Butterbeer (yes, of HP fame)

[azazel1024]

My wife challenged me* to make her butterbeer, as in the stuff consumed to excess in most of the Harry Potter series of books.

She was not happy with current "offerings" as they are mostly a variation on cream soda.

So I put my mind to it. Here is what I came up with. I bottled it last night.

Extract recipe for 5 gallons

3.3lbs light LME
2lbs Pilsen DME
1lb Crystal 120l steeped for 20 minutes at 150F
1 ounce Northern Brewer 60 mins
1 ounce Saaz 5 minutes
1 tsp Cinnamon 5 minutes
Windsor yeast

14 days @ 70F

After high Krausen ended I added 1C of molasses boiled in 1C of water to the primary.

I added 1 whole vanilla bean soaked in 2oz vodka for 3 days to the bottling bucket as well as 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 ounce Butterscotch extract. In addition, 5oz sugar was boiled in 6 oz of dark rum (for flavor and carbonation) instead of in water for bottling.

OG 1.041 FG 1.011, 4% ABV, 24-28IBU *edit* The OG and ABV does not account for the added molasses. Back of the napkin math tells me it should be more like 1.045OG and 4.4% ABV.

It tastes, well, kind of like butterbeer. Flat and un-bottle conditioned I can't speak to exact final taste, but it does seem pretty promising to taste like what I imagined based on JK Rowling descriptions to be butterbeer. Though I did kind of picture the stuff in the books to be maybe more like 2-3% ABV (IIRC a couple of descriptions of a slight warm glow after several large mugs/bottles of the stuff), but seemed "too mild" for my adult sensibilities. Coloration is also pretty close to spot on, though I should have added Irish moss and/or a couple of days in the secondary. Mine is a little too cloudy for what I pictured.

Maybe next time (if my wife forces me to make it again). I almost wish I had intentionally botched it, but meh, good is good I guess.

I'll update once the stuff has had a couple of weeks to bottle age.

*And by challenged I mean she told me "He makes the butterbeer or he gets the hose again!!!"

 

[Travestian]

"He makes the butterbeer or he gets the hose again!!!"

"It puts the lotion on its skin..."

 

[feinbera]

Wonder if you could intentionally produce diacetyl, to really put the butter in your butterbeer? And maybe hit your color and add flavor by boiling down/caramelizing just a bit of the wort?

Man, I almost wanna try this, SWMBO is a non-trivial HP fan... but I'm still beat after the second brewday in as many weekends, it'll have to go on the list of crazy stuff to try sometime but probably never actually get around to.

 

[NewkyBrown]

You should of asked me. I have 20 litres of diacetyl rich butter beer that I am going to dump down the drain!

 

[BugHunter]

I've got a recipe that I have adapted from the book too (again, wife's orders) that you may want to give a shot. It's more of a "mini" traditional southern english brown without any artificial extracts or spices.

Mash

• 4 lbs 8 oz Maris Otter
• 8 oz Briess C30L
• 8 oz Honey Malt
• 4 oz Briess midnight Wheat

Hops

• 0.5 oz (4.5%) Fuggle @ 60m

Fermentation

• 0.5L WLP002 English Ale Yeast (~112B cells)

Directions

1. Mash at 156F
2. Ferment @ 66F for 5 days
3. Ramp up to 68F for 9 days (14 days total in primary)
4. Crash to 45F and carbonate to 2.5 volumes

On my recipe this comes out to:
5 Gallon batch
1.032 OG -> 1.011 FG
9 IBU (BU:GU of .286)
15 SRM
ABV 2.6%

Notes:
I run my beer through a 1 micron filter before bottling from a secondary keg but even before filtration this recipe's pretty clear after sitting under pressure for a week.

The flavors are predominantly sweetbBread, light caramel, toffee, and a hint of honey. It's sweet on the tongue with a mild carbonic acid bite to balance the low hop usage. The high carbonation and residual gravity gives it a healthy and long-lasting head. Overall it's not a bad brew and, as a low-alcohol winter session ale, I'll probably be making it again.

