Advice for a Harry Potter butterbeer

I'm in the inception phase of a Harry Potter inspired butterbeer recipe. Since it's not well explained in the books, I'm going for a a flavor profile in the range of spiced eggnog and root beer.

I'm looking for a big, creamy head and (if possible) a color like hefeweizen. Spices will be nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and sassafras (also considering vanilla bean?). For malt I'm going for 40L caramel malt for steeping, and 50/50 Maillard Gold and Wheat extracts and some lactose.

Does anyone have have advice on amounts of the spices and lactose to use for a 1 gallon recipe and how to add a butterscotch flavor? I've heard some people talking about butterscotch extract/schnapps. I definitely want that thick head so nothing that will kill it. Finally hops or no? I don't want it to be unbalanced but I feel like hops is the wrong flavor profile. Some other bittering agent instead?

Topic alternatives extract homebrew experiments

Category Mac

1
answered at

The butterscotch is a typical fault in many beers and is produced by diacetyl an ester produced by yeast in growth phase. Diacetcyl is cleaned up at the end of fermentation by raising temp to 68°. If you want this flavor, I'd recommend using us-05 or California ale yeast at 62-65°F for entire fermentation. Or any lager yeast and never do the diacetyl rest phase. Lower than normal pitch amounts Will also give high levels of diacetyl.

As far as the base beer a wheat base should give you a good starting point. Some yeasts can produce the flavors you want but you may be better just adding the desired spices late boil, and using a clean ester yeast. As far as hops, I would shoot for about a 20 ibu just to balance, as a bitter addition in 60min boil not much of the hop flavor will remain. Maybe concider a hop extract just for bittering as they will impart even less flavor from the hop.

1
answered at

What you're describing is a Cream Ale. The BJCP describes the the flavor as:

Low to medium-low hop bitterness. Low to moderate maltiness and sweetness, varying with gravity and attenuation. Usually well attenuated. Neither malt nor hops prevail in the taste. A low to moderate corny flavor from corn adjuncts is commonly found, as is some DMS. Finish can vary from somewhat dry to faintly sweet from the corn, malt, and sugar. Faint fruity esters are optional. No diacetyl.

You can add the spices (freshly ground/grated/crushed) in the last couple of minutes of the boil to make sure that you aren't introducing extraneous yeast.

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