Dr. Pepper Stout

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Saccharomyces

Saccharomyces

Be good to your yeast...
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So, I've been wanting to try something WEIRD because I have never done anything really WEIRD yet. But I am not trying to make hooch. So I figure why not let's throw together an honest-to-goodness real recipe, and see how far I can bend the rules and still make a drinkable beer.

I give you...

Dr. Pepper Stout

33% Dr. Pepper in the brewing liquor, and primed with ... you guessed it!

Dr. Pepper Stout (3 gal)

3.25# Maris Otter
8oz Crystal 40
8oz Roasted Barley
4oz Flaked Oats
4oz Flaked Wheat

Mash 158*F.

0.5oz Magnum 60
0.5oz EKG 10

1pkg SafAle S-04 Whitbread

2x 2L of Dr. Pepper and 2 gal of RO water, topped to 3 gal with RO at the end of the boil. I'll prime with 16oz of Dr. Pepper which should give me 2.2 volumes of CO2 and bottle in Dr. Pepper bottles.

Est. OG 1.055, 40 IBUs.
 
you got my attention, I loves me some DP and a good Stout.

What if, as an experiment, you poured 2 parts stout to 1 part DP in a small glass just to get an idea of the final product.

Sounds cool:mug:
 
do you plan on decarbonating the dr pepper when you bottle? This is deffintly something wierd....but could be very good. Nothing like 22 flavors of complexity
 
We use to get a drink called a Flaming Dr. pepper. and I swear it tasted just like Dr. Pepper.

1/2 -Pint of Bud(or any beer) and a shot that was 3/4 amaretto and 1/4 151 Rum.

we lit the shot on fire and dropped it in the beer, and pounded it like a boiler maker.

You might want to try some Almond extract in a stout, and see what you get. I bet you would have a Dr.Pepper stout.
 
Musing out loud here...

I hear the flavor from dr pepper comes from prune juice... What about adding some prune juice? Seems better to me than adding all the preservatives and such from a commercial soda, into your wort.

Either way, interesting idea!
 
chefmike said:
Will the sodium benzoate stop the yeast, or will it boil off?
Click to expand...

He makes a good point. I'd be inclined to think that it wouldn't boil off and would affect the yeast. :(

However, I'm fairly certain you can purchase various soda flavored liquour concentrates from places like midwestsupplies.com

Alternatively, you could add crushed Dr. Pepper flavored jelly beans...
 
Saccharomyces said:
Mountain Dew beer has been done before, it was featured in BYO... so I'm assuming it'll work. In any case I'm pitching extra yeast just in case (1 pkg of SafAle S-04 into 3 gallons)
Click to expand...

I'd think Jelly Belly brand Dr Pepper flavored jelly beans might work pretty well. Crushed and boiled, plus you wouldn't have to worry about finings due to all that gelatin content. Alternatively you could try some approach to remove the flavoring on the outside to avoid all that gelatin.
 
My vote is go for it as originally presented. Trying to make a beer that tastes like Dr. Pepper is weird. Making a beer which uses Dr. Pepper as a major ingredient is "really WEIRD".

Good question though on the preservatives affecting the yeast. Pretty easy to test by just dumping some yeast in some DP and see if they take off.
 
I am laying money it has to do with sodium benozate becoming less active at pH's above 4.5, as cited on some industrial site I was just reading. So the yeast is going to do fine. Plus it is being diluted with the RO water.


Ugh... I had to look up the ingredients of Mtn Dew to compare... from the wiki:
The presence of brominated vegetable oil in Mtn Dew means that excess consumption can produce serious health effects, such as depression, paranoia, psychosis, and skin lesions from bromoderma.
Click to expand...

YIKES!

or how about this:
The effects of Sodium Benzoate are also linked to the chemical compound benzene which is used most often in the creation of plastics, resin and synthetic fibers (FSANZ, 2006). According to the FDA benzene is a known carcinogen (USFDA, 2007). Benzene can be formed at very low levels in beverages that contain both ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and Sodium Benzoate (FSANZ, 2006).
Click to expand...

I am sticking to drinking beer!
 
I thought all this reminded me of a conversation we had a while ago... about a DrP flavored beer...it is here. never went anywhere, but one guy tried the concept of brewing with DrP

I would try it...
 
This is awesome. It will be really interesting to see how this will turn out.


chefmike said:
Ugh... I had to look up the ingredients of Mtn Dew to compare... from the wiki:


YIKES!

or how about this:


I am sticking to drinking beer!
Click to expand...

Just about everything cirtrus flavored has brominated * in it. It's used to preserve the volatile citrus falvorings. You have to drink >8 liters of Mt Dew a day for a really long time before you even get close to bromide poisoning. I think your teeth would rot away and you'd have a stomach ulcer the size of Texas first.
 
If you overpitch you should be able to overcome the benzoate ( I am a bit of a benzoate expert). You might want to do this on a microscale. If it takes off you are good to go.

I would love to hear the results of this.

I bet you get more positive reponses than I did when I added Kimchee in the secondary on a wheat beer that I did a few years back.....
 
Dr. Vorlauf.... you are a scary, scary man. Kimchee?!!

adx... I have seen a middle schooler go through that 8 plus liters... it explains a lot!
 
If you use Diet Dr. Pepper, then you should still get some sweetness from it (I'm assuming the artificial sweetener in it is non-fermentable), which might help the overall flavor of the soda come through.
 
