The Internets tells me that during World War 2, American Breweries due to a lack of resources used potato’s to make beer instead of the more traditional grains. I was wondering If decent recipes exist for potato beer?
Do the Poll Please.
They are out there and pretty common. The best one I ever had was from a pub in Duluth, MN and it was a potato milk stout. The combination of potato and lactose poured from a nitrous tap system was by far one of the best beers I have ever had. Rumor has it they used milk instead of lactose but I find that hard to believe.
There is an article bout this very subject today on Ron Pattinson’s consistently informative and excellent blog…here’s the link:
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/
If you want to homebrew some potato beer, get a box of potato starch (very widely available now especially due to Passover season). It’s what is commonly referred to in Europe & the UK as “Potato Flour”. It isolates the component of the spuds that the enzymes in your grain will readily convert to fermentable sugar. Just add the starch to your mash and mother nature will do the rest giving a result very similar to using rice or or corn. It pretty much the same as cornstarch, and in cooking is used the same way (as a thickener, etc).
I assume that’s a nitrogen system, not a nitrous system. Unless you were left laughing! 
Well, after a couple you are feeling pretty good!
I would Like To thank every one for responding to my question. A wise man once said “life is like a box of chocolates”, And I want to try them all. Thank you
I voted yes it was good as I drank a few and was able to sample directly from the bright tank, the “Original” Finnegan’s Irish ale that was brewed by James Page in NE MPLS. The original Finnegan’s was brewed with potato and I thought it added a creamy dimension to the body. It was not all potato though just a portion of the mash. I have no idea now what the ratio was.
From what I’ve read, potatoes actually have a very similar enzyme profile to malted barley. You could theoretically brew an all-potato beer without adding grain to convert the starches. Gives a whole new meaning to “mashed potatoes”. I have no idea what the extract potential is for a pound of potatoes, though. Sounds like a fun experiment.
Being an Idaho native this really piques my interest
Grainbelt,
From what I understand strictly from this comment on the beers descriptor within the current website you linked shows they no longer use potato. (IE: Made from 4 pure ingredients: water, yeast, hops and malted barley) I thought they still had potato in the grist but apparently not per the statement. The “Original” brewed by James page around the mid nineties (when I sampled it) had potato such as described at ratebeer. I haven’t had the product since the nineties but always recommend it because of the local connection and charitable giving since the creation back when.
IE:(NOW-Turning beer into food. Over 98% of the funds that land in the FINNEGANS Community Fund are distributed to our non-profit partners to support hunger alleviation in each state where our product is sold.) (THEN-, James Page donates $10 per keg to the Spud Society, an organization working with programs helping the working poor here in Minnesota and Ireland.)
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/james-page ... ale/14118/[quote=“ITsPossible”]Grainbelt,
From what I understand strictly from this comment on the beers descriptor within the current website you linked shows they no longer use potato. (IE: Made from 4 pure ingredients: water, yeast, hops and malted barley) I thought they still had potato in the grist but apparently not per the statement. The “Original” brewed by James page around the mid nineties (when I sampled it) had potato such as described at ratebeer. I haven’t had the product since the nineties but always recommend it because of the local connection and charitable giving since the creation back when.
IE:(NOW-Turning beer into food. Over 98% of the funds that land in the FINNEGANS Community Fund are distributed to our non-profit partners to support hunger alleviation in each state where our product is sold.) (THEN-, James Page donates $10 per keg to the Spud Society, an organization working with programs helping the working poor here in Minnesota and Ireland.)
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/james-page ... ale/14118/[/quote]I wasnt aware they changed it…I know it used to be a few years ago not sure when the change happened
