Corn starch "packing peanut" beer.

I have a quantity of corn starch packing peanuts that for... "scientific reasons" needs to be incorporated into a beer. Well, there's a gentlemen's wager involved, but really it's more of a morbid curiosity on the part of myself and my fellow brewers.


Backstory : I recently got in a shipment of malts (thanks AHS!) and needed to dispose of the peanuts they were packed with. They were the cornstarch variety which simply dissolve in water, so while we were cleaning up from a brew session I dumped them all in my kettle and a little hot water from the wort chiller made quick work.... they smelled like cooked corn... Of course as my friend is dumping them into the composter on top of the spent grains from the brew session, a little lightbulb goes off.


So anyways, I did some research and these things are non-toxic and 'FDA-approved' whatever that means, and are essentially 100% cornstarch with a lot of air. We ate a couple -- they taste like stale cheesy poofs, sans-cheese -- and haven't died yet. So... why not?
We secured a bag of brand new peanuts for the task and are thinking of taking some BMC clone recipe and replacing the flaked corn with peanuts. Probably just a 2-3gal batch. But... we don't have any idea what ratio to substitute what is essentially pure cornstarch in place of flaked corn. Thoughts ??? Certainly less I think... I could take a few oz of 6-row and mash with an equal weight of the peanuts to see what gravity comes out.

Thoughts ???

6 ate 9

I think you are completely insane, the idea is ridiculous and therefore I support it completely!

The peanuts dissolve in water, so you might want to try to dissolve them in your mash water and then add that to your 2-row. You'd probably get pretty good conversion that way since as the enzymes are pulled from the 2-row into the water they would have complete access to the starches.

No idea what proportions to use, but definitely not a 1-1 replacement for flaked corn since not all the mass of the corn is starch that is converted. An experimental mash just to see what gravity you get might be a good idea. Half lb of 2-row, half lb of peanuts and 1.5 qts of water maybe? You can predict how many pts you should get from the 2-row and figure what you get per lb of peanuts that way.

You know, I have no idea how that would work. I'd imagine the enzymes in 2- or 6-row could break down the starch in the packing peanuts.

Not sure if they'd do anything other than create sugar; I'd treat 'em like corn, I think. Keep it simple so you what it does to the beer.

I have nothing to add....other than that is waaaay cool!! Good Luck!!

this is awesome.

Triple Hopped, and now Jet-Puffed.

Just had to resurrect this post- had exactly the same thought last night while digging through my huge AHS order. Wonder if anybody has ACTUALLY done this.

Sounds like a recipe for a stuck mash.

The OP hasn't been back since shortly after this thread was created. He may have set up his account to email him when he gets a PM. Might send him one and see if it brings him back.

Hmm.. original poster decides to brew batch of beer with "supposed fda approved" packing peanuts and then disappears.. not a good sign.

I'd give it a shot, but I can't find packing peanuts in Beersmith. Suggestions?

Hahaha. I'd weigh them and treat is as flaked corn or something?

Sounds fun.

It's cornstarch, so it's adjunct like any other corn based product. The only issue to figure out is if the process to make them into peanuts pre-gelatinized them or not. I.e. if they're like flaked corn, and don't need to be converted, or if you need to do a cereal mash with them, like you would with plain old cornstarch or grits or whatever.

I guess the way to know would be to heat some water to around 152 degrees. Drop a pound of peanutes (or maybe just a few handfuls) into the water, let them dissolve for 20 minutes, then take a gravity reading.

If they're not sweet then you just have to do a cereal mash with them and some two-row.

As to a recipe, this would be great for a basic cream ale, people on here, myself included, have used all manner of types of corn for this type of beer; popcorn, tortilla chips, grits, cornstarch, creamed corn, hominy, cornbread, corn cereal, anything made of corn. So it's not really unique in the sense that you're using corn.....just that the form the corn takes.

If you don't know what a cereal mash is, google it. The main sites that google brings up are excellent resources.

The only issue is to figure out the ppg of the corn. Maybe you DO need to be more formal in your structure of this experiment. Maybe you need to use 1 gallon of water, and one pound of peanuts. Or perhaps you can find the amount of cornstarch in there online. Or maybe just measuring them and treating them like cornstarch. This part I don't know.