So, I've been wanting to write this recipe for a while. This is the beer that we created to celebrate the release of the "Time For The Show: The Movie" movie release and, as expected, the name of the beer is "Time For The Show: The Movie: The Beer!"
The request was that we make a yam flavored beer. Specifically Yam. If you're not familiar with the difference between Yam and Sweet Potato, let's just say that there is a difference, and it largely has to do with size and genetic verity.
Anyway, I digress. The recipe is a Yam based recipe, so I bought some Yams and did some calculations in the test kitchen. I have a lot of notes about all these tests, but it basically boils down to the equation that one 40-oz can of yams, if used correctly, will raise the alcohol in one gallon of water by 1%. It can also add a very vegetal taste.
Of course, the other half of any Yam recipe has got to be the marshmallow. You can find "Toasted Marshmallow" flavor extract at any of your local homebrew shops. It's a very strong flavor though. I knew it was strong because I had tasted it in vodkas and other mixes before, and it’s always overpowering. Anyway, I didn't want the marshmallow to overpower the beer, so I cut the recommended dose in half. A typical homebrew supply store will sell you a 4-oz bottle of the chemical flavor that is toasted marshmallow. That 4-oz bottle is intended for a typical 5-gallon batch of homebrewed beer. Using only half of the bottle in a 5-gallon batch was definitely enough; maybe still way more than enough.
Beyond going light on the marshmallow flavor, you also must balance it out with something else. This is where the vegetal flavor of the yams comes in again. Because we boil the yams in spring water for an hour, then add that spring water to the wort, we get the last of the sugar in there, but we also get the vegetal flavor from the yams themselves. That vegetal flavor balances the marshmallow flavor in a way that turned out to be way better than I thought it was going to be.
In the end, the beer was bottled and labeled. It was distributed during the Time For The Show: The Movie: The Release Party, and was subsequently consumed by patrons of the fine arts that had the courage to attend the event. I'm still in possession of the final three bottles, and I'll update this post if I drink one and it aged well.
So without further ado, here are the instructions for brewing it:
Ingredients
Malt:
4.0 Lb Pale DME 30LV or less https://tinyurl.com/2w8hdsna
2.0 Lb Gambrinus Honey Malt https://tinyurl.com/yh5p9e2e
1.0 Lb Dingman's Belgian Biscuit https://tinyurl.com/3vyfaap4
Hops:
0.5 OZ Cluster 60 Min. (Add as soon as the wort comes to a boil. Boil for 60 Min.)
2.0 OZ SAAZ 30 Min. (Add when 30 minutes remain on the boil.)
2.0 OZ SAAZ 5 Min. (Add as soon as you remove the boil pot from heat.)
Yeast:
Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast https://tinyurl.com/469tam49
Water:
2-3 GAL Spring Water Any Type
3 GAL Distilled Water Any Type
Other Ingredients:
(5) 40-OZ Can Yams in Syrup Add prior to boil.
2.0 Oz Toasted Marshmallow Flavor https://tinyurl.com/te3u6ytk
½ Cup Dextrose (Corn Sugar) Add prior to bottling
Instructions:
Consult the Ingredients List, seen above, and purchase equivalent ingredients. All of the ingredients can be substituted with similar items. Homebrewing should be fun!
2. Brew the beer by preparing the yam water, mashing the specialty grain, brewing the wort on the stovetop, then fermenting, flavoring, and bottling.
3. Preparing the Yam Water
a. Start by opening all of the canned yams. Drain the liquid contents of the cans in to a container so that it can be used later. A 1-gallon water jug makes a convenient container.
b. Place the physical yams in to a boiling pot. Fill the pot with 2-3 gallons of spring water or any other decent water. Add enough water to cover the yams, and expect to add more later. Boil the yams for at least 1 hour. Add more water if the waterline gets too low.
c. Once the yams have been boiled, strain the yams out and discard them. You can certainly wait for the water to cool before doing so, which makes the process safer. I put a filter over the boil pot and strained the yams out that way, as seen in the following picture.
d. Add the yam syrup that you collected earlier to the remaining water, and use this solution as the base wort. At this point, you should have close to ½ gallon of liquid collected from the cans, and close to 2-gallons of liquid from the water used to boil the yams. You can refrigerate this solution and save it for a couple of days if you don’t plan on brewing today.
e. An additional step that can make things easier is to partition the hops out in to hop-socks. Pre-measuring the hops in to hop-socks makes brewing easier. For this recipe, you will want to prepare 3 hop-socks. One for the Cluster hops, and two other socks with 2oz each of SAAZ hops.
