Feeling wild? Let's formulate a Sweet Potato Ale!

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

I've done mini-mashes on my last two (the Baltic Porter and the Pumpkin), although it wasn't strictly necessary to do it. So I can probably do it here- the overall capacity of the kettle is like 8 gallons (maybe 7).

So actually, the only restriction is on how much I can bring to a boil- because the electric just doesn't generate that much heat.

Gah... am I going to have to get a turkey fryer? Crap...

 

[the_bird]

How about doing - I think Beer Snob does this, too - a boil using two pots? After the mash, separate out into two pots and boil them separately. I ended up having to do that with my last mash, as my electric fryer proved to be worthless (if it can't get five gallons of water to boil, how the hell is it supposed to get oil up to 400 degrees?).

But yeah - a propane burner and outdoor brewing is in BOTH of our futures...

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Brilliant! Yeah- I imagine I can get 2-3 gallons of water to 155 F; then I can split it up for the boil, not a bad idea at all.

 

[the_bird]

Do you use an ice bath, or do you have a chiller? Think through the logistics of doing two ice baths at once. I have a butt-ugly dual-coil immersion chiller, so I combined the two batches (carefully to avoid the DREADED hot-side-aeration) right near the end, then the chiller worked brilliantly (GOD, is it fun to watch cold break forming!)

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

I've been doing ice bath... I may have to get a chiller... though I might just combine them at the end and hit the ice bath, plus maybe topping it up with near-frozen gallon or two of water.

 

[the_bird]

If you're going to end up with four or five gallons of wort, you probably need to think about a chiller. I was cooling four gallons, which meant that I could cool a LITTLE bit with some top-off water, but an ice bath would have taken too long. Plus, the fast cool means a much better cold break, I can already tell this beer's going to be a lot clearer than my previous efforts (and I was always pretty effective at getting the wort chilled with an ice bath, just not as dramatically as I could do it with the chiller).

The chiller will start paying for itself, as you'll then be able to DO this bigger boils, get more fermentables from 2-row and have to buy a lot less extract. My batch this weekend ("Mutiny on the Barley") is mostly grain with only two pounds of DME added. Money I save by doing that instead of seven or eight pounds of DME is, in one sense, paying me back for my investment in copper tubing.

EDIT: I should say, I'm kinda stealing your pirate theme. But I'm using monkeys instead of Jews.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

But I'm using monkeys instead of Jews.

Like I've never heard THAT before...

(Okay. I really have NO idea what that means).

Anyway- I will basically go to the LHBS today, show them the recipe, tell them I want to increase the 6-row as much as possible, tell them I'm wanting an immersion chiller, and see where to go from there.

I'll let everybody know how it goes from there.

 

[the_bird]

OK, somebody smart - why the 6-row instead of 2-row? More enzymes?

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

That was my understanding- I assumed (and I may be wrong) that if I use a higher-enzymatic malt, I could get by with a little less poundage of grain

 

[the_bird]

How much grain can your mash tun handle? What do you use for a mash tun?

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Uh... I just generally use my brewpot... I keep grains in grain bags so I can lift them out and sparge through them when it's done...

I don't know how much would fit in there, really.

 

[the_bird]

I think it's time you built yourself a mash tun. C'mon, you know you want to! It's EASY! It works like a charm!

Go read that eight thousand post thread on the mini-mash system. I built one, I love it (just wish I used a 10-gallon cooler instead of 5).

You'll be converting to AG with Walker before you know it...

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Oh man... what am I getting into... gah...

I will certainly get there eventually... but I may avoid it just a while longer... I want to get this thing brewed, so some early samples can be had on T-Day (it won't really be ready til after that, of course).

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

There was actually a recipe for this in BYO...I think "10 strange recipes" or some such? I'll try and find it. In the meantime:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/
Entering sweet potato (1 large, baked no salt) gives us ~12g of sugars and 12g of starch per 180g sweet potato.

Guys...look at this data. If it is correct (no reason to doubt it at this point) then a sweet potato has 6.67% starch by weight. Therefore, 6# of sweet potatos would have 0.4# (6.4oz) of starch available for conversion. 2-row will convert itself plus it's weight in other stuff. The Munich and Vienna will convert themselves and don't count on anything else. Therefore, a pound of 2-row would be muchas plenty in this case. I don't see any need for 6-row at all, but it wouldn't hurt anything if you're inclined to use it.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Ooohhh, okay.

I get it- so, how do I know (for future recipes) what the conversion abilities are, in terms of volume? That way I can do these calculations, and not have to rely on you to bail me out.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I don't know all the diastatic powers of the different grains, but generally I count on 2-row to convert itself and half its weight (convertible starch) in "other stuff". The other diastatic grains I only count on to convert themselves.

When dealing with weird adjuncts (like sweet potatos) you have to find a reference such as the one I posted so that you can find out how much starch you're actually dealing with.

This is simplistic, but, frankly, that's what I need most of the time. You can search on 'malt diastatic power' on google and I bet you'll find a very specific chart somewhere.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Okay! Here I go, off to LHBS to make this baby happen. Wish me luck, gang!

 

[Chris_K]

Alright, you've had over 2 weeks, how did it turn out?

