S'More Beer?

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Ksosh

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Anyone ever try brewing a smore beer?
I'm thinking toasted marshmallow flavor, graham cracker, and chocolate shouldn't be that hard to replicate in a (sweet stout?) beer.

Anyone want to chime in on what to use for the marshmallow and graham cracker ingredients? Chocolate is easy, and they do have marshmallow extract, but I don't know how good that would be or when to add it (secondary?)

Anyhow, please gimme some ideas for this one.
-Kelly
 
You may be able to add graham crackers (or the ingredients to make them) to your mash, especially if made them yourself and knew there was nothing bad for your beer in them.
 
According to a quick google search for graham cracker recipie, you should just be able to add the flavor components (cinnamon, honey, molasses, vanilla) in the right ratio to get "graham cracker taste". Marshmallow taste is pretty much vanilla anyway, so just add a bit extra from the "graham cracker" part.
 
I'd probably use some lactose and vanilla to cover the marshmallow flavor. Then something with a bready/biscuity flavor to get the graham cracker and maybe a bit of cinnamon. Maybe 5% biscuit or victory or even using maris otter as the base malt
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

This is what I came up with, more comments/suggestions welcome:

Partial Mash (or extract w/specialty grains, depending on how I feel that day) -

Pre-boil:
1.5 lbs flaked oats (for body/maybe flavor)
1 lb biscuit malt (graham flavor?)
1 lb special roast (campfire flavor)
1 lb chocolate malt (chocolate flavor)

60 minute Boil:
3 lbs 3 oz Dark LME
1 lb lactose
8 oz Molasses
8 oz Brown Sugar (Dark)

1 oz Williamette @ 15 mins
12 oz cocoa powder @ 15 mins (chocolate flavor)
.1 oz cinnamon stick @ 5 mins

1 lb Honey
1 tsp (?) vanilla extract
1 pkg Safale US-05 Yeast

I figure primary for 3-4 weeks, maybe a 1 week secondary depending on how much cocoa powder is floating around, then bottle for 3-4 more.
 
If you really want the "campfire" taste, special roast isn't going to do it for you, maybe put in 8oz of smoked malt instead, or even 4oz if you don't want the taste too present and more in the background.

Also, IIRC biscuit and flaked oats really need to be in a minimash with some 2-row and as such can't be steeped, you won't get much from them.
 
*bump*

Sooooo ksocia, I noticed that your signature says you have made the aforementioned beer. So how's that going? What was the final recipe?
 
It's still bottle conditioning, so I haven't tried it (plus I'm out of town currently), but here's what I ended up with:

Partial mash:
1 lb biscuit malt
1 lb chocolate malt
12 oz flaked oats
8 oz crystal 80
8 oz pale 2 row malt
8 oz special roast
4 oz smoked malt
(looking back, I should have used more pale 2 row)

Then add:
3 lbs 2.5 oz Dark LME (boil 60 mins)
1 lb milk sugar/lactose (boil 60 mins)
5.5 oz Dark Brown Sugar (boil 60 mins)
10 oz Molasses (boil 60 mins)
1 oz williamette hops (boil 15 mins)
1 Whirlfloc tablet (boil 15 mins)
12 oz cocoa powder (boil 15 mins)
1 lb honey (boil 5 mins)
.2 oz cinnamon sticks (2 sticks) – (boil 5 mins)

Cool, then pitch:
1 package dry Safeale US-05

21 day primary @ 68 degrees

Add 2.5 tsp vanilla extract to empty secondary container and siphon beer on top
Secondary for 1 week

Bottle using ~4 oz of corn sugar

At bottling time, it didn't taste very 'smore' like, but I could definitely taste the chocolate and vanilla flavor. Hopefully carbonation, chilling, and extra time will help everything meld together. I'll know in another couple weeks.

As an FYI, I'm glad I used a secondary/clearing vessel, as the cocoa powder had created a sludge at the bottom of the primary. In doing so, I lost about 1/3 of a gallon or so of wort that was soaked into the cocoa powder and misc sludge, but it was totally worth it to get rid of the nasty stuff.
 
