Trying Something Weird... Steen's Syrup and Dandelion Greens

[GrowleyMonster]

Yup that's right. No malt. Well, Steen's tastes about halfway between molasses and malt, even smells kinda like malt. I used to hear old folks talk about "back in the day" when they would make cane beer with all sorts of different herbs for bittering. One of them was dandelion greens. So, I thought I would try it. Mostly they used juice from a home cane mill, and cooked it down until it looked and felt right. I have no sugar cane nor mill, but I can get Steen's Cane Syrup at any grocery store in South Louisiana. I boiled the greens for 20 minutes in a gallon of water with an orange peel just because it was laying out where GF left it after making Old Fashions. I was gonna boil 45 minutes but the water was coloring considerably and I felt the greens had done their job after 20 minutes, so I removed all. I thought I was well over my gallon mark after adding the two 12oz cans of syrup so I boiled after adding the syrup, for 30 minutes. Turned out I was under a gallon so ended up adding some water. I chilled in a sink full of ice water and went to fermenter, pitched a packet of Safeale US-05 though it occurred to me that this was waaaaay more than needed after I had sprinkled most of it in. The house thermostat is turned down to 69f. for the next three days and the little fermenter (a glass 2gal iced tea jar, short piece of hose stuck in a hole in the lid for the airlock) is right next to it's big brother, the BigMouth Bubbler. Tomorrow is yet another brew day as I start an all-extract 5gal batch. The Block Party Amber Ale in the BMB fermenter is now a week in. I will take it to keg next monday. I have a second BMB for tomorrow's brew.

I don't know what the OG of the cane beer is. My testing tube broke, and with such a small batch I had no convenient way to take a sg reading. I wanna say that the two 12oz cans in a gallon batch should be around 1.05 but I am sorta guessing. Okay, all the way guessing. The wort tasted really really sweet and had a lot of body.

 

[dwhite60]

I think Thomas Jefferson used to make something out of just molasses.

Good luck with this!

Actually, it was George Washington:
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/george-washingtons-infamous-small-beer-recipe/

All the Best,
D. White

 

[FloppyKnockers]

You're right... it sounds weird. I'm on board though - I want to know how it turns out.

 

[GrowleyMonster]

Almost 20 hours after pitching, hardly any krausen. Hopefully the next 12 hours or so will see some action, but I am beginning to think that this isn't gonna work. Anyway I will be brewing my all-LME super simple recipe today and see how it comes out, so plenty of new beer in the pipeline. My Block Party Amber Ale kit of ingredients is now 8 days in the fermenter and starting to settle out nicely, about 20 minutes between bloops in the airlock. Starting to show some clarity. I have high hopes for that batch since the other batch of the same stuff came out so good, a very good quaff after kegging only one day in a very cold fridge with 5psi CO2 on it. Contrast this to the only other NB kit I brewed, the Nut Brown Ale (cause cheapest LOL!) which was unimpressive the day after kegging but is quite nice now, two weeks in keg. For the couple extra bucks, I have to recommend the Block Party, for someone wanting a recipe kit. It is very drinkable the day after kegging. Anyway I digress. Apparently there is something in the Steen's syrup that makes it not very tasty to the yeast. Ambient temp is 70f and very stable. The pitch was enough US-05 for a 5gal batch. Pitching temp was about 65f. I am thinking Steen's is great for a pecan pie but maybe not so great for making swamp brew.

 

[GrowleyMonster]

Okay, 48 hours. It is officially a failure. I might try again some day, dry hopping the dandelion greens. The syrup wort should have fermented. No way I killed the yeast. One little orange peel shouldn't have hurt anything but I will resist the urge if I try this again.

They say you learn more from your failures than your successes. By that measure, I am a genius.