Butterbeer

Ok, I know what you're thinking... A friend of mine is having a birthday coming up and she is a bit of a harry potter nut (at this age, yeah, I know, it's unhealthy). So I thought, why not make something that's related to this series. well, as a brewer, some homebrew make total sense, and so spawns Butterbeer! Described as sweet, caramely, and buttery I set out to make something that might turn out ok. I started with a cream ale mixed with a braggot, and went from there. this is a 5gallon batch but I'm going to probably scale it in half, as it might turn out horrible. 65% eff, 90min boil.

2.5# Pilsner (UK)
10oz Carapils
10oz Crystal 10L
10oz Crystal 20L
5oz lactose
5# clover honey
4oz pure vanilla extract (trader joes)
.25oz EKG @90

yeast is the ringwood strain, fermented higher (74) to get some diacetyl for the butter

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.016

Thoughts? comments? I'm kinda in new territory here so I'm not quite sure on some of the lighter crystals, I usually use darker ones.

Maybe worth a read?:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/harry-potter-butterbeer-28094/

Hey waitaminute!!! Wait a dayum minute. Harry Potter fanhood is universal....I know, I am one.




Mmmmm butterbeer.

Hope this turns out.

Revvy said:

Hey waitaminute!!! Wait a dayum minute. Harry Potter fanhood is universal....I know, I am one.




Mmmmm butterbeer.

Hope this turns out.

Click to expand...

I'll be brewin it when an extra fermenter opens up, probably in 2 weeks once finals are over

If this were me I might go just a bit darker (40 or 60?) on the crystal to get a bit more caramel flavor into the beer. You just might want to watch the SRMs if you start going with 60L. This experiment sounds excellent, please report back.

Here is some description of malts by lovibond rating:
The Foampage - Malts

i like the idea of diacetyl instead of using some kind of extract. diacetyl is tricky tho, you have to do it right.

my irish rye stout recipe (in my pulldown) has a fair amount of diacetyl in it that really compliments the brew. it was a wonderful accident

nealf said:

If this were me I might go just a bit darker (40 or 60?) on the crystal to get a bit more caramel flavor into the beer. You just might want to watch the SRMs if you start going with 60L. This experiment sounds excellent, please report back.

Here is some description of malts by lovibond rating:
The Foampage - Malts

Click to expand...

So more like:
2.5# pilsner
10oz carapils
10oz Crystal 20L
5oz Crystal 40L

sound better?

Freezeblade said:

So more like:
2.5# pilsner
10oz carapils
10oz Crystal 20L
5oz Crystal 40L

sound better?

Click to expand...

I suppose it kind of depends on how much caramel flavor you're shooting for in the beer. That is probably more like what I would put together though. Either way, let me know how it turns out... Sounds like a cool idea.

edit:
Is ringwood yeast known for producing Diacetyl at higher temperatures? I'm not too familiar with ringwood and thought higher temps usually led to esther production.

Ringwood will form diacetyl at any temperature. Famous for it. You don't need to ferment it warmer; it'll throw off diacetyl all by its lonesome! What you can do is rack it off the cake just as primary fermentation ceases, before it has a chance to go through a diacetyl rest. That should cause the flavor to remain.

Ringwood is a Yorkshire strain, right alongside strains in use by breweries which I will not name but whose initials start with Samuel Smith's and Theakston's. The "stone square" method tends to develop powdery strains that emphasize malt and diacetyl.

Bob

Update on this:

I bottled this today, using this recipe (one gallon batch):

1# honey
10oz 6-row
3oz carapils
2oz crystal 20
2oz crystal 40
1oz british ranged crystal (70, approx)
Yeast: WLP005 (ringwood strain)

Mashed at 155 for 60 mins, sparged, brought to boil then cooled (no hops, so no real reason to do a prolonged boil that I could see). Racked @ day five onto 1.5TBS pure vanilla extract and 1oz lactose. Bottled today, after fermentation rested at 1.028 for a bit. from the hydrometer sample, it's darn sweet, just on the edge of cloying, like an Italian soda or something, not too much butter though, I'll have to experiment with that some more.

my version of "Butter Beer" was not beer at all

made some for a party for my youngest daughter (now 21)

take butterscotch schnapps and add equal parts cream soda

mmmmmmmm

How did THIS butterbeer ever turn out? I know there is another thread and they are working on some right now but I would love to hear what everyone is saying about the flavors they are getting

Did anyone try this at all? My little sister (huge HP fan) asked me earlier today to make a butterbeer for her, and I found this thread. Did anyone ever brew any? Tips/advice?

The butter beer recipie that Universal Studios uses is essentially cream soda on the bottom with a sort of whipped cream topping on top. If you wait long enough for the cream to fall into the soda, it becomes an non-alcoholic cement mixer.

Given that in the books the butter beer is described as sweet and butterscotchy, and that underage kids could get a hold of it, I think that brewing a beer is the wrong approach. I think it's more like a soda that looks like cartoon beer that if needed can be "magically" spiked with something like rum or vodka.