Doughnuts / Pies in beer

[davekippen]

Ok, I have now had a few beers where the breweries claim do dump whole pies or doughnuts into the brew. I assume its in some kind of secondary fermentation?

I cant find any info on this in my 7 second google search. Anyone do this? At what stage of the brew did you incorporate the baked goods? Do you sanitize at all? Have you had good results

The beers I have had were the Traverse City Cherry Pie beer from Right Brain, and some kind of Nutty Doughnut thing from Darkhorse. Cant remember the actual names.

Thoughts?

 

[MalFet]

I have no idea about the two beers you mentioned, but lot of the weird ingredients go into the mash. A donut in the mash is a nice schtick, but not much donut "character" will actually make it into the beer.

 

[davekippen]

Yeah, thats why I assumed it went in after the mash. People try crazy things, dont they! Love this hobby

 

[morganamps]

I add the doughnuts at the time of drinking. This works well with pies too.

The process is fairly simple. Bite, sip, repeat.

 

[Cyclman]

Probably like the Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout- probably 1/2 lb. in one brew, but they can call it that- brilliant marketing?!

 

[davekippen]

Just did a little googling, and came across this older article. Looks like they used 1/2 in the mash and 1/2 during fermentation

http://www.mlive.com/kalamabrew/index.ssf/2011/02/right_brain_brewery_and_grand.html

and this one notes that they used 50 cherry pies, but didnt say exactly how or when they incorporated them

http://www.drinkmichigan.org/pie-whole-beer-right-brain-brewery/

Interesting stuff!

 

[gometz]

Had this from Martin house brewing in Dallas: pretzel stout
http://martinhousebrewing.com/2013/06/26/there-will-be-stout/

They say 6 lb per barrel, so that's not all that much. It was pretty good too, I'm not a big fan of different things in my beer but this was tasty.

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[BrewmeisterSmith]

In the mash! Right brain puts theirs in the mash...cherry pie whole...mmmm. Dark Horse did one with eclairs in their mash too. But they also used bacon on a recent episode of dark horse nation. Mash, then secondary, then hop rocket. Also, I had a raspberry beer recently that had glazed doughnuts in the mash. It tasted like a jelly doughnut eh.

Question....has anyone experimented with putting a whole pie or desert in the secondary? Here is what I'm currently thinking. I'm making a strawberry schwartzcake, loosely based off of Wild Wolf Brewing's recipe. They use strawberry puree from Oregon. I cant locate any of this right now and need to either use strawberry extract, make a puree, or add fresh fruit. But what if I make strawberry shortcake (angel food cake and all), then rack my beer on top of it? Yes, deserts have fatty oils (which would float to the top). Fermentation is complete, so not much chance of infection, especially if I use the keg for secondary and purge all oxygen. I would likely have to use two kegs to fit it all, then rack to one at the end. There would be more sugar re-introduced, but thats the case with adding any fruit. Thoughts?

 

[Gameface]

I gotta say, I hate stuff like this.

Not to be a negative Nancy, but man, a whole cherry pie? Sounds like some folks are trying a bit too hard.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

one time I put a whole alligator in the mash when the recipe specifically called for 2 3/4 caimans.

 

[stevo4361]

i gotta say, i hate stuff like this.

Not to be a negative nancy, but man, a whole cherry pie? Sounds like some folks are trying a bit too hard.

+1.

 

[BrewmeisterSmith]

I gotta say, I hate stuff like this.

Not to be a negative Nancy, but man, a whole cherry pie? Sounds like some folks are trying a bit too hard.

Idk. I don't think it's a matter of being a tryhard. But I do think it's fun and creative. Randy Mosher told me recently that one of the fun things with brewing is that you can really screw with people. So this type of thing is not your jam. I get it. But I can tell you first hand that the beers I have tasted with this method were awesome. I say give anything a shot. We are only dealing with 5 gallons folks. Cheers.

 

[Yreval]

... Yes, deserts have fatty oils (which would float to the top) ...

You know, even barring my opinions on whether or not all these flavors would come together to make a beer I would want, this really freaks me out. You hear a lot of people caution against the oil content of coffee and cacao nibs, and how that oil can harm head retention and mouthfeel. If you give any credence to those concerns, the fat content of an entire pie crust should devastate your beer.

The bigger concern, though, is that I think those oils are going to go rancid. Even if you're a surgeon about preventing oxidation, you're keeping a bunch of fats at room temperature in a bucket of yeast-inoculated water. Your oils are gonna get gross (especially the partially hydrogenated oils common to baking.) Whole eclairs?! That's like an atom-bomb of fat content and every strange protein and microbe you'll find in dairy. No thanks.