I actually like the recipe as is but could definitely see using dosing with butterscotch flavoring before bottling if that's your thing. I've heard some mixed things on the safety of diacetyl so all my brews are designed to minimize it's presence.

 

[alane1]

I think you should use Ringwood yeast, very buttery.

 

[jakenbacon]

Just a note, when I went to universal in Florida, they sell butterbeer in the HP themed out area. Now granted, I am sure their main market is kids, but it was basically a caramel, butterscotch root beer/ cream soda. No alcohol, no butter flavor. Probably useless, as you are trying to make this as close to what the book describes, but I had to let ya know. Good luck

 

[Raenon]

... I've heard some mixed things on the safety of diacetyl so all my brews are designed to minimize it's presence.

Diacetyl is naturally occuring in butter and perfectly safe to consume. It's inhaling into the lungs that causes "popcorn lung" (found in workers of the early microwave popcorn industry and far more dangerous than the name might sound).
Inhalation danger meant plenty of research on ingestion... safe as could be in food and drink.

 

[BugHunter]

Diacetyl is naturally occuring in butter and perfectly safe to consume. It's inhaling into the lungs that causes "popcorn lung" (found in workers of the early microwave popcorn industry and far more dangerous than the name might sound).
Inhalation danger meant plenty of research on ingestion... safe as could be in food and drink.

All true, and definitely worth mentioning, but as the guy that actually has to brew the stuff and be around it from grain to glass I'll still avoid unnecessary production of diacetyl in my brewhouse as much as possible. It may not be in the beer but it's definitely outgassed into the brewing environment. I'm around enough bugs and chemicals that want me dead on a daily basis at work, no need to add to the list at home if I don't have to.

 

[azazel1024]

"It puts the lotion on its skin..."

If I had a dollar for everytime I've heard that from my wife...

Or "It rubs the back..."

Or "Its 11 o'clock at night, it leaves me alone and lets me go to sleep..."

 

[azazel1024]

Wonder if you could intentionally produce diacetyl, to really put the butter in your butterbeer? And maybe hit your color and add flavor by boiling down/caramelizing just a bit of the wort?

Man, I almost wanna try this, SWMBO is a non-trivial HP fan... but I'm still beat after the second brewday in as many weekends, it'll have to go on the list of crazy stuff to try sometime but probably never actually get around to.

I considered this, but being relatively new to brewing I figured it would be too hard for me to manage. That and a lot of what I have read is that Diacetyl tends to degrade in bottle after sometime. I didn't want to go for something that wasn't going to be relatively stable for more than a month or two (not that I expect it'll last beyond 3-4 months at most).

Once I have the gear to really control temperature I might try this.

 

[Raenon]

All true, and definitely worth mentioning, but as the guy that actually has to brew the stuff and be around it from grain to glass I'll still avoid unnecessary production of diacetyl in my brewhouse as much as possible. It may not be in the beer but it's definitely outgassed into the brewing environment. I'm around enough bugs and chemicals that want me dead on a daily basis at work, no need to add to the list at home if I don't have to.

I do hope you never cook with butter or melt it atop your corn and potatoes then.
The smell of butter in the air is diacetyl, and quite a bit more than produced in small batch brewing, let alone outgassed.

 

[azazel1024]

I did my customary 3 days after bottling test. Turns out, its really butterbeer.

If you hate butterscotch, you will not like this. If you hate cream soda, you will not like this.

It is almost as if you took the best of cream soda, beer and butterscotch and mixed them...say 10% cream soda, 30% butterscotch soda (if that were such a thing) and 60% beer.

Anyway, its good (to me). It is certainly a "mood beer", but I'd also generally consider winter seasonals and fall seasonals like pumpkin beer and stuff "mood beers" to me.

It was a lot clearer than the image makes out, accidently poured a bunch of the yeast out in to the glass.

I figure another week or two should get it right perfect. As it is, very good. It doesn't taste young and nothing is hammering anything else flavorwise.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

It looks great!
Would it be worth making twice or would you consider it a "one and done" kind of deal?

