# Has anyone tried to make Sweet Potato Beer/Wine?



## Chookers (17/4/16)

I have been reading that sweet potatoes have Beta amylase in them, and theoretically you could make sweet potato malt. Then naturally you would go on to make beer?

I have no experience with this, so I was wondering if anyone has made a sweet potato Malt, or Beer or Wine.. and if so please share results


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## mtb (17/4/16)

Looks like it's a viable prospect - see http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=339931

*Recipe Type:* All Grain
*Yeast:* 1968 London ESB
*Yeast Starter:* Yes.
*Batch Size (Gallons):* 5.5
*Original Gravity:* 1.057
*Final Gravity:* 1.01
*IBU:* 21.9
*Boiling Time (Minutes):* 60
*Color:* 8.6
*Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):* 21 @ 69
*Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):* N/A
*Tasting Notes:* Moderate sweet potato flavor comes through.

9# Maris Otter 
.75# Honey Malt
.25# Biscuit Malt
.25# Acid Malt (to water condition)
6# Roasted Sweet Potato mash, burnt crunchies and all
.5 oz. Magnum hops
1/2 tsp calcium chloride in mash (to condition water)
Efficiency = 82%
mash @ 154 for 60 mins


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## TimT (17/4/16)

No, interesting idea though. It often benefits chucking this sort of stuff in the mash anyway - like you do with pumpkin beer, chestnut beer, or (sometimes) beetroot beer.


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## Chookers (17/4/16)

do you think you could get enough reaction just from the sweet potato so you wouldn't have to add any malt barley?


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## TimT (18/4/16)

You wouldn't be making a beer then, you'd be making a wine. But I'm not sure how much you'd need to mash just with sweet potato alone anyway as it's - well, obviously - so *sweet* that you may not need to turn much starch into sugar.


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## TimT (18/4/16)

Lots of things seem to have some amylase in them. Obviously the moot question is how much. It would be interesting to know more about this little enzyme - how it comes about, how simple it is molecularly, and so on.


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## TimT (18/4/16)

"Pancreatic alpha amylase." Aw. Look at the cutesy-wutesy liddle thing. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycoside_hydrolase#/media/Fileancreatic_alpha-amylase_1HNY.png


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## Mardoo (18/4/16)

I made a pancreas beer once. I dry spleened it.


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## manticle (18/4/16)

All mine gets put through my hepatic filtration system


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## Fourstar (18/4/16)

See an example Sweet Potato Porter i made a few months back. The beer turned out great but lacked any noticeable sweet potato character when finished.

I'd def try it in a lighter beer like an ESB or even a saison as i had originally stumbled upon. it didn't gum up the mash like pumpkin does either.

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/89247-what-are-you-brewing-2016/?p=1350585 
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/89247-what-are-you-brewing-2016/?p=1350646


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## Chookers (21/4/16)

Thanks guys.. nice to see I'm not the only mad scientist out there :blink:

I also found this interesting idea of using ginger to get Alpha Amylase.

http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=3737

I'm sure somewhere in all this shizzle there's an awesome beer just waiting to be uncovered.


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## TimT (21/4/16)

Intriguing, maybe another reason for traditional brews like ginger beer.


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## Chookers (22/4/16)

well I have done a sample batch, I used around 700g of sweet potato and held it at mash temp for around 90 mins at that time it had no conversion at all so I added 5 drops of dry enzyme and kept it at temp for another 90mins, when I checked its preboil sg was 1.010 I boiled it down to less than half volume to get 1.030 I added a few grams of hops for the last 30mins.. the end result was roughly 2L, 1/3rd of this is crud.. I put some coopers ale yeast in and it is bubbling away, smells really good, I hope that's a good sign. This brew also had one grated green banana skin on and 1/2 of cooked mixed grain porridge added to the mash.

It looks good, I'm just sorry I didn't get the OG higher, I know I could have added some other fermentables, but I really wanted to see how far I could get.

I know the results would have been a lot better had I added some Ale malt to get the enzymes, I would also have to blend the potato finer next time I do it. I will be doing this again, but I am going to study more before my next attempt.


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## TimT (22/4/16)

There may have been a number of issues - how did you treat the sweet potato before (did you just grate it into the water? Did you boil it/bake it beforehand?) How did the sweet potato affect the water pH? Perhaps the mash would have benefited from a starch rest?


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## TimT (22/4/16)

I made chestnut beer recently, and instead of the chestnuts adding an expected couple of points to the OG of the beer (after mash and boil), I think they actually *detracted* from it. My theory is the chestnuts somehow screwed up the water pH during mash or, maybe, some of the chestnutty fats or proteins interfered with the proper action of the enzyme in the grain.