I say get the Graham Cracker taste ans chocolate working then plop a mashmellow in it ........Kinda like you plop a citrus fuit in a wit beer to accentuate the citrus.

All a mashmellow is made of is egg whites and sugar.

I have got to try this........ I am going to try to do a 3 gallon batch for my small corny keg, I will definitely let the people here know how it comes out.

Thanks for the idea :)
 
Just tried one of the s'more beers. Keep in mind it's only been bottled for about 10 days, and I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to tastes/texture/etc.

Head: Decent light tan colored foam, decent carbination considering it's only been a week and a half, but head doesn't retain very long. Only put in the bottle in the fridge about 6 hours prior to tasting, so another day or two in the fridge (after another 2 weeks in the bottle) might fix some of these issues.

Color: Very dark brown, opaque except around the edges, relatively clear from what I can tell (no floating bits)

Smell: Very sweet, chocolate smell, with a hint of a sweet/honey/biscuit smell. Could maybe pass for graham cracker... maybe. Little bit of a smokey smell in the background

Taste: Sweet, smokey chocolate up front, the biscuit taste comes through with a sweet vanilla (I assume) aftertaste. Not really a marshmellow taste, but could maybe be a graham cracker and melted/campfire cooked chocolate combination.

Texture: Interesting... chewy and complex on the tongue, but not very heavy. Is it possible to have a somewhat light-but-chewy beer?

Overall: Would definitely make again, but might tinker with the honey and marshmallow/vanilla flavors so they are more pronounced, and cut back a little on the biscuit. I'd give it a 35/50 if I had to assign an overall number (or a 50/50 if I was a judge in the HBT contest :) )

I'll post again in a few weeks when it's had enough time to bottle condition appropriately. BTW: came out to ~5.5% ABV
 
Next time use Meadowfoam Honey. Tastes like marshmallow/vanilla.
+1

Somewhere in the Burnt Mead thread, the associated video, or the Charlie Papazian article (couldn't find it on short notice), someone mentioned that their burnt mead gave off a marshmallow flavor, so how about adding some burnt honey to the next batch?
 
I would advise against a beer like this. I just tried a Creme Brule stout last weekend at Smokin' Joes on the South Side of Pittsburgh. It was high ABV but the sweetness was God awful and overpowering. Like sucking down a bottle of isopropyl 90% with concentrated candle scent. Cripes... I think I am going to throw up just reliving that experience.
 
I love my sweet beers, so this one is just right for me. Brooklyn chocolate stout is top 3 for me, easily, if that tells you anything. But yes, this was very, very sweet and not for hopheads.
 
Beer's been bottled for a few weeks now, and it tastes great. It's super chocolately and sweet, and not hoppy at all, which is how I like it. Can taste some of the honey and graham in the background, but it isn't very strong. Definitely would need tweaking to your own tastes, and it isn't quite the s'more flavor I was expecting, but it's still good.
 
Have you tried making the recipe again with changes yet?

Not yet, though my beer brewing has slowed to a trickle recently. This is on my way back burner, as there's a bunch of other things I want to brew and/or tweak beforehand.

This was good, just not what I was expecting.
 
So here I am trolling through the new post pages, and come upon this thread. What a coincidence!
Last night my wife and I plus another couple went to Winterfest in St. Paul Minnesota. It is a brew sampling event with most every brewery in Minnesota. Each year one beer is chosen to receive the snow shoe award, the best in show so to speak.

Guess what the beer was........
A smore flavored porter. It was fantastic. It tasted like I was drinking an honest smore. It was called Grand Design.
The brewery is Flat Earth Brewery from St Paul. The beer was their normal Cygnus X-1 porter, with infused flavors to make it taste like a smore. I talked with the brewer, but did not push him to find out what was in it.
Very interesting coincidence.
 