 

[azazel1024]

It'll probably get made again.

I happen to like buttersctoch a lot, though butterscotch does fall in to my "eat to much and make myself really, really sick" catagory.

I don't know that I'd want to knock back 4 or 5 of of them in a sitting/party, but 1 or 2 would be very nice.

I am sure the next time I get a hankering for reading the HP series I'll brew it again. That or if/when my wife demands it.

That said, the next time I might play with the recipe to try to take it AG (maris otter used as the base plus crystal 120l I think would work, maybe a small amount of flaked wheat for a little more head). I think the IBUs, SRM and hop flavors/aroma are pretty much perfect, to my taste buds and eyes, though.

 

[azazel1024]

Correction!!!

I forgot that I added 1C of molasses boiled in 1C of water after high krausen ended. I updated the original recipe. This also means that the OG and ABV don't reflect accurate numbers since the molasses wasn't added in then. Back of the napkin math tells me with the addition the OG should have been more like 1.045 accounting for the molasses and an ABV of 4.4%.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Just curious, why did you add it after the high krausen and not initially?

 

[hunter_le five]

Interesting experiment. Thanks for posting the results. I'd like to try to make this as a small batch, not sure if I'd want to commit an entire keg to it.

I recently had a Butter-Beer cocktail, at the urging of my friend, who is a huge HP nerd:

10oz cream soda
1 oz vanilla vodka
1 oz butterscotch schnapps
.5 oz cinnamon schnapps
Top with whipped cream

It was pretty tasty, though so sweet I couldn't drink more than one glass without feeling like I was turning diabetic.

Your recipe sounds more up my alley, though, seeing as it's an actual beer and all....

 

[azazel1024]

Just curious, why did you add it after the high krausen and not initially?

In answer to your question, because I forgot to add it during the initial boil.

I did talk to some members of my local brew club and their opinion is that a bit more flavor might carry through if you do it post krausen. So whether that is true or not, it was my goal to carry at least a naunce of flavor through.

 

[azazel1024]

Interesting experiment. Thanks for posting the results. I'd like to try to make this as a small batch, not sure if I'd want to commit an entire keg to it.

I recently had a Butter-Beer cocktail, at the urging of my friend, who is a huge HP nerd:

10oz cream soda
1 oz vanilla vodka
1 oz butterscotch schnapps
.5 oz cinnamon schnapps
Top with whipped cream

It was pretty tasty, though so sweet I couldn't drink more than one glass without feeling like I was turning diabetic.

Your recipe sounds more up my alley, though, seeing as it's an actual beer and all....

Yeah the sweetness is pretty low. You get the butterscotch flavor, which (to me) is not overpowering, but the sweetness is relatively low on this one.

If you didn't want to use butterscotch extract, you could probablly use butterscotch schnapps (I know you aren't advocating going that route, but I figure I'd mention it), but it might take a fair amount of it to appropriately flavor your batch (which would likely bump the ABV by 1 or 2% at least, if not more). Rough guess for a 5 gallon batch would be 16oz, +/- 8oz.

That is solely based on the last time I drank butterscotch schnapps, which was college about 10 years ago.

Anyway, in terms of expense, I think I bought the extract for around $8 on Amazon and only used 1/4 of it compared to probably needing to add at least $10-20 worth of schnapps to get to the same flavor potential in the beer.

*edit* Also I agree, I'd probably try this is a small batch first. I just figure, why the heck not try doing a full 5 gallons. In the future I'd probably try AG and I'd probably just do a 2.5 gallon batch. This is a LOT of butterbeer to drink. In part I made a large batch because my nerd wife (not that I am not a nerd myself mind you) wants to throw a Harry Potter themed party soon.

Based on previous ones, that means probably 5-8 friends (plus us) will actually show and 15-25 beers consumed. So I figured I should go on the safe side and make a full batch and hope I didn't screw the pooch on it.

