I don’t quite know why I didn’t realize I’d have to individually unwrap these and it’d be a pain in the ass, but there’s no going back now. Blue razz jolly rancher distillate soon. I’ve also got my sweet potato beer fermenting (it’s supposed to be pumpkin and sweet potato but the pumpkin I bought was rotting on the inside, so I just rolled with what I have). I also ended up making 80 dog treats from some of the spent grains from the beer, if pupper is happy I’m happy. Over all I think I’m coming back from my one year brewing break with a vengeance.
Damn, you could have probably just bought bulk blue raspberry syrup too.
Can you share your recipe for sweet potato beer?
Apologies if you don’t use freedom units, feeling a bit lazy after unwrapping a ton of jolly ranchers lol
Mash, 1 hour: 13 lb 8.0 oz - Pale Malt (2 Row) US 2 Ib - Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) 1 Ib - Rice Hulls 1 Ib - Brown Sugar, Light Brown 6 sweet potatoes (notes below) Pumpkin (notes below)
Hops: 1.00 oz - Magnum Boil 60 min 1.00 oz - Saaz Boil 15 min
Spices/additions: 1.50 oz - Ginger Root boil 10.0 min 1.00 tsp - Irish Moss Boil 10.0 min 1.50 tsp - All spice Boil 10.0 min 2.00 Vanilla Beans Boil 10.0 min 1.50 tsp- Nutmeg Boil 10.0 min 1.50 tsp - Cinnamon Powder Boil 10.0 min
Yeast: 1 pkg - California Ale Yeast (WLP001) in a 1.5 liter starter for 24 hours
Notes: 1/2 pumpkin roasted two hours at 375F with light coat of brown sugar over top added to mash for one hour 6 sweet potatoes peeled, diced and turned into mashed potatoes added to mash for one hour.
Hi, sorry, do your spent-grain dog treats include the hops? Apologies if you already know and have avoided this issue, but hops can be horrifically toxic to dogs. I’ve treated dogs in the hospital for malignant hyperthermia due to hops ingestion, and it’s not pretty. Again, apologies if you already know and have mitigated this. If that’s the case, please just treat this as a well-intentioned PSA for anyone else who might be reading this thread and enjoy your day.
I am aware of the toxicity of hops when it comes to dogs (hours pitting up a fence around my hop plant will confirm lol), but I also appreciate the heads up and it’s always good to have the info out there for those stumbling across it! That being said, I only use the grains from the mashing process, well before hops have come into contact with the wort. Thanks for putting the info out for others who may not know and keeping all the boopable snoots safe though :)
My girlfriend loves it! Just note that when I do beers I rent to do high abv beers, I think this batch the potential alcohol is around 12% abv, at least according to beer smith. So you might need to tweak the amount of base grains or added brown sugar to suit your tastes. If you end up making it lemme know what you think of it!
I need encouragement, fam, I burned my mash today and had to throw it all to the chickens. Your post gives hope that the finest malts and adjuncts are not what makes a home brewer. ;)
My friend if I can make liquor out of flamin hot Cheetos, a bit of burned mash is nothing to worry about! If you ask me what makes a good home brewer it’s the desire to make something and the ability to do a very large amount of cleaning lol. Besides, you never know, maybe the charred mash might result in some tasty dark Carmelized notes in the beer :) as they say: relax, don’t worry, have a home brew.
Not knowing this was a literal, brewing at home community, I spent too long looking at the jolly ranchers and wondering how this fit into some form of TTRPG homebrew campaign.
Hope your strange distillate makes for a pleasant drink though!
My brother did GM a one-shot set in a brewery staffed by magical creatures once. He was trying to draw in a sister who is into homebrewing and no previous experience with TTRPG. It kinda worked, she was willing to play but then kept correcting my brother when he got brewing specific facts wrong.
I am already a fencsitter on TTRPGs, I want to like them but find so many people wildly annoying during them. If ever I run into another intersection fo TTRPG fan and homebrewing fan, I’m out. It was so terrifically pedantic and unnecessary.
It sounds to me like your brother may have just taken the wrong approach. Perhaps involving that sister less by means of active participation, but just exposing her to the creative process and using her as a consultant may have improved that outcome. I don’t figure you or your brother are expecting advice, but generally I find that it’s best not to try and dominate someone else’s interest as a means to involve them. Otherwise they may end up feeling dissatisfied or not immersed enough in the game itself.
The toughest part about enjoying TTRPGs is finding a DM that lets you exercise your variety of creativity. If your only experience is with your brother as a DM, it could be you just don’t necessarily vibe with his style of doing so.
Appreciate it! And hey maybe the blue razz gnomes are holding onto the supply of delicious artificial flavored sugar and we’re on a quest to slay them and allow all the folk to drink it and be merry. (There’s a reason I’m not the dungeon master in my DND group, I’m not the most creative)
Dog tax.