Snickers Brown Ale experiment

[rollermt]

I had this idea (as have others) that the chocolate, nutty, and caramel qualities of a Snickers would be good in a beer.

I have a friend who works at Mars, the company that makes Snickers. So instead of just selecting the right malts or adding flavorings, I've decided to throw the whole candy bars into the boil to see what happens. I am planning to treat them like candi sugar and other adjuncts, putting 1 lb of bars into the mash at 20 minutes to make sure they are sanitized before fermentation. The base beer will be a English brown ale.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how this will ferment? I expect some sweetness from the lactose, and some gravity from the corn syrup and other sugars. I know there is a good chance of cloudy beer from some of the ingredients. Any recommendations on how to get this as clear as possible? Should I "dry hop" them?

Here are the ingredients in a Snickers:
MILK CHOCOLATE (SUGAR, COCOA BUTTER, CHOCOLATE, SKIM MILK, LACTOSE, MILKFAT, SOY LECITHIN, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR), PEANUTS, CORN SYRUP, SUGAR, MILKFAT, SKIM MILK, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, LACTOSE, SALT, EGG WHITES, CHOCOLATE, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR. MAY CONTAIN ALMONDS

 

[CastleHollow]

Hopefully better than Ovaltine.

Are you saying you plan to mash them, or are you dumping 1# of Snicker's bars into the last 20 minutes of the boil?

My guess is that you will have a bunch of non-fermentables (especially the oil and milkfats) that will need to be filtered out at some point. Not so sure that you will have a whole lot of candy-bar flavor remaining in the finished product.

 

[RonPopeil]

the things that scream out to me are the egg whites, hydrogenated soy bean oil and soy lecithin.

i don't understand why you don't take a basic brown ale and add some chocolate, boost the crystals up for some caramel/toffee and use maris otter in a tight mash for the nuttiness. use a high mash temp and/or poor attenuating yeast to leave it sweet. you could also consider adding flavor extracts to drive the idea home.

the elements that make a snickers bar are already hallmark flavors of good beers. it shouldn't be hard to emulate those flavors with more traditional beer brewing ingredients. with some trial and error i think it could turn out.

or maybe i'm just a purist.

 

[rollermt]

CastleHollow - thanks for the reply. I plan to boil the candy at 20 minutes. I updated my original post.

RonPopeil - I've done a brown ale before by adjusting the malt bill to try to maximize the nuttiness. It works. I guess I'm just looking for something a little wild to try. There are chocolate stouts and peanut butter porters, so I don't see why this wouldn't be worth trying.

 

[RonPopeil]

yes there are those sorts of beers but my point was that you don't make a peanut butter beer by adding peanut butter.

http://www.homebrewing.org/Lorann-Flavoring-Oils_c_281.html

 

[hwall95]

I know this is around 4 months old, but I must say that a Snickers Brown Ale is very much possible. Just tasted one from Bacchus Brewing Co. down here in Queensland, Australia and the resemblance was incredible. It has such a nice Snickers flavour with a like a malty background. Will ask about the recipe/method when I go in to buy ingredients on the weekend if I remember. Hopefully they'll share some pointers.