Potatos?

[digdan]

Being from Idaho I'm haunted by our famous export. But if there is fame, I guess I might as well try to ride on its coat-tails...

I've read the (ancient) ramblings of Cary Jensen about potato beer, but I was hoping someone else could give me some insight on this. Also, at what point does 2-row grain become too weak in emzymes? How much adjunct would you need to use to justify switching to 6-row grain? Would you need to use rice hulls? Do you cookem, mashem, and stick em in a stew? What hops would best match "mashed potato"( I would assume citric wouldn't)? Stout? Lager? Will it have haze... just a couple of simple questions.

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[uglygoat]

i wanna put some tatties in a brew too...

i've read, no hands on experience, that you wanna peel em, cube em and boil them like before you mash them up with butter and cream, then add them to the main mash.

i would guess they are gonna haze up your beer pretty good, like oatmeal would, so i'd go with a stout or porter.

spicey hops i'd venture to say as well.

 

[Janx]

I have no idea what qualities potato would contribute, but I'd guess it would be very subtle if you noticed it at all.

My number one primo concern would be a stuck mash. There's a reason we normally use grains

2-row should have plenty of enzymes unless you're going more than 40% potato, at which point you'll have a mash tun full of mashed potatos that won't sparge anyway.

You'll probably want to mash and then cook the potato like you would a raw grain. Then add it to your main mash.

Rice hulls seem like a good idea to me.

What qualities are you hoping to get from potato in beer? Curious idea

 

[digdan]

I have no idea what qualities potato would contribute, but I'd guess it would be very subtle if you noticed it at all.

My number one primo concern would be a stuck mash. There's a reason we normally use grains

2-row should have plenty of enzymes unless you're going more than 40% potato, at which point you'll have a mash tun full of mashed potatos that won't sparge anyway.

You'll probably want to mash and then cook the potato like you would a raw grain. Then add it to your main mash.

Rice hulls seem like a good idea to me.

What qualities are you hoping to get from potato in beer? Curious idea

A good rounded product. Nothing that jumps out really. Just something someone can say "Thats a tastey beverage" and I could smirkishly announce "Its made with mashed tatters! Yeee-Haw!"

 

[uglygoat]

http://brewery.org/library/Potato.html

 

[digdan]

http://brewery.org/library/Potato.html

Thats the ancient ramblings of Cary Jensen I was talking about. I'm not sure how close I should hold that article to my heart. The person is obviously nuts

 

[Janx]

A good rounded product. Nothing that jumps out really. Just something someone can say "Thats a tastey beverage" and I could smirkishly announce "Its made with mashed tatters! Yeee-Haw!"

LOL...OK, well with goals like that I don't see how you can go wrong

Though I don't think you need taters to make "a good rounded product". Have fun!

 

[paul_beer]

I thought I would revive this old thread. Digdan, I was wondering if you ever made a potato beer? I have a friend who is a potato farmer and I want to make him a potato beer for his bachelor party. What did the beer taste like? Do the potatos add any character (all I can think of is vodka which has little flavour)? I don't want to compromise the taste of the beer but I thought it would be a nice twist.

 

[djamwolfe]

Well i have to think since potato is a streight starch - once converted in the mash youll have a whole boatload of fermentables. I guess we need to try it sometime.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Just wanted you guys to know that this weekend (Friday morning) I brewed a Sweet Potato ale. I did it as a mini-mash, which seemed to work okay. It tasted pretty light and relaxed, the OG was about 1.042, and it didn't taste overwhelmingly of sweet potato (yam, whatever)- but there is some in it, and the color is cool. Anyway, here it is:

“Thee Wages of Sinne” Sweet Potato Ale:
Partial-Mash

Grains/Starches:

1 lbs 6-row American barley malt, crushed
6-8 lbs Sweet potato (fresh, “riced”: roasted at 425 F for 90 minutes)
1 lb Munich malt
1 lb Vienna malt
½ lb crystal malt 60 L

Malt:

6.6 lbs Light LME

Hops:

1.5 oz 6% Cascade (60 mins)
1 oz Saaz (5 mins)

Yeast:

California Ale Yeast

Spices:

(Optional) 1-ish stick of cinnamon, in secondary. Or, create a “spice tea” and add in limited amounts at bottling.

Procedure:

Minimash the grains/starches (in 2 separate grain bags; the barley and potatoes in one, specialty malts in another) at 155 F for 35-40 minutes.

Proceed with boil as normal.

 

[paul_beer]

Thanks, P_funky, your idea is what got me thinking of potato beer. I think I will be following the progress of your beer closely! If you didn't get much sweet potato flavour I don't imagine the flavour of regular potatos will be any stronger. I think once midterms are done I might try a small test batch to see what kind of flavours I get. I want this to be a good beer first of all. I might be a little inexperienced to try a "weird" beer but it is worth a shot. I know my buddy would be impressed if it worked. I was thinking of using a potato variety with a stronger flavour like yukon gold or something like that. Next, I have to figure out if the potato taste is even good in beer! I know beer and french fries go well together so I can hope.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I had a Sweet Tater beer at the Moon River Pub in Savannah last Wednesday night. Couldn't taste the tater, but the ale was one of their better ones.

 

[david_42]

stoutbillys Potato Beer

10 gallon recipe that requires 2 oz. of amylase enzyme to pre-mash the potatoes. Sounds like a real pain to clear, I'd probably filter it.

 

[Cap'n Jewbeard]

Ah, very good! Very good! Coming from you ,"99", I hold out lots of hope for this brew.