 

[BrewmeisterSmith]

true, too much fatty oils can alter the outcome. I make a coconut cream stout, which is fantastic. The coconut shavings are a little fatty and there is always a think layer of oil floating on the surface. I carefully rack the beer from under this layer and know that anything remaining i the keg will still float to the top. Since I pull beer from the bottom of the keg, I dont worry too much about any left over oils from transfer.

That said, the concept of adding whole pie or desert is a little scary because there is likely to be a lot more fat/oils in something like that than there would be with the coconut shavings. There are, of course ways to combat it. Altering the recipe of the desert to eliminate or significantly decrease the fats/oils. I think for my recipe, I'll be using puree or extract. Maybe even both to get the strawberry flavor. I'd rather not risk a ruined batch since it is for an event. But it would be fun to experiment with. Could even pack a whole house filter full of angel food cake and then run the beer through it. lol. But that would just be for novelty.

 

[Gameface]

Idk. I don't think it's a matter of being a tryhard. But I do think it's fun and creative. Randy Mosher told me recently that one of the fun things with brewing is that you can really screw with people. So this type of thing is not your jam. I get it. But I can tell you first hand that the beers I have tasted with this method were awesome. I say give anything a shot. We are only dealing with 5 gallons folks. Cheers.

I could make spaghetti sauce with a whole pie added to it and I bet I could make it taste pretty good. I don't see that as being particularly creative more than just gimmicky.

 

[m_c_zero]

We're just making beer here for ourselves and friends. Nothing gimmicky about that. I say go for it! If it's god awful, don't do it again...

 

[BrewmeisterSmith]

Why would you make spaghetti sauce with a whole pie? Gross man. Spaghetti and beer are two different things. Wait....holy crap......Spaghetti beer! With a hint of cherry pie. Dude...that's obviously the best idea you've ever had.

But seriously. M C Zero hit it on the head. Some of us are just having fun with brewing. Nothing Gimmicky. I don't care if i'm famous after making an unconventional beer. I could really care less. I'm brewing for me and my own. If it works out and tastes good, I'm happy. If not, I'm still happy that I gave it a shot and wasnt afraid to try something different. Just because its unconventional doesn't mean it wont work, wont be good, and isn't right. I'm not going to fear the unconventional. Personally, I don't have the time with this batch to screw around, so I'm not going to. But I may try it later. Point is....screw it... just do it!

 

[Poobah58]

Never put a doughnut in your beer. You'll have cops lining up at your door!!!

 

[BrewmeisterSmith]

I just mashed 10 glazed doughnuts (was a dozen, but I ate 2) and though I'd share my experience. The mash tasted great. Less doughnut than I thought there would be, but it was definitely there. I did only mash 6 lbs of two row with my steeping grains and only ran a 1st running. no sparge. I just needed to top off my boil kettle with 3 gallons to boost the OG and infuse the doughnut flavor. long story. Anyway, I tore up the doughnuts and added them to the mash. They floated to the top and turned to a pudding like goo. Next time, I will probably increase the amount of doughnuts and maybe stir them into the mash about half way through. The grains will act as a nice filter. I probably wouldnt stir like crazy, only just enough to mix the goo into the top 1/2 of the grain bed. My OG turned out to be 1.072. I'll add 4-5 lbs raspberries to the secondary on this. Who knows, maybe even more doughnut if its lacking. Imperial jelly doughnut eh!

 

[rocketsan]

true, too much fatty oils can alter the outcome. I make a coconut cream stout, which is fantastic. The coconut shavings are a little fatty and there is always a think layer of oil floating on the surface. I carefully rack the beer from under this layer and know that anything remaining i the keg will still float to the top. Since I pull beer from the bottom of the keg, I dont worry too much about any left over oils from transfer.



That said, the concept of adding whole pie or desert is a little scary because there is likely to be a lot more fat/oils in something like that than there would be with the coconut shavings. There are, of course ways to combat it. Altering the recipe of the desert to eliminate or significantly decrease the fats/oils. I think for my recipe, I'll be using puree or extract. Maybe even both to get the strawberry flavor. I'd rather not risk a ruined batch since it is for an event. But it would be fun to experiment with. Could even pack a whole house filter full of angel food cake and then run the beer through it. lol. But that would just be for novelty.

Coconut cream stout? Do tell us more...


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