 

[hunter_le five]

Thanks for the tips man. I'll have to try this soon.

 

[jrtoastyman]

Hops

• 0.5 oz (4.5%) Fuggle @ 60m

I'd just like to point out that it is extremely appropriate that you used "Fuggle" hops. I think of Harry Potter's muggles every time I see it.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Just wanted to post to say this batch has been conditioning for about 2 weeks now and it's tasting great! I followed the recipe (even post-boil molasses addition...coincidentally I ran out too ) to the T and there's very little butter/creamy flavor. It's just barely there but otherwise it's a very good tasting brew.

Thanks for the recipe!

 

[azazel1024]

You are more than welcome!

One note, it does seem recently like the butterscotch flavor is starting to dull a little with age just a tiny bit.

It makes me wonder if it is the yeast converting some of the diacetyl from the butterscotch (I assume there is diacetyl in it causing the buttery flavoring). It hasn't been stored in a particularly cool area (67-70F most of the time). So cold storing it, I assume, would do better to preserve the flavor longer.

Still tastes fine, but it might not be a long lasting brew. Probably shoot for a 2.5 gallon batch the next time I make it (I still have 20 bottles left, even after throwing a Harry Potter themed party. Thankfully my wife's cousin visted a few days ago and LOVED the stuff, so I am bring all of it to Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks for her).

 

[mcmcnair]

I followed the initial recipe on the first page but made a few additions. I added some lactose in with 10 minutes left in the boil. I also added 6 caramel chews (Trader Joes Brand) and 1 tbsp of raw honey with 5 minutes left in the boil. It is in primary fermentation now and I plan on racking up to secondary in about 3-4 weeks. In secondary I will add 3 rum soaked vanilla beans and 2 more tablespoons of raw honey. I used Captain Morgan private stock. And I will add 8 more caramel chews melted into 1 cup of water. I also plan on following the recipe for the bottling steps, at least regarding boiling the priming sugar with dark rum rather than water. If I can find some I'll likely add a little butterscotch extract as well. Any thoughts?

 

[azazel1024]

It sounds good to me.

The only thing I would mention is I've notice that the butter scotch flavor has kind of faded in mine overtime a bit. Not sure if that is the yeast converting the diacetyl over-time, or what.

If/when I do the recipe again, I'd also increase the vanilla I used, probably add a little crystal 20 for some lighter sweetness and also probably make it as a 2.5G batch instead of a 5 gallon batch. Just too much butterbeer to drink all of it.

Let me know how your batch turns out.

 

[leighna]

Subscribing to brew later

 

[mcmcnair]

I got impatient Saturday night and decided to crack open a bottle a week before carbonation was complete. Despite being a little flat I think it turned out pretty good! It is very very heavy on the caramel flavoring. I ended up using Vanilla Butter Nut Extract (imitation). No idea what it actually is but it smelled heavenly.

If I were to do this again I actually would keep the same amount of caramel, but I would add about triple the amount of vanilla beans and double the vanilla butter nut extract. I would also add maybe 4 or 5 cinnamon sticks to secondary instead of adding the powdered cinnamon during the boil. I think a lot of the cloudiness came from the cinnamon not settling.

It is definitely the prettiest beer I've ever bottled. I even reused a 22oz clear bottle so I could show off the color.
Butterbeer! by SarraceniaMutation, on Flickr

The clarity is pretty good but maybe adding some irish moss about halfway through the boil would help a lot with the clarity. Adding the lactose was a great idea, it thickened the beer and made it much more like drinking butter! I definitely will try to make this again with the corrections.

 

[bboyeruga]

I'm brewing this this weekend. I had the SWMBO make a quart of her homemade butterscotch sauce which I am going to add in at flameout. I'm also going to cut out all of the extracts and use the real thing across the board. I'll update with my recipe if it is any good.

 

[azazel1024]

I'm brewing this this weekend. I had the SWMBO make a quart of her homemade butterscotch sauce which I am going to add in at flameout. I'm also going to cut out all of the extracts and use the real thing across the board. I'll update with my recipe if it is any good.

