Cupcakes in beer

[ismellweird]

New to brewing here, but have lots of equipment to do all grain and going to do it but not your typical brew i'm thinking to try things that take it next level. My cousin works at a factory and has access to bad cupcakes, not bad for your health just didn't make the cut, maybe the frosting is on sideways, things like this, or too red. I know people age their beer on things and I know it sounds funny but I think I can brew and age on these, maybe a stout for the holidays. New to brewing but did a Mr.Beer in college and my buddy as a joke stuck a milky way in there when it bubbled, and I think I remember it was good no carbonation but that's because the yeast was all dried out, almost like sand!!

 

[brewgar]

Sounds like a fast track to infection. Might be best to start with an extract kit beer.

 

[BeardedBrews]

New to brewing here, but have lots of equipment to do all grain and going to do it but not your typical brew i'm thinking to try things that take it next level. My cousin works at a factory and has access to bad cupcakes, not bad for your health just didn't make the cut, maybe the frosting is on sideways, things like this, or too red. I know people age their beer on things and I know it sounds funny but I think I can brew and age on these, maybe a stout for the holidays. New to brewing but did a Mr.Beer in college and my buddy as a joke stuck a milky way in there when it bubbled, and I think I remember it was good no carbonation but that's because the yeast was all dried out, almost like sand!!

Add them in the last 10 minutes of the boil and let us know how it turns out!

 

[popsicleian]

i'm thinking to try things that take it next level.

I would strongly encourage you to get a bit more familiar with your current level before moving onto the next one. Experimentation is great--it's one of the most fun parts of homebrewing--but it's not likely to go well if you're not well-versed in the fundamentals.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Well, there would be plenty of fermentable sugar and starches in cake, and you also have fats. The fats with undoubtedly have a negative effect on the head of your beer. There are people using stale bread and bagels for beer, so the idea is not far off. But, there's a big difference between basic breads and cakes. FAT is not a friend of beer, though I have read somewhere that tiny amounts of fat may be consumed by yeast.
Let us know how you make out if you move forward.

 

[ismellweird]

Sounds like a fast track to infection. Might be best to start with an extract kit beer.

I'm OK with infection. If it turns out bad I'll dump it. I want to try new things. Salty drift wood I find on the beach, things nobody wants to try. So what I dump a batch. It's a victimless crime, like prostitution. If I made a gose aged on driftwood and it tastes good I'm gonna call it victimless crime.

 

[Hanglow]

I'd put them in the mash tbf.

 

[GHBWNY]

Aging them on something like cupcakes post-ferm is not going to do much for the taste or quality of the beer, except send it south. Whatever you decide to age your beer on, take into account what effect it might have BEFORE you ruin an otherwise drinkable beer. I mean, what's the point in brewing a batch if you have already decided it's OK to ruin it? Your sense of adventure is admirable, but rarely do we get "lucky" in brewing by just arbitrarily tossing stuff into the mix. If you're insistent on aging the beer on something, at least do enough research to see what the potential effect will be. Every homebrew deserves a chance to live.

 

[Giggs]

I've seen birthday cake in a Randall before. So, why not?

 

[MHBT]

Im appauled, but i hope it works out for you if you decide to put cupcakes in your beer

 

[Northern_Brewer]

New to brewing here...I think I can brew and age on these, maybe a stout for the holidays.

+1 to the idea of getting the hang of "normal" brewing first - you've got a lot to learn, and a lot of beginners mistakes to make, before complicating things with unconventional ingredients. Patience is the greatest asset of a brewer.

And just looking at cupcakes as an ingredient - it's a whole lot of fermentables (sugar/flour) and to be honest not a lot of flavour. I can't see much point in ageing beer on such a flavourless, characterless ingredient. But as others have said, they would work in the mash. There's plenty of people making beer from waste baked goods, such as bread and croissants so this isn't particularly bleeding edge.

 

[madscientist451]

I'm always up for an experiment so I say go for it!
Here's what I would do:
Figure out what reject cupcakes are available. Just because you can get some thing for free doesn't mean you can make an acceptable beer out of it.
If you can get chocolate cupcakes, I'd start with those and brew a sweet stout and see if you can get some chocolate cake flavor out of the cupcakes.
You can toss them in the mash or boil, but a better plan might be:
-scrape off and discard the icing
-crumble up the cupcakes, place on a cookie sheet in a 175F oven for a coupe of hours. Blot with paper towels,see if you can soak up any oil. Not sure how much to throw into the boil, you' have to experiment. Good Luck!

 

[z-bob]

Scrape the frosting off and discard it. Use the cake in the mash. The shortening is going to cause you problems but maybe not much.

 

[bonecitybrewco]

May want to remove the feces from the kettle before adding the cupcakes.

 

[ismellweird]

May want to remove the feces from the kettle before adding the cupcakes.

That was very mean spirited of you, to post this here. What is the point other than you want to ruin everything for everyone.

 

[ismellweird]

Im appauled, but i hope it works out for you if you decide to put cupcakes in your beer

Thank you. While you applaud the idea many others on home brew talk have been not as welcoming to new ideas!

 

[balrog]

Driftwood. Seriously? Wow. Just. Wow.

 

[Slounsberry]

Thank you. While you applaud the idea many others on home brew talk have been not as welcoming to new ideas!

Maybe that was sarcasm regarding his spelling, but otherwise I think you misread his comment....

Either way, I do applaud your spirit of experimenting, but I also agree there’s something to be said for knowing the basics before experimenting. It sounds like you’re very new to this so it would be fair to say you don’t know too many of the basics?

To be clear, since I don’t think others have been if you’re as new as you sound: adding something sugary, like cupcakes, to your beer to ‘age’ it will cause another fermentation to start up on the sugars in the cupcakes. If these are commercial cupcakes I suppose there’s a chance they’re loaded with preservatives and you wouldn’t be at a terribly huge risk of infection, but the advice to cook in the oven for a bit to sanitize would probably be wise.


As far as the driftwood, again I see what you’re going for. Cool idea, wouldn’t it be cool if you could the saltiness from driftwood into a Gose? And people age on wood already, right?
However I’m telling you right now damp wood on a beach (which I assume to be warm) is going to be growing all kinds of nast. If you’re dead set on trying it maybe the oven idea would work, or maybe break it up and bit and soak in vodka for a while, but even then you’re talking about something guaranteed to be carrying some nasty stuff and putting it into your beer. The feces comment was obviously a little over the top, but the point that you would never put something you expect to be terribly full of microbes into your beer. We sanitize stuff that we put in secondary because we typically start with decent food grade type stuff, but want to be sure it’s sanitary, not because we think it’ll clean up exceptionally dirty stuff. It’s called sanitizing, not sterilizing, for a good reason.

If you want a ‘driftwood gose’ maybe just make a gose the normal way and age on some other kind of wood cubes made for this purpose? And a cupcake beer could be achieved by adding sweetness and vanilla or whatever in other ways too.

 

[ong]

I would for sure look at adding to the mash, or at least on the hot side. Adding to the cold side will almost certainly result in a dumper (not just infection with wild yeast and bacteria, but mold on the floating soggy cake).