December. Hope when you brew this you dont have issues. Keep us posted.

Yeah, I did the same and having finally kegged it recently I would agree too, my biggest complaint would be I find it a bit too spicy. It is good, and I would actually bet if put on nitro it might even round things out a bit more but it's hard to say. I plan to let it sit a little more, possibly even until Thanksgiving and see how the spices come through then.
 
Yeah, I did the same and having finally kegged it recently I would agree too, my biggest complaint would be I find it a bit too spicy. It is good, and I would actually bet if put on nitro it might even round things out a bit more but it's hard to say. I plan to let it sit a little more, possibly even until Thanksgiving and see how the spices come through then.

That's awesome! Keep us posted on the ageing. I hope it smoothes the spices. :rockin:
 
I'm brewing this again today after work for a friend. In toning down the spice profile on this version.
 
So I finished up the second batch of this last night. OG 1.060 78.1% eff. Has a great malty taste with a hint of spice. I changed up the recipe to .5tbsp cinnamon, .5tsp Ginger and Nutmeg. All spices were added at last 5 minutes. Turned out great. Cant wait to see what happens after primary.
 
Update of 2nd batch, After one week of active fermentation SG was 1.010, I tasted the sample and it was good but lightly spiced, So I tossed in a small teabag of a little cinnamon and nutmeg. I'm going to cold crash it tonight and keg it tomorrow. Anyone else have any updates on your batches?
 
I have just finished brewing my sweet potato beer. Here is what I did:


Grains:

6.5 lbs 2-row US pale
1.5 lbs Munich 10L
1 lbs Caravienne
.5 lbs Caramunich
.5 lbs Special B

Hops:

1 oz Kent Goldings @ 60
.5 oz Fuggles @ 25

Misc:

8 oz. Light Brown Sugar @ 60
1 Tbsp Cinnamon @ 5
.75 tsp Nutmeg @ 5
.5 tsp Powdered Ginger @ 5
2 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract @ Pitch
3 lbs sweet potato (baked at 350 for 2 hours and then mashed)
1 Tbsp Irish Moss @ 10

Yeast:

WLP011 European Ale

Mash:

Mash Grains and 1.5 lbs of sweet potato with 13 qt water @158F for 60 min, Sparge at 170F (topped off to 6.5 gallons), Bring to a boil add in the other 1.5 lbs sweet potato, brown sugar and first hop addition (Goldings), @ 25 add second hop addition (Fuggles), @ 10 add Irish Moss and add wort chiller to kettle, @ 5 add in the spices, Flame out start cooling until 75F, add to fermenter, take hydrometer reading, Pitch Yeast WLP011 and vanilla

I got a 76.8% efficiency and finished with an OG of 1.050 that has hints of spice and malty flavor. I will let you know what happens when I transfer to secondary next weekend.
 
I ended up making a second batch so I could have something ready sooner, so I cut back on the spices similar to how you mentioned. I still added lactose like last time, then added some vanilla extract (about 2tsp) along with just a little more spice (1tsp total at most, I think less) and sampled it tonight... Wow! Spot on to what I had in mind, definitely excited to crack this one out for the family over Thanksgiving :)
 
I made a brown ale today with addition of 6lbs canned baked sweet potatoes mashed in mash, which was low at 152. Thanks for the inspiration y'all! We are boiling nicely now, did 2oz saaz FWH. I am going with 1# brown sugar, 8oz lactose, & 1 tbsp spice at 15, then vanilla beans in secondary. 1099 yeast. Looking forward to this one.
 
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