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## Chookers (22/4/16)

I grated the sweet potato and then followed the same steps as my wheat beer, I wanted to cook the potatoes starches but not destroy the enzymes..

I made a second attempt at cooking the potato, this time in the oven at 70 degrees for two hours it was still not cooked, but sweet honey like liquid had begun to seep out around the edges, I tasted some and I believe it was the malted starch, but I did not continue cooking.. power bill would have been too high.. I think the dammed thing would have had to be in there for 5 hours at least.. I had my meat thermometer in it to make sure I didn't go over the temp (75 degrees is enzyme death, right?)

I don't know what the PH was I have no kit to test.


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## rude (22/4/16)

I dont mind mashing sweet potatoe but then I just eat it

Sorry about that one but just woke up couldnt resist


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## Chookers (22/4/16)

lol :lol:


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## Mardoo (22/4/16)

TimT said:


> I made chestnut beer recently, and instead of the chestnuts adding an expected couple of points to the OG of the beer (after mash and boil), I think they actually *detracted* from it. My theory is the chestnuts somehow screwed up the water pH during mash or, maybe, some of the chestnutty fats or proteins interfered with the proper action of the enzyme in the grain.


How did you prepare them? Bridge Road makes a great chestnut beer. DJ_L3thal has cloned it, so it's definitely possible.


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## TimT (22/4/16)

Roast the chestnuts, shucked them out of their shells, then for good measure boiled the shells in a bit of water first before using that to mash the ground up chestnuts and grain. It was based on a recipe I found online which had similar measures (though I misread it at first, as they just boiled the chestnuts BEFORE roasting them, and then did the mash in the previously boiled water). 

The wort was/is VERY cloudy and does taste appreciably chestnutty, which is good enough for me!


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## TimT (22/4/16)

Here's the recipe I was using.


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## Mardoo (22/4/16)

Was that the Beersmith one?


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## TimT (22/4/16)

Fifth comment down in link. It gives you a brown/portery ale.


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## yankinoz (22/4/16)

To me it sounds disgusting, but some seem to like it. Many of my countrymen brew and love pumpkin ale, but I fled to Australia to escape from it. They're probably Trump voters.


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## TimT (22/4/16)

Never call me a Trump voter, but I'm planning to do a pumpkin ale soon.


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## Chookers (22/4/16)

I found a recipe for Cock Ale AKA 'Capon Ale' in my book 'A Sip Through Time' by Cindy Renfrow.. some recipes add the Chook boiled, some add it raw.. I always thought what I'd do with my chooks once they stopped laying..

Please no dick jokes -_-


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## Chookers (22/4/16)

one of the recipes for Cock Ale calls for 2 quarts of Sack wine and 1 Large old cock.. in the method it says "the older the better"

Damn! I said no joke..

I couldn't help myself.


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## TimT (22/4/16)

Yes, cock ale is an old recipe and, judging from the amount of times it turns up in old books, quite a popular one. I want to do one myself some time. 

The secret is apparently in breaking the bones up, which releases all this gelatine into the brew, thus clarifying it. That and presumably the boiled chook taste.


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## Chookers (22/4/16)

sounds a bit vomity...

I wouldn't be brave enough to try it


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## Chookers (23/4/16)

I just found this http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=154306

which has a method for making Sweet Potato Malt... very interesting.. this is what I will try next.. only thing is I need the quantities


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## Chookers (7/5/16)

so I tried to make some sweet potato beer and it took a lot of potato to get a decent OG. anyway it tasted quite awful and had the consistency of saliva.. so all in all a disaster.

I would not recommend making sweet potato beer.. Glad I only made a very small amount..


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## altone (26/5/16)

Why aim for a barley beer OG with sweet potato ?

I mean if you were making a Shiraz you'd probably aim at 1.08 to 1.12 for an OG

Maybe sweet potato beer needs a lower OG and will keep fermenting to a very low FG.

I know potato based vodka starts at a quite low OG of course I haven't tried to make it as it's not legal to do so in Aus 

I might try a 5l brew next time we have an overabundance of sweet potatoes - using that linked method for extraction.

I'll just go for a decent amount of mash and not worry about the OG.

As for your cock beer - I get food poisoning walking past KFC so no chicken in my fermenters .

Cheers

edit and ps.. Just boil those boys and non layers and make some heartwarming soup instead.


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## xflibble (22/2/21)

You can totally make a beer with sweet potato only. You were on the right track baking. Just go longer then wash the sugar out.


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