Sounds great!

I have decided the next time I make it I am going to try using real butterscotch, maybe change up the other spices a little (with a lot more vanilla) and probably going with a much smaller batch. It could be the extract, but it didn't age well. After about 2 months it started going south. It doesn't taste bad, but it just is kind of, meh, now.

Probably a 1.5-2.5 gallon batch. Maybe this coming fall, if there is time. Especially if I am going to do another read through of the Potter books around then (its a great fall to winter series for me).

 

[bboyeruga]

So you recommend more vanilla beans? I thought it looked a little short on them. Do you recommend converting it to a partial mash to ensure proper aging?

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Home Brew mobile app

 

[azazel1024]

So you recommend more vanilla beans? I thought it looked a little short on them. Do you recommend converting it to a partial mash to ensure proper aging?

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Home Brew mobile app

I am personally going to try going AG/BiaB the next time.

Partial mash or AG probably would help it age better. That and I suspect some of it might have been using butterscotch extract instead of actual butterscotch, but that is conjecture.

I am thinking, maybe, for a 2.5 gallon batch
3lbs 2-row pale
4oz brown malt
4oz victory malt
8oz Crystal 60L
8oz Wheat

Probably mash around 155F

Bitter the same, maybe 3 vanilla beans for 2.5 gallons (or just use vanilla extract to taste), around 8oz of real butterscotch

 

[bboyeruga]

I am personally going to try going AG/BiaB the next time.

Partial mash or AG probably would help it age better. That and I suspect some of it might have been using butterscotch extract instead of actual butterscotch, but that is conjecture.

I am thinking, maybe, for a 2.5 gallon batch
3lbs 2-row pale
4oz brown malt
4oz victory malt
8oz Crystal 60L
8oz Wheat

Probably mash around 155F

Bitter the same, maybe 3 vanilla beans for 2.5 gallons (or just use vanilla extract to taste), around 8oz of real butterscotch

If you don't mind, I think I'll try that in a 5 gallon batch and see how it goes. I'm trying to lean away from extract, so this seems like a good opportunity to do so.

 

[bboyeruga]

Here's what I'm thinking for my 5 gallon batch:

5lbs 2-row pale
8oz brown malt
8oz victory malt
1lb Crystal 60L
1lb Wheat

1 ounce Northern Brewer @60 mins
1 ounce Saaz @5 min
1 tsp Cinnamon @5 min
1 quart of butterscotch sauce @ 2 min

Windsor yeast (or ringwood)

Added after primary and for 1 week
2 sticks Cinnamon (light crush)
4 Vanilla beans (split)

5 oz priming sugar in dark rum

I'll keep you posted on the results.

 

[azazel1024]

Here's what I'm thinking for my 5 gallon batch:

5lbs 2-row pale
8oz brown malt
8oz victory malt
1lb Crystal 60L
1lb Wheat

1 ounce Northern Brewer @60 mins
1 ounce Saaz @5 min
1 tsp Cinnamon @5 min
1 quart of butterscotch sauce @ 2 min

Windsor yeast (or ringwood)

Added after primary and for 1 week
2 sticks Cinnamon (light crush)
4 Vanilla beans (split)

5 oz priming sugar in dark rum

I'll keep you posted on the results.

Sounds amazing! Please do let me know your results. I am very interested.

 

[Hello]

Sounds amazing! Please do let me know your results. I am very interested.

Yum, + 1 on that. Do report back.

 

[bboyeruga]

Brewed on Saturday. Tasted great with a surprise bitterness. I'm hoping that subsides with conditioning. Gonna add some Cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans if primary is done. Eager to taste this one.

Sent from my HTC One

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Out of curiosity, how did you do the butterscotch sauce?

 

[bboyeruga]

Out of curiosity, how did you do the butterscotch sauce?

SWMBO did it. You can Google it and use any basic recipe.

Sent from my HTC One

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

The reason I ask is I'm wondering how (if) the fat from the cream would affect anything.