Sweet Potato - All Brett Holiday-ish Ale

I am thinking of making a non-spiced holiday ale this year, but with all Brett fermentation. To make it a holiday ale, I will use about 7 pounds of sweet potato in the mash, and re-hydrated craisens in the secondary (re-hydrated with pinot noir).

Here is the recipe I am using as a starting point, any thoughts:

Sweet Potato Beer

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 6.00 Wort Size (Gal): 6.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 20.50
Anticipated OG: 1.099 Plato: 23.57
Anticipated SRM: 15.3
Anticipated IBU: 32.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
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Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 7.74 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.077 SG 18.61 Plato


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
29.3 6.00 lbs. Pilsener Germany 1.038 2
24.4 5.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
4.9 1.00 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
2.4 0.50 lbs. Pale Chocolate Malt America 1.033 200
4.9 1.00 lbs. Brown Sugar Generic 1.046 4
34.1 7.00 lbs. Sweet Potato America 1.038 0

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Wye Target Whole 11.00 32.9 60 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
30.00 Oz Craisens Fruit 120 Days(fermenter)
4.00 Cup(s) Wine Other 120 Days(fermenter)


Yeast
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White Labs WLP645 Brettanomyces claussenii

Notes
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Boiled sweet potatoes skin on. Once cooked and cooled potatoes were peeled then mashed with potato masher and spread on a cookie sheet and topped with brown sugar. Bake at about 350*F for 1-1.5 hours prior to mashing.

Sounds like an interesting idea to me. 30 oz of craisins sounds like a lot though, I might back down on them a but especially if you want to taste the sweet potato.

I would guess you won't hit 75% eff, just seems like you won't be able to get the same amount of sugar out of the tuber goo as you would grain. You might be a bit short on enzymes as well since Munich doesn't have much to spare and you have more sweet potato than pils. Either way, some rice hulls would probably be a good ideal (my worst stuck mash was using pureed pumpkin).

Just bottled a sour butternut squash beer this morning, turned out well, but 3 lbs of squash wasn't enough for much character to come through.

Good luck, interested to hear how it turns out.

I made a porter recently with probably 5lbs of sweet potatoes in the grist (in a 3.5 gallon batch). I honestly couldn't tell they were there and no one else has been able to do so, even after they were told they were there. I don't know if the roasty grains overcame the subtle flavor or if the flavor just "goes away" during the mash and boil.

Oldsock said:

Sounds like an interesting idea to me. 30 oz of craisins sounds like a lot though, I might back down on them a but especially if you want to taste the sweet potato.

I would guess you won't hit 75% eff, just seems like you won't be able to get the same amount of sugar out of the tuber goo as you would grain. You might be a bit short on enzymes as well since Munich doesn't have much to spare and you have more sweet potato than pils. Either way, some rice hulls would probably be a good ideal (my worst stuck mash was using pureed pumpkin).

Just bottled a sour butternut squash beer this morning, turned out well, but 3 lbs of squash wasn't enough for much character to come through.

Good luck, interested to hear how it turns out.

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, I may half the munich and add the 2.5 lbs to the pils. Rice hulls will most definitely be used on this one. Good call on the eff too. I may back it down to 65%. The brett c had to be ordered from the hbs, so I will not even have that in my hands until the end of next week, or the beginning of the following. I imagine it will take a couple of weeks of feeding the starter to get the right cell count for the brew.

wouldnt it make sense to secondary the potatoes? instead of mash them?

All those starches make more sense to mash. I'd stick with the mash-tun method Ryan

Shoot, I missed Stefin's post. Yeah, the potato is meant for the mash. I want there to be a little haze in the glass, but damn, if I add them to the ferment, I can just imagine the mess that would make.

Speaking of haze, I think I may toss in up to 2 pounds of rolled oats. I like the idea of rounding out the mouthfeel and adding head retention too.

I added about half a pound of quick oats to 3.5 gallons of mine. The head retention is great and the mouthfeel is good, as well.

As far as putting them in secondary goes... If you added amalayse enzyme to secondary, it might not be so bad. But, Ryan is probably more than right; the mess would not be pleasant.

Edit, make that 12 oz of oats...

Ryan_PA said:

Shoot, I missed Stefin's post. Yeah, the potato is meant for the mash. I want there to be a little haze in the glass, but damn, if I add them to the ferment, I can just imagine the mess that would make.

Speaking of haze, I think I may toss in up to 2 pounds of rolled oats. I like the idea of rounding out the mouthfeel and adding head retention too.

Click to expand...

fair enouhg, I made a pumpkin porter back in the day... what a mess!

would you believe it took me this long to get my hands on the Brett C?!?! I will build up the cell count for a week or two, then brew this one.

I can believe it! Wanna send out samples?!

Brett samples or beer samples? Pm me your address and I can send you a little of the Brett when the starter gets going.

I sent you a PM with some clarification... THANKS!