Weird! I'll have to snoop around Flat Earth Brewery's website (assuming they have one).
 
i think this recipe deserves a reincarnation bump. i'm gonna do my own twist on this recipe cheating with the special flavoring stolen from capella.
grahamcracker15ml.jpg
marshmallow15ml.jpg


capella is awesome for these dessert beers. yumyumyum:D
 
Make sure you update this thread to give us the results.
i'm curious as to what the OP, ksosh, has to say about the rest of the batch after it aged a while. many of these dessert beer ingredients aren't apparent at first but come on strong after a few weeks to months after bottling.

i'll def keep ya'll updated. i've gotta few other beers to try b4 i delve into this one.
 
I've got to give this a bump, since I've been wanting to do a S'more beer for a little while myself. I was hoping to brew it first, then share my results, but I think i can still contribute something of significance; a few people have mentioned using some burnt honey or sugar, which is along the lines of what first inspired me to do a S'more beer.

A while back I was toying with the idea of caramelizing my priming sugar to give some extra caramel flavour to my Irish Red. So I caramelized my dextrose and realized two things. First, even though I was using a candy/deep-fry thermometer, I over-caramelized the sugar a little bit by leaving it on the heat too long. It wasn't black, but a little over-toasted. Second, I realized that the 'caramel' we generally get in candy is probably sucrose, not dextrose. (And maybe third, caramelizing your priming sugar is probably unnecessary and possibly detrimental to priming?).

However, I did notice that the end result smelled just like roasted marshmallows. Which makes sense, because marshmallows (and just about every other candy) are made from corn sugar, and when you toast the 'mallows, you're basically caramelizing them (unless you like to full-on flambé). Therefor, using caramelized corn-sugar in a beer should give you a nice toasted marshmallow flavour (light bulb!).

The grain bill I'm putting together isn't too far off the ones posted already. I brew all-grain, so I'm thinking of something along these lines (for a 6 gallon batch):

9.0 lb ESB malt
1.0 lb wheat malt

1.0 lb biscuit malt
0.75 lb honey malt
0.4 lb chocolate malt
0.1 lb smoked malt

1.0 lb barley flakes
1.0 lb wheat flakes

1.0 lb caramelized dextrose
4.0 oz. cocoa
(both near end of boil)

and maybe 1 or 2 oz of cocoa in the secondary

I figure the wheat, biscuit and honey is a good start to try and get the graham cracker taste, and I went a little easy on the chocolate (compared to what's been posted) because I really want the marshmallow to come through. The reason for so little smoked malt is that the caramelized sugar should give some toasty flavour and I use that much roasted barley in my IRA, so I figured it would be a good starting point for smoked malt as well, rather than use too much and turn it into a sweet rauchbier.

Haven't thought about hops or yeast yet, but I'll probably just go with a basic bittering hop and a good british-style strain from Wyeast. Also, I'm not sure when I'll be brewing this; I just did a California Common, and next up is probably an IPA, hopefully the first week of October. But since I posted it on here I feel obligated (in a good way) to brew it before too long. I'm thinking mid-October, so late November there may be a new thread.

And yes, I always want S'more beer.
 
just thinking about this a bit, i know it would be more work, but what about doing this as a 2 part beer. somthing Ala Black and tan, keep the FG higher on one, so that it will stay more as a base. I'm a bit new to brewing, but think it may be an interesting shot
 
just thinking about this a bit, i know it would be more work, but what about doing this as a 2 part beer. somthing Ala Black and tan, keep the FG higher on one, so that it will stay more as a base. I'm a bit new to brewing, but think it may be an interesting shot


If you're HB setup would allow this, rock on. Sounds awesome. I guess someone with a smaller setup like myself could do a 3g/3g mix.


Question for those up above: whats the best way to caramelize your chosen sugar? Sauce pan until a certain temp?
 
Short's Brewing out of Bellaire (one of my local breweries) makes a S'Mores Stout.

