YUCA BEER

YUCA BEER

Raw yuca root

 Peeled and deep fried

Planning this crazy recipe using yuca root, a popular ingredient in South America. Also called cassava or manioc, it is eaten just like potatoes, boiled and/or deep fried or ground and toasted to be used as a type of flour (tapioca or "farinha"). Delicious! Consider it a "potato on steroids". It it much more dense than potatoes and my understanding is that is has much more starch. The plan right now is to brew this recipe:
-5lb 2 row pale malt
-5lb crushed yuca meat, fresh
-S04 dry yeast fermented at 65F
-1oz hallertauer for 30min
-1 tsp irish mosh for 20min
-mash at 150F for 1h
-Boil with 1oz fresh sliced ginger and 1oz sweet orange peel for 15min

I'm wondering what the yuca will add in terms of flavors, body and appearance. I expect that the enzymes from the base malt will convert all starches from the yuca. Will mostly brew this on Sat Feb 11th 2012.

Update 02/12/12
Brewed this yesterday and made few changes on the fly. Decided to add some carapils to increase body and FG and did not add any spices yet. Will taste the final beer and will decide on the spices for a secondary. This way I can get the feel for any flavors coming from the yuca, if any. Also, OG came out quite lower than expected. My initial assumption was  a PPG of 30 coming from the yuca. The actual PPG is estimated at 15, so it will be a low ABV beer, like 4% or less depending on FG. Will post the updated recipe when I get a taste of this beer.

Update 02/22/12
Fermentation is completed. Beer is still sitting in primary at 65F and it looks amazingly clear. FG is 1.008 and as expected, ABV will be low at around 3.5%. But it tastes clean and crispy. I'm not going to add any spices , just waiting to buy my keg system to transfer and carbonate. So far, not much Yuca taste that I can tell.

Update. Please check full results at newer post HERE