The Dr. Pepper bottles are a great idea too. My family drinks gallons of it and they prefer the small 12 oz bottles. I save all the bottles and bottle my "drinking" homebrews in them (as opposed to gifts, which I put in "nice" bottles.) They seem a little thicker than some of the other PET bottles and hold up well under carbonation. Their design is a little more generic than a "Coke" bottle, so you can re-label if you like and they look nice. I usually only re-use them about twice before discarding. My mother-in-law, who lives with us, is a teetotaler and doesn't even know I homebrew. I make up an occasional batch of root beer out in the shop for the kids and she thinks that's what all the bottles are for! :D
 
jcobbs said:
The Dr. Pepper bottles are a great idea too. My family drinks gallons of it and they prefer the small 12 oz bottles. I save all the bottles and bottle my "drinking" homebrews in them (as opposed to gifts, which I put in "nice" bottles.) They seem a little thicker than some of the other PET bottles and hold up well under carbonation. Their design is a little more generic than a "Coke" bottle, so you can re-label if you like and they look nice. I usually only re-use them about twice before discarding. My mother-in-law, who lives with us, is a teetotaler and doesn't even know I homebrew. I make up an occasional batch of root beer out in the shop for the kids and she thinks that's what all the bottles are for! :D
Click to expand...

You must not have enough beer around if someone that lives with you doesn't know you homebrew :) I definitely could not hide the fact that I make my own beer.
 
humann_brewing said:
You must not have enough beer around if someone that lives with you doesn't know you homebrew :) I definitely could not hide the fact that I make my own beer.
Click to expand...

Well, I used the term "homebrew" kind of loosely; I do mostly apfelwein and wines, so not a lot of boiling, grains, kegs, etc. And she is older and kind of keeps to herself. But it's funny how she doesn't ask why I take 20 or 30 bottles out to the shop but only come back with a dozen bottles of root beer...
 
There's a thread on a DP Porter on Northern Brewer's forum.

Copy/Paste the post I made:
In high school I worked at McDonalds and we'd change the syrup bags when they got under 1/4 full. I'd take them home and mix with carbonated water for cheap soda or add some into cocktails. I think it'd work great as a flavoring agent, like Belgian Candy Syrup but not really... if you know anyone in the restaurant biz, they may be able to help you get some.

or there's this: link

Maybe kind of spendy at $10, but it's 8oz of the syrup they use to make Dublin Dr Pepper, which is the kind with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup.
-------------
I've kind of been kicking around the idea of getting that and making a Belgian Dark Strong with some in it.
 
Having been to Dublin to pick up Dr Pepper with cane sugar in it I will say that this recipe could become a regular at my house. The syrup though is the way to go though. A local old time soda shop uses it to make Dr Peppers and they taste GREAT.

Also, if you can get dublin Dr Pepper, do it. Its great stuff.
 
godofcheese said:
Also, if you can get dublin Dr Pepper, do it. Its great stuff.
Click to expand...

I was in Oakland a couple months ago for NHC and got a burrito in the Airport terminal when I was leaving. My eyes lit up really big when I saw bottles of Dublin Dr Pepper in their fridge. The stuff is really good.
 
this has potential to be a really great beer. You could always add some maltodexterin if you think its going to overattenuate although at 158 i think you will have plenty of dextrins in the wort already
 
I fermented a pale ale in a old Dr.Pepper syrup barrel, even though I soaked the crap out of it my pale ale still tasted like Dr. Pepper in the end, it didn't do anything for me.
 
I'd be willing to bet the OG is a little higher than 1.055... And I agree that its going to attenuate pretty crazily...

Dr. P is my fav soda besides Grape Fanta... I'd love to see this one done... Stout and Dr. P has gotta be a winning combination...

I'd be willing to pay for shipping if someone comes up with a drinkable recipe to send one out to me...
 
farmbrewernw said:
I fermented a pale ale in a old Dr.Pepper syrup barrel, even though I soaked the crap out of it my pale ale still tasted like Dr. Pepper in the end, it didn't do anything for me.
Click to expand...

You might be onto something there. Although you were trying to avoid the Dr. Pepper taste, it might be applicable in this situation. Just like how rootbeer permanently taints a keg, I'd bet Dr. Pepper does the same thing. If you can get an old corny keg used for DR. P, or a syrup pail you might be in business. Then you don't have to worry about the sweetness or sugars making the beer thin.

Its just like oak aging...except Dr. Pepper style.
 
I found this looking at DrP another time:

Max Wolheim ([email protected]), who "can't guarantee the accuracy of
any of this," posted this interesting article (with a small caveat) on
June 20, 1999:

Yes, I've heard the "23 fruit flavors" of Dr. Pepper [sic] for years.
I can tell you this is nonsense! I can't reveal the source (he'd get
fired), but here is a list of some of the real flavoring ingredients:

Vanillin (imitation vanilla)
Extract of almond
denatured rum (no joke)
Oil of orange
lactic acid (optional; once listed separately from
"flavorings")

Max goes on to say: "None of this is will be confirmed by the PR
people of the company, who reply with the evasive 'Dr. Pepper contains
neither rum nor vanilla.' Substitutions are possible, depending on
the bottler, so that Dr. Pepper in one part of the country might not
taste quite the same as in some others. But denatured rum is
universal to the formula." Take it for what it's worth.
Click to expand...
 

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