From what I recall he actually does use crushed graham cracker and marshmallow fluff in the boil and / or mash.

Joe's a super cool guy and very active in our local homebrew clubs around here. You could try e-mailing him to see if he'd possibly give a few hints.
 
Posting a quick update to the thread: The beer is now over a year old and it's interesting. It's not quite a smore, and VERY sweet, but good. Definitely a dessert beer. I think if it had more marshmallow taste (however the hell you get that...) and a little less chocolate it would be spot on.
 
From what I recall he actually does use crushed graham cracker and marshmallow fluff in the boil and / or mash.
so simple it's brilliant!:D i think this may be up next since i've got WY scottish washed @ waiting and i think that'll go well.
 
i'm brewing this right now. right now i'm trying to figure out when to add the marshmallow fluff i have. i have three bottles - 39 oz total - of fluff to put in this recipe along with 8 oz cocoa, 1 box graham crackers, and then i also have graham cracker & marshmallow extract if i want to add a few extra drops at bottling. i want an aphrodite (dieu de ciel) type after flavor.

i used the link on page 3 as well as the OP's recipe on page 1:
10 oz caramunich
10 oz carafa III
.5 lb flaked oats
.5 lb biscuit
6 oz chocolate
4 oz crystal 120L
4 oz chocolate wheat
~5 lb wheat dme 1/2 as late addition
~2 oz willamette 60/15 min
12 oz brown sugar 10 min
1 box graham crackers - dissolved seperately added @ flameout
1.5 jar marshmallow fluff - dissolved seperately added @ flameout
Wyeast Scottish washed
*add 8 oz cocoa & 1.5 jar marshmallow fluff after primary ends
**carbonate with vanilla sugar and add few drops extract
 
I seriously hate you guys... Here I am, all content with my next brew being an attempt at a tasty Chai Brown Ale and what do I stumble across? S'more beer! Two of the greatest things in the world mashed into one delicious treat that you don't even have to chew! Stop tempting me with these things! My brain is all confused and now I don't know what to brew!
 
Joe's a super cool guy and very active in our local homebrew clubs around here. You could try e-mailing him to see if he'd possibly give a few hints.

Joe Short is the man. I've talked to him a few times and he's always been super friendly and willing to share tips. I talked to him once about his peanut butter stout in regards to the oil, and in classic Short's fashion his response was, "I just roll with it". I've asked him questions via e-mail a few times as well and he's always responded. Great guy and awesome brewer. He's definitely a man after my own heart - make something crazy that's never been done before.
 
the toughest part of the recipe was getting the marshmallow fluff to dissolve into the water. it was just a frothy foam that wouldn't go into solution for quite some time. the pot of graham crackers and fluff ended up super thick and chunky. i dumped into the 1/2 gal of infused grahamallow into the batch of wort at flameout and then siphoned to the carboy which left a lot of the graham crackers behind since they couldn't be siphoned successfully. it's fermenting violently with the washed scottish yeast cake and ended up with an OG of 1.068. in a few days i'll probably add some vanilla beans, more fluff, more graham crackers and the 8 oz of cocoa.
 
so i added more fluff, more graham crackers and the 8 oz cocoa. yesterday i took a photo of this monstrosity and talk about loss of beer. you can actually see that layers of ingredients.
DSC00270.jpg

25% loss is why sometimes extract make sense...
DSC00269.jpg

yummy:mug: vanilla bean will go into secondary when i rerack for extra goodness. i'm thinking 8 oz cocoa is gonna be tough on the fluff. we'll see.
 
so i added more fluff, more graham crackers and the 8 oz cocoa. yesterday i took a photo of this monstrosity and talk about loss of beer. you can actually see that layers of ingredients.
DSC00270.jpg

25% loss is why sometimes extract make sense...
DSC00269.jpg

yummy:mug: vanilla bean will go into secondary when i rerack for extra goodness. i'm thinking 8 oz cocoa is gonna be tough on the fluff. we'll see.

That looks awesome!
 
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