Graham Cracker Porter?

[Goblet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propylene_glycol

Generally regarded as safe. Haven't ever used these flavor drops, so couldn't really attest to their quality.

Graham crackers also contain artificial flavors, partially hydrogenated soybean oil -- yum yum. And what are most breakfast cereals but sugar, artificial flavors, and preservatives?

Anyway, has anyone actually made this recipe, and how did it turn out?

 

[bovineblitz]

I liked the Schlafly beers more than the Morgan Street ones. I toured their brewery and had the 80 Shilling, the American Pale (different from their Pale Ale) and the Oatmeal Stout. The APA is right on the money, and the other two werent bad either. I picked up some others to take home as well.

I am trying to make it down to the tap room but I may not have time.

- magno

LOVE their APA

 

[hedonist91]

i absolutely agree, especially after using the capella graham cracker extract. in small amounts it's fun for a secret spice or sorts, BUT it does contain propylene glycol a/k/a anti freeze in it. "Ingredients: Natural & Artificial flavor, propylene glycol, water, and/or caramel color." it also has made the beers taste thin, but that could be a separate matter from adjuncts.

If you look on the shelves at the grocer, a lot of the imitation extracts have propylene glycol in them. If they weren't safe in small amounts, they wouldnt' be there, but honestly, is it that hard to take some vanilla beans and scrape them out, if you need vanilla? It's so much richer, and then you're actually using vanilla, not vanillin and propylene glycol, isolated in a lab.

 

[jessup]

So this is looking like this?

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 64.8 %
2 lbs Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 21.6 %
10.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 6.8 %
6.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 4.1 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2.7 %
1.00 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 16.6 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (20 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
0.50 oz Tettnang [4.50%] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1 Pkgs German Lager (White Labs #WLP830) Yeast-Lager

1/10 oz Graham Cracker Food Flavoring (water soluble) at flame out

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.049 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.9 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.6 %
Bitterness: 21.6 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 37.3 SRM

i'll give this a shot since i have the majority of the ingredients around. i don't have Tettnag and i'm not going to lager this jammy, though. hallertau or williamette sub and probably use wyeasta london ale III or scottish. oh, and sub 4 lbs Wheat DME for the pale malt. so...it'll be a completely different beer, but whatever, i'm far from a purist i'll get back to you in a month. 3 if i keg it

2 things about the recipe. i seriously doubt that it's really only 43 cal/pint. and 1/10th or .1 oz of graham cracker extract is 25% of the bottle. that's a LOT of extract! i used about 30-40 drops in my pumpkin and it's very prominent.

 

[hedonist91]

Who here wants to see my Graham Cracker Cheesecake Recipe?

All my buddies have no clue how to make a graham cracker flavored cheesecake. Here's the recipe though, keep it under wraps. I've been making cheesecakes, and carefully crafting their flavor my whole life.


Ingredients:
<Insert standard Cheesecake Recipe here>
5 drops of Graham Cracker flavor from some supplier I wouldn't have found without the advent of Google.

1. Do the recipe like the box says.
2. Before throwing in oven, put drops of flavoring in. Shhh!





Who here wants to see my Graham Cracker apple pie Recipe?

All my buddies have no clue how to make a graham cracker flavored apple pie. Here's the recipe though, keep it under wraps. I've been making apple pies, and carefully crafting their flavor my whole life.


Ingredients:
<Insert standard Apple Pie Recipe here>
5 drops of Graham Cracker flavor from some supplier I wouldn't have found without the advent of Google.

1. Do the recipe like the box says.
2. Before throwing in oven, put drops of flavoring in. Shhh!



Hey, who here wants to see my graham cracker water recipe?

All my buddies have no clue how to make a graham cracker flavored water. Here's the recipe though, keep it under wraps. I've been taking spring water, filtering it and treating it my whole life, purchasing several real estate properties to carefully hone my water-making skills, and developing the flavor my whole life.

<Insert standard Cheesecake Recipe here>
5 drops of Graham Cracker flavor from some supplier I wouldn't have found without the advent of Google.

1. Get water.
2. Before throwing in bottle, put drops of flavoring in. Shhh!



Please, don't let everyone know that I'm taking the most prominent and defining ingredient (it's actually in the ****ing name) in my beer and creating a beer around this ingredient that I conveniently pass-off to another person to create and inserting in my creation and calling it my own!