4. Mashing the Specialty Grain
a. On brewing day, prepare a "Handy Masher," or a 3-gallon pot with a tightly controlled temperature, that can mash the grain for one hour. For the handy masher shown, I've found that you should heat your water at least 10°F warmer than your intended mashing temperature. You can spend a lifetime researching the most efficient ways of mashing grain, but if you throw three pounds of grain in a handy masher, pour two gallons of water that is about 170°F on it, close the lid and wait for an hour, drain it in to the boil pot, send another gallon of water across through to wash the grain again, and finally drain that in to the boil pot, you have achieved 90% of the art of brewing beer.
b. When you add the 170°F water to the handy masher, the water will cool rapidly, as it must heat up the handy masher itself. If you have done it correctly, after several minutes you can read the temperature in the center of the handy masher, and it should read something around 155-160°F. You can expect that temperature to drop to as low as 145°F after an hour. Adding some additional hot water can help keep the temperature up during the process. Having a modern electronic thermometer to monitor the temperature is definitely a plus.
c. As mentioned, the grain should steep in the hot water for an hour. After this, use the spigot on the side of the handy masher to drain the water in to your boil-pot. Although you added around 2-gallons of water to the handy masher, don't be surprised to collect only 1-gallon of water on the first drain. Next, close the spigot and add about another gallon of cool spring water. Stir the grain around in the water and make the water as cloudy as possible. Use a cooking spoon, or similar, to dig out grain in the bottom of the handy masher and make sure it is mixed in to the water.
d. Now, drain the water in to the boil pot again. Continue adding more water and draining it in to the boil pot until the water draining from the handy masher is clear. You should have between 2-3 gallons of water in the boil pot at this point, and it should smell delicious already.
5. Brewing the Wort on the Stovetop: a. Your boil pot should have 2-3 gallons of water already. You should expect at least 6-gallons of water total. Make sure your pot is big enough.
b. Place your boil pot on the stove and add the 1-2 gallons of yam water made in the previous step. Turn on the stove and start heating the pot.
c. Add the Dry Malt Extract, slowly, to the boil pot and stir to dissolve. It may take some time to properly dissolve all of the clumps of DME in the boil pot. Keep stirring. Also, be aware that adding 4 pounds of DME to the pot will definitely raise the level of the liquid. Again, be sure that your pot is big enough.
d. Once the DME has fully dissolved, and the temperature of the wort is above 200°F, you can add the first hop addition and start a 60-minute countdown timer. Stir the wort and treat the hop sock as if it were a bag of tea. You may find that hops help to reduce the amount of foam created from the DME addition. Continue keeping the wort as close to boiling as possible. Continue to stir as necessary. Don’t let the pot boil over or you will make a sticky mess!
e. When 30 minutes remain on the countdown timer, add one of the hop socks containing 2-oz of SAAZ hops. Stir and soak the hop sock in the same way you did with the first addition. You should have two hop socks in the boil pot now, and they will remain there until after the boil is done.
f. When the countdown expires, remove the boil pot from the heat and add the final hop sock addition. As the wort is cooling, stir the final hop sock around and treat it as you did the first two. Leave the hop sock in for 5-10 minutes.
g. As the boil pot is cooling, use a slotted spoon and other utensils to remove each of the hop socks. Be sure to squeeze out all of the liquid in the hops, and let it drain back in to the boil pot. Continue cooling the wort. There are several methods for cooling the wort faster. One method is to cover it and let it sit for several hours. Another method is to use copper tubing to run cool water through the wort. Yet another method is to simply add freezing water to the wort. You may add enough nearly-frozen water as necessary to bring the total volume of the wort up to 5-gallons. Only add distilled water to the wort; this helps preserve the water-to-mineral ratio.