My friend and I are planning to try something like this over Thanksgiving break. Any sage advice?

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Well, I'm a couple states away from it, but here's what I can tell you from my brief taste when I put it in secondary (about a week ago and a half ago):

This is definitely a "session" beer; perhaps because I did not successfully convert all the starches, or perhaps because that's just the way it is, the overall ABV is in the neighborhood of 4%.

It tasted only vaguely sweet, only some suggestions of the caramelized S.P.

But it's very tasty- served pretty cold (around 40 F), and with good carbonation, it will be very pleasant to down a few in a sitting.

This MAY become the sort of thing I make year yound, just to have and to enjoy when I'm not feeling up for a soul-shattering porter.

 

[clayof2day]

I'm resurrecting this thread with a question as a friend and I are going to try out the sweet potato brau tomorrow. I'm peeling and boiling my potatoes before I "rice" them and bake them for the mash. Would you recommend (I guess this is directed at BrewPastor) the same cooking schedule (i.e. 425 for 1-1.5 hours)? Is that the suggestion that was given anyways, maybe I'm dumb, or tired, but I can't tell whether the original discussion included boiling first. Thanks.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

I would actually NOT boil them- treat it like you would the pumpkin in a pumpkin ale. You're going to want to convert the starches/get the sugars.

Just rice 'em up, caramelize for about an hour (mine started to burn, so watch that), and dump them in, if you're doing any sort of mash.

Hope that helps - Pastor can verify/correct me.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

So, I left out all of the spices. And I think I did not convert starches all that well? Because my OG was like 30 points lower. However, it's still quite tasty and can be enjoyed in quantity.

Also, to ME it tastes refreshingly bitter- you hopheads may want to jack the IBU's. I think the beer can stand it. Enjoy!

I Yam What I Yam Sweet Potato Ale

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.10
Anticipated OG: 1.085 Plato: 20.35
Anticipated SRM: 11.5
Anticipated IBU: 39.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Rager

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.0 2.00 lbs. Pale Malt(6-row) America 1.035 2
9.0 1.00 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
9.0 1.00 lbs. Vienna Malt America 1.035 4
4.5 0.50 lbs. Crystal 60L America 1.034 60
59.5 6.60 lbs. Briess DME- Gold America 1.046 8

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.50 oz. Cascade Pellet 5.75 36.2 60 min.
1.00 oz. Saazer Pellet 4.30 3.0 5 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP001 California Ale




Notes
-----

6 lbs Sweet Potato (Yam), "riced" into french-fry-shape, roasted at 425 F f
or 90 Mins.
---NOTE--- This burned some of the pieces. This seemed to add
GOOD taste notes to the beer.

 

[uwmgdman]

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but if you have any of the sweet potato brews left, pour one into a glass and post a picture!

 

[uwmgdman]

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but if you have any of the sweet potato brews left, pour one into a glass and post a picture!

bump....have any photos?

 

[Humulus]

I was at home one evening drinking a homebrew and enjoying some mashed sweet potatoes when I though I had a novel idea. I guess not.

I would like to brew a sweet potato beer this fall. I have a few questions:

If you used 6 lbs (I'm assuming for a 5 gallon batch), did you calculate the yield?

Did you run into any problems with a stuck sparge? I'm told that potatoes have a good degree of gelatin and can gum up your grain bed.

Did it come out well enough to brew 5 gallons, or would you suggest a smaller batch?

Any thoughts in retrospect about your choice of yeast/grains/hops? I'm thinking of approaching this as an American Ale/Pumpkin Ale with some Allspice.

 

[blacklab]

Captain. I am wondering if you could take a moment and explain to us what is happening in your avatar?

thanks for your consideration.

 

[landhoney]

Captain. I am wondering if you could take a moment and explain to us what is happening in your avatar?

thanks for your consideration.

I can answer that one, I remember the thread and the link, although not the exact website. It is what it looks like if you took away the cartoon drawing. It's from a hilarious series of X-rated photos 'edited' by drawing funny clothes/etc. over the naughty bits. In this case Dhalsim pulling Chun-Li's hair (from Street Fighter II) and.......

 

[bendavanza]

I'm brewing a sweet potato stout in the next couple days. I'll post the recipe when I finalize it but it looks like around 8lbs potatoes, which will be roasted heavily and smashed, added to the mash, and around 10lbs of base grain, 4lbs of specialty grains.
I may sub a few lbs of the base with 6 row for the enzymes.

 

[noiz2]

I have done a pumpkin beer and it was a mess but tasted good. For fruit in beers and such I have been using a "juicer" that strips off the fiber and I'm thinking that might work well for sweet potatoes. I'm not sure about the baking. I think it may caramelize the sugars and therefore make them un fermentable.

On the other hand from what I gather moonshiners boil the "mash" for a long time. I'm guessing this breaks down the starches since there doesn't seem to be any concern with "mashing".

So what I may try is to juice the sweet potatoes and then boil the result before adding it to the wort, and not mashing at all. Or rather just mashing the grains.

It might be better to boil all of it and then filter out the fiber but I'm not sure how I would practically do that.


Also if I remember correctly six row has like twice the enzymes as two row. So that is why people would be suggesting it.