Please, don't let them know that it has nothing to do with the fact that my porter is only half-way decent and I've found out the way to get a graham cracker flavor in, not having anything to do with my brewing valor, yet just my ability to google something, and then when someone asks an actual legitimate question on homebrewtalk.com, I'll smugly and passive-agressively post www.lmgtfy.com / <whatever they're asking that I think is stupid> / home.htm .

Please, don't let anyone know that I've given up on making a decent beer and only 1 and half year in to making all-grains, I've given into the "feed it to impressed neighbors and coworkers" influence and throw an eyedropper of Graham Cracker flavoring in my beer.

Show me a bud light, gimme Red #10, and I'll make you and your buddies an Irish Red you never knew could be so smooth. In fact, why don't you just rename the beer?

You know what? I'm gonna post a recipe for a "Red Continental Pilsner." There will be a striking similarity in the way that I've arrived at the recipe to the way that this recipe has in fact, unashamedly it seems, been derived.

 

[hedonist91]

Please, for the love of God, don't tell me that this is the way that you get the Cherry, Blueberry and Pecan in your beer like your signature implies. That would be a sure sign that I need to seek knowledge in a hole in the ground, rather than the proverbial alternative that it seems the world's collective head is up. Maybe not so much in other threads.

 

[hedonist91]

Why don't you guys PM the Kai and see what he thinks about throwing food flavoring in a triple decoction Hef? Maybe the thought of doing something so "out of the box" will rock his zymurgistic world. I'm sure it'll be a huge surprise to him, because you know, it's so creative and all, to put some food flavoring in your beer, I can't imagine that he's ever even thought about something like that. That's just so...soo....maaan....def PM the Kai.

Food flavoring in a beverage.....wow. Good stuff...now we're certainly breaking ground in the wide world of brewing.

 

[Goblet]

Well, that was just bizarre. "Brewing valor", stolen recipes, etc. Get a grip, hedonist91. And, FYI, most cheesecakes do use vanilla extract rather than vanilla beans. But if you want to pay for, soak, and scrape out vanilla beans, then go for it. I just did two holiday beers with vanilla beans, myself.

It's seems not right to object to one artificial ingredient and actually imply that the company's product is hazardous (no, it's not the same thing as older anti-freezes) while not acknowledging that the title ingredient, graham crackers, also contains artificial ingredients, plus fat. I'm not saying don't use graham crackers. In fact, I hope the breakfast cereal beers tasted good too.

Really, if you don't like the recipe, don't make it. Post your own "breaking ground in the wide world of brewing" recipe for Graham Cracker Porter.

 

[hedonist91]

Well, that was just bizarre. "Brewing valor", stolen recipes, etc. Get a grip, hedonist91. And, FYI, most cheesecakes do use vanilla extract rather than vanilla beans. But if you want to pay for, soak, and scrape out vanilla beans, then go for it. I just did two holiday beers with vanilla beans, myself.

It's seems not right to object to one artificial ingredient and actually imply that the company's product is hazardous (no, it's not the same thing as older anti-freezes) while not acknowledging that the title ingredient, graham crackers, also contains artificial ingredients, plus fat. I'm not saying don't use graham crackers. In fact, I hope the breakfast cereal beers tasted good too.

Really, if you don't like the recipe, don't make it. Post your own "breaking ground in the wide world of brewing" recipe for Graham Cracker Porter.

Hey man,

I'm not talking about stealing recipes, and I didn't imply anything was hazardous. I only implied that it was a complete cop-out.

I understand that graham crackers in fact do contain artificial ingredients, however graham flour, certainly is not artificial. Even I, through all my self righteous time-consuming mockery, don't have time to back up every single one of my sentences with sources or explanation. After all, I am starting a flame war because I can't seem to put a cork in my overactive set of gums.

Anywho, I think I said everything my "point" wanted to say. I'll stick to making sure my wort has a heatlhy ppm of O2, and be a ***** to minute scientific measurements and choose not to heavy-handedly dose it with straight up flavor extract and leave that to BMC. Btw, how do you think they came up with bud light lime? A decade of experiments using freshly picked limes?

What this is, here, is the same thing. Anyway, I guess I'm beating a dead horse, and.-
I apologize, I'm sitting here saying I'm not going to dis people's preferences and then in the next breath I did.

Free country, sorry people.

 

[hedonist91]

You know what? "Get a grip" aside, I should have just never posted in this thread. You, sir, are correct. Sorry hbt.com. that's not what this place is about.