h. It is recommended to transfer the wort from the boil pot to a secondary container, and to use grain-filter to filter out fine particles as you conduct the transfer. Transferring the wort through a filter like this also helps to add oxygen to the wort, which is helpful when getting fermentation started. Moving the wort to a large 5-gallon bucket while filtering it, then moving it to the final fermentation vessel is the correct order of operations. Please ensure that both the intermediate bucket and the final fermentation vessel are properly sanitized before the wort comes in contact with it.
i. Remove a small sample of the wort and set aside to measure the specific gravity. Use a hygrometer to make the measurement once the wort is close to the temperature that the hygrometer is rated for (usually 68-70°F). You will take a second specific gravity measurement once the beer is ready to be bottled. The difference between the specific gravity measurements will estimate the amount of alcohol in the beer.
j. Once the wort is in the fermentation vessel, and the temperature is below 80°F, add the yeast packet. Move the vessel around to agitate the solution and ensure that the yeast is wet. Once the wort has been inoculated with yeast, add a water check-valve to close the vessel, and store the vessel in a low temperature area. A modified refrigerator is ideal. Try to store the wort at around 55°F. Do not exceed 80°F.
k. The wort should remain at a low temperature for approximately 15-25 days or whenever fermentation has completely settled. You can expect a lot of foaming during the first few days. It is handy to have a few water check-valves ready to go so you can quickly swap a clean one on to the fermenter when needed. If it is extremely foamy, you might consider using a blow-off tube and a gallon-jug of water. Be prepared for this; sanitation is crucial during and after fermentation, and you don’t want your beer to have an off flavor because you were unprepared for the amount of foaming that would occur. After 2-4 weeks the wort has become beer and you are ready to bottle it.
6.Flavoring and Bottling:
a. Over the last 10-15 days, you should have seen the wort ferment rapidly, then at a slower rate for another 5-10 days. Once fermentation is complete (when it takes a really long time for one bubble to form in the water check-valve), you can finish the job by bottling the beer and allowing it to carbonate. At this point, All of the following equipment MUST be sanitized!
b. At this point in the process, you want to be sure not to disturb the beer too much. Specifically, splashing it around too much may introduce oxygen in to the liquid mixture. You will want a plan where you can transfer the beer, slowly, to a bottling bucket. Using a siphon, and keeping the hose well below the liquid line is advised. Allowing the beer to splash too much at this stage may introduce a slightly flawed flavor.
c. When transferring the beer to a sanitized bottling bucket, allow some beer to move in, then add the 1/2 cup of corn sugar called for in the recipe. Continue transferring the beer and, as the beer fills the bucket, the sugar will quickly dissolve. This allows you to dissolve the priming sugar in to the beer without using a stirring spoon and introducing oxygen. You may add the Toasted Marshmallow extract at any time during this process. The extract will mix in the beer more easily than the sugar will.
d. Once the beer has been transferred to the bottling bucket you may cover it with aluminum or plastic wrap and leave it for up to several hours. Positioning the bottling bucket in its final location and allowing it to rest there also allows fine particles to settle back down in the bottling bucket. When you are ready, use the spigot (and possibly a short section of vinyl tube) to pour beer in to each bottle. Try to be consistent with the amount that you pour in to each bottle.
e. Once the bottles are filled (you should have around 48-50) send them through the bottle capping process. Be sure to sanitize the bottlecaps first by boiling them. Hopefully your bottles were sanitized with a good sanitizing agent like Iodophor or StarSan too!
f. Once each bottle is capped, check each cap individually, and clean any bottle that may have been splashed with beer.
g. Label the bottles with stickers if you like. Allow the beer to rest for about 4 weeks. When you open a bottle, you should hear the sound of a carbonated bottle opening. Chill and serve. Enjoy the flavor of yams and marshmallow while you contemplate your life choices.
