Trying to brew a sweet potato porter.

[Prince William]

I’m new here and have been brewing for awhile now. I’m trying to brew a sweet potato porter and have everything I think I need. But have a question about maybe adding some brown sugar to the mix, should I add when I am baking the potatoes, or should I add to the mash? Thanks, for y’all’s recommendation.

 

[Minbari]

I’m new here and have been brewing for awhile now. I’m trying to brew a sweet potato porter and have everything I think I need. But have a question about maybe adding some brown sugar to the mix, should I add when I am baking the potatoes, or should I add to the mash? Thanks, for y’all’s recommendation.

Personally I would add to the fermenter after 1\2 FG is hit. Just be careful with the dark variety. They can have allot of sulphur

 

[Dave Y]

I’m new here and have been brewing for awhile now. I’m trying to brew a sweet potato porter and have everything I think I need. But have a question about maybe adding some brown sugar to the mix, should I add when I am baking the potatoes, or should I add to the mash? Thanks, for y’all’s recommendation.

Good enough for Robert Hare !

I’d be cautious about the brown sugar in the fermenter, like molasses it could contribute some unfermentables and push the FG up - which is ok if that’s what you’re shooting for but just worth noting. For molasses, the trick is to procure unsulfated molasses.

The more of the character you want to bring forward with the brown sugar, generally the later you add it. For Molasses I like the last 5-10 minutes of the boil and I’ve not used brown sugar myself. I don’t disagree that you can add it to the fermenter, but I think a lot will depend on the rest of your recipe.

I’m really interested to hear about the brew and what you think of it, I’m a big fan of Porters.

 

[Prince William]

Thanks guys, just experimenting. Have never used brown sugar or molasses. Just thinking about how I could make it taste like you are actually drinking a baked sweet potato. When I get off work I can post a lot of the ingredients that I will be using.

 

[Dave Y]

Robert Hare did some experimentation on using sweet potatoes in the mash and claimed it was as usable as malt in proportion - so, likely as an adjunct.
Hare had Porter dialed in and even supplied George Washington, but Hare’s brewery burned to the ground and GW had to find other suppliers.
Unfortunately, Hare’s recipe went up with the brewery.

https://books.google.com/books?id=N...7AeQ4KBDoAXoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q=grain&f=false

I would use the sweet potatoes in moderation, especially if you’re doing a whole 5 gallon batch and I’d suggest that you might want to think about ‘making it taste like you’re drinking a sweet potato’ ; I’d be more inclined to want it to taste like a porter that had some sweet potato in it.

 

[J A]

You won't necessarily get a lot of brown sugar flavor from fermenting brown sugar. You can duplicate those flavors with Cara/Crystal malts in the 40 to 90 range. Having the impression of a flavor of an ingredient will often be better than using the actual ingredient. Honey malt is a good example. If you use actual honey, the flavor mostly fade during fermentation but the right malt will give flavor notes that make you taste honey.
Brown sugar/molasses will convey by using dark caramalized malts and even dark Belgian candi sugar.
Also, the flavor of a baked sweet potato itself will be pretty hard to capture. Since the mash is just seeing starches to convert, a lot of the stuff that makes up the flavor and texture will be left in the spent grain and kettle trub. You'll probably do well add a 10 or 15 percent portion of cooked sweet potatoes to the mash and then add a relatively small amount of pureed cooked sweet potato to the end of the boil. That's going to give you some residual stuff that will contribute to a rich mouth feel and thick head. Some rolled oats in the mash will help with that as well.
Another flavor that may play very well is a buttery/caramel diacetyl note from an English yeast strain. I've had S-04 push a really nice butterscotch note when used with crystal malts in amber pub ales.

 

[Donoroto]

Do baked sweet potatoes also have cinnamon or other spice flavors?

 

[Dave Y]

Do baked sweet potatoes also have cinnamon or other spice flavors?

IDK that I would call it that. It’s definitely better than raw yams but I don’t think I’d go as far as “cinnamon-y”.

 

[J A]

Do baked sweet potatoes also have cinnamon or other spice flavors?

It's common to use some cinnamon or other spices if you're making candied yams but just butter and sugar would be good for plain old baked sweet potatoes. Most times that I serve them, they'll do double duty with butter, salt and pepper as a savory side dish and then a portion with butter and sugar or, even better, some pure cane syrup, for desert.
Your question hints at the notion of using a Belgian yeast to throw some orange-y, clove-y goodness into the mix.