 

[jessup]

Just got off the phone with Mark Gottfried - the brewer at Morgan Street Brewery in St. Louis. He was an extremely nice guy and was very knowledgable about his beers. In fact, he was not at all weird about divulging information about the Graham Cracker Porter. He even told me the story of its creation and his initial failures when attempting to use low-fat graham crackers to flavor the beer.

Anyway, he uses a Graham Cracker flavoring that he is able to purchase. He is sending me his recipe, and for that I am very appreciative.

Further, he lagers his Porter! Since Morgan Street is a lager brewery, he decided to lager the porter. I am going to brew it up fairly soon, and I will keep ya'll updated if you want.

Even I, through all my self righteous time-consuming mockery, don't have time to back up every single one of my sentences with sources or explanation. After all, I am starting a flame war because I can't seem to put a cork in my overactive set of gums.

Really, if you don't like the recipe, don't make it. Post your own "breaking ground in the wide world of brewing" recipe for Graham Cracker Porter.

if we were to use traditional ingredients of brown sugar and vanilla, all that would be left is the vanilla. brown sugar ferments out almost completely and leaves very little taste behind as is the case with most adjuncts. a little molasses might help, but couldn't say since i haven't tried it in this recipe. i typically use fresh ALL NATURAL ingredients, but with these strange recipes that are a bit more tricky to nail, i cheat and take the easy way out. i'm assuming the Morgan Street Brewery has tried all their options and they've opted to use artificial ingredients. big whoop in cases like bananas foster and s'more beer i'm going to using flavor extracts and i don't see a problem with that. if you're above using extracts, then brew a recipe that will compete and we'll give that a shot. until then, move along... in all those posts (7 in total) i don't see 1 worthwhile addition to help get the product we're reaching for. how about a creative thought about how to brew this recipe without extracts after all, the idea for using the extract came from the Morgan Street Brewery and the beer we are trying to replicate!

 

[jeremyc50]

Graham cracker

http://www.naturesflavors.com/product_info.php?cPath=&products_id=7344

 

[raptorvan]

Well...I just checked this thread again and...what was the verdict? Did it all pan out for you? I love creative stout/ porter recipes and now I'm eager to hear the results

 

[BRUbaker]

I just found this thread, read this thread, and realized there are no results posted! Ugh!

Ok, i'll try but with an Extract Brown Ale instead. Hey, it's what i did...
We were experimenting with flavors and wanted Graham cracker and a hint of vanilla. I can't remember where we got the recipe but is was online.
For the graham cracker flavor we used...Graham Crackers! 28oz of Nabisco Honey Maid Graham Crackers; which is two entire boxes. Which was placed in a separate muslin bag apart from the specialty grains. Steeped for one hour. The cracker turned to mush but careful handling keeps the sludge in the bag. Crackers out at end of steep. The house smell better than any house ever has in all of history!

Also added 1 oz of roasted oak chips to secondary for 2.5 weeks for vanilla

Bottled today. Graham flavor definitely present. Very sweet & biscuity. Stetting aside for 2 or 3 months to age. Don't know yet if used enough graham cracker. We want to mix this with still more flavors, chocolate & smoke (if you know what i mean...). So we need a strong cracker taste.

Was wondering if i could add an additional box of crackers into primary on the third day or so. When main yeast has taken over so not to risk infection. Need to read some more.

...

Here's that original recipe. This guy knows what he's doing..(Multiple - Slim's Graham Cracker Ale 2.0

 

[etrain666]

I have made two batches of Graham Cracker brown. First batch won best in show on my local home brew comp. I was not looking for an over powering "s'more" type of flavor, but a subtle smoothness the graham flavor can add to what ended up being an 8.3% big brown. Anyway, I mashed the grains with 2 pounds of crackers and a healthy addition of rice hulls. During the boil I added brown sugar and just a hint of cocoa.

 

[wohldmad]

You didn't have any issues with head retention on your brown? Heard fats can kill it.

 

[bovineblitz]

You didn't have any issues with head retention on your brown? Heard fats can kill it.

I heard that too. And then I used almost a pound of hops, and the oils didn't kill the head retention. Then I used a tennis ball sized ball of citrus zest, and the oils didn't kill the head retention. Then I used 2 pounds of peanuts in a 1 gallon batch, and the oils didn't kill the head retention.

Make of it what you will.