Carrot Ale. Mashing with caramelised carrots.

[jyo]

I've been thinking about something like this for months. I have Googled lots, and people have been mainly fermenting carrot juice. Doesn't really appeal to me.

I aim to slice them and roast them in the oven until browned and caramelised, then mash/blend and add straight to the mash. 15% is a good starting point, I think. This could turn out to be utterly disgusting, but I'm quietly confident. I though about adding spice, but will give it a miss this time round.
I hope the awesome roasted caremelised flavours will come through. We all love a roast, yeah?

I'm thinking it may be difficult to caramelise them without any oil (which would obviously ruin head retention), so could possibly use a bit of water and honey to keep them from drying out and burning in the oven.

Thoughts?

Carrot Ale August 2013
Mild

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 23.0
Total Grain (kg): 4.000
Total Hops (g): 20.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.035 (°P): 8.8
Final Gravity (FG): 1.009 (°P): 2.3
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 3.44 %
Colour (SRM): 15.3 (EBC): 30.1
Bitterness (IBU): 24.1 (Average - No Chill Adjusted)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 90

Grain Bill
----------------
3.000 kg Galaxy Malt (75%)
0.600 kg Carrots Caramelised (15%)
0.300 kg Bairds Dark Crystal (7.5%)
0.050 kg Acidulated Malt (1.25%)
0.050 kg Roasted Barley (1.25%)

Hop Bill
----------------
20.0 g Pride of Ringwood Pellet (9% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.9 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
2.0 g Whirlfloc Tablet @ 10 Minutes (Boil)

Single step Infusion at 69°C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 20°C with Wyeast 1272 - American Ale II


Recipe Generated with BrewMate

 

[BPH87]

Kind of like a pumpkin ale?

 

[jyo]

Yup.

 

[Lecterfan]

...and you were worried about summit?

 

[jyo]

Haha! I know, I know. This could be either a massive brain fart, or the start of a diamond drink.

 

[bum]

I know I'm not exactly comparing like with like here but I used over 2.5kg of pumpkin in the pumpkin ale I made and did not get any pumpkin character come through to the final beer (using a somewhat paler grist). I'd look at upping the carrot amount if you where hoping to have that flavour come forward at all. I did do a "cereal" mash on the pumpkin though which might have contributed here(?).

 

[jyo]

Cheers, bum. I'll increase the carrots to 30-40%. So do you reckon to leave out the cereal mash?

 

[bum]

Well, I've never done it without the cereal mash so I can't compare - BUT - the numbers didn't indicate that the cereal mash added much of anything in the way of fermentables so if I were to do it again I would just go straight to mash (or possibly even to the boil as some seppos advocate). Having said that using the pumpkin (prepping, roasting, cereal mash, STUCK SPARGE) added about 2hrs to my brewday and I didn;t notice any pumpkin in the beer so it's not something I plan to revisit anyway.

I don;t mean to put you off at all - interested to hear how this turns out.

 

[Mardoo]

To caramelize the carrots you could peel them, wrap them in foil and slow roast them at 100-120 for an hour then bump the heat up to 190 for half an hour or so. That should get some caramelisatoon deeper into the flesh of the carrot and keep them from drying out so much.

 

[jyo]

Thanks, bum. I think I will just add it straight into the mash after caramelising.

Mardoo- that sounds pretty good to me. Cheers.

 

[Bizier]

You could call it Disgustipated Mild

 

[jyo]

Does Maynard like carrots?

 

[Bizier]

Apparently so.

I am keen to hear how it goes.

 

[mikk]

This may help-

http://byo.com/spice-herb-vegetable-beer/item/2226-24-carrot-ipa

 

[Mardoo]

Mardoo- that sounds pretty good to me. Cheers.

You may need to go up to and hour or so on the high temp. Just check them at the half hour and then every 10 minutes or so.

 

[dent]

Better than Nev's custard powder beer plan.

I'd put even more carrots in it, make it like 1/2 the "grist". Go big or go home. Probably get hardly any fermentables out of them, might as well get the flavour.

 

[jyo]

That's what I like to hear, dent! I think I may need to get some rice gulls for this...

 

[jyo]

Ok, brewed this on Saturday and changed the grist a bit, ended up going with-

3.080 kg Galaxy Malt (56.2%)
2.000 kg Carrots Caramelised (36.5%)
0.300 kg Bairds Dark Crystal (5.47%)
0.050 kg Acidulated Malt (0.91%)
0.050 kg Carafa I malt (0.91%)

Caramelising the carrots was difficult without any oil (which I knew would be the case), but I got there in the end.
Brewhouse efficiency was absolutely crap, down to 55%! (usually around 75%) however, as dent suggested, probably got minimal fermentables from the carrots. The grain bed had a thin layer of orange flour clogging it up, which is what stuffed the efficiency.

The hot break had an orange tinge to it. Could get an orange head on the beer!

Just pitched the yeast and I can definitely smell roasted carrot. The flavour is there too. It almost has a smokiness about it. This may turn out completely disgusting, but I am still quietly confident. :lol:

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Now for a Roast Lamb stout to go with it

 

[jyo]

Please don't say cock ale.