cheesecake and other crazy ideas

[ahwinney]

On my way to a beer festival, a good friend of mine was excited to try as many unusual and exotic beer flavors that he could and jokingly said he wanted a cheesecake beer, and this got me thinking. People make carrot cake beers, different types if pie beers, and all variations of desert flavors. I actually think a beer that really tasted like boozy liquid cheesecake would be amazing. Does anyone have any advice for this? How would you go about mimicking pie crust? Has anyone fever tired to add cream cheese or any kind of cheese for that matter to the mash or the boil? I have a few ideas for how to approach this, but I want to let the discussion begin first. Anyone out there crazier than me?

 

[lazysunday]

On my way to a beer festival, a good friend of mine was excited to try as many unusual and exotic beer flavors that he could and jokingly said he wanted a cheesecake beer, and this got me thinking. People make carrot cake beers, different types if pie beers, and all variations of desert flavors. I actually think a beer that really tasted like boozy liquid cheesecake would be amazing. Does anyone have any advice for this? How would you go about mimicking pie crust? Has anyone fever tired to add cream cheese or any kind of cheese for that matter to the mash or the boil? I have a few ideas for how to approach this, but I want to let the discussion begin first. Anyone out there crazier than me?

This idea could be really delicious, and you could incorporate all the now-existing fruit beers together to make a whole line of cheesecake beers.

You'll definitely want to find the right dairy product. Mashing with cheese would create some problems, namely with clumping your mash and proteins left in the wort. I think the fact that you would need to constantly move the mash to avoid clumping would produce too much heat loss. Sparging would be a problem, as (some) dairy curdles at temps above 170.

Maybe add something acidic to your mash water (lemon juice?). I'm thinking of buttermilk or cream cheese or sour cream, which has a slight tang to it. This way you could avoid using actual dairy in your mash or pre-boil, but still get some of the profile.

I think using lactose would be a no-brainer, for sweetness and mouthfeel. I've never used lactose outside of a sweet stout, so I can't say how it would pair with a lighter grain bill. You would definitely want to find breadier grain, such as a Biscuit or MO, and pair it with Roasted Barley or something for that oven-baked taste. You could even experiment with rough crushing actual graham crackers into your mash tun. Not too many though, as they will disintegrate in the liquid and could stall or stick your mash.

You'd also want to be wary of your hop pairing I think. Depending on what style you choose( you could do a simple blonde or something similar) using citrusy hops could work really well. Especially if you secondary ferment over raspberries.

The thing about your wort though is that, if you do decide to use a dairy product in your mash, proteins are going to remain. Both whey and casein are super robust to heat, and won't be broken down much by the boil. This will give you a VERY cloudy wort, and could actually form a curd layer in your carboy from the separated casein.

Stuff to think about anyway. I think the idea is going to be to find "beer-safe" components to try and get as close to the flavor profile you want as possible. Think about the flavor of cheesecake. Is it sweet? Tangy? Silky? Fruity? Finding those flavor profiles in other things (lemon juice for the tang, lactose for the silkiness and sweetness, etc.) could help produce a good beer.

I definitely think there's something to this though. Brew a batch. You won't know how it works until you try it.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

While I do not think a cheesecake flavored beer sounds good at all, I do think a Stout flavored cheesecake would be delicious.

 

[Melana]

Why not go the other way and make a beer cheesecake not cheesecake beer? or blend beer with say... a stout... with a piece of cheesecake and use the crust for the rim on the edge of the glass?
Hoppy Cheesecake anyone?

 

[Talgrath]

I've seen a few concepts like this float around from time to time. The biggest issue is fat content, fat won't ferment and it will float in the beer, which can produce some pretty nasty flavors as the fat goes rancid. You're welcome to try it, but it's pretty unlikely the beer would taste anything like a cheesecake.

You might be able to approximate the flavor using lactose in a cream ale with something like a graham cracker flavor (biscuit malt maybe with cinnamon and a bit of honey?); that would be a decent approximation, I think.

 

[McGarnigle]

Maybe something like this added at bottling, the way you would with vanilla extract. I also like the idea of using lactose in the recipe to get sweetness and creaminess.

http://www.silvercloudestates.com/product/Imitation-Cheese-Cake-Extract-530.aspx

 

[ahwinney]

Maybe add something acidic to your mash water (lemon juice?). I'm thinking of buttermilk or cream cheese or sour cream, which has a slight tang to it. This way you could avoid using actual dairy in your mash or pre-boil, but still get some of the profile.

Do you mean using the acidity to mimic buttermilk/cream cheese tanginess? This might be a great idea combined with a larger than usual dose of lactose, maybe it would get close.

 

[lazysunday]

Maybe add something acidic to your mash water (lemon juice?). I'm thinking of buttermilk or cream cheese or sour cream, which has a slight tang to it. This way you could avoid using actual dairy in your mash or pre-boil, but still get some of the profile.

Do you mean using the acidity to mimic buttermilk/cream cheese tanginess? This might be a great idea combined with a larger than usual dose of lactose, maybe it would get close.

Yes, exactly. I think it would take some trial and error but I'll bet you could get close to the right profile. Or at least a good base on which to add fruit/spice/hops. I mean even cheesecake takes on a different flavor when you add stuff so it wouldn't necessarily need to be dead on.

 

[spikestheclown]

Anyone tried this yet?