why does the beer brewing company smell like mashed potatoes?

Question

I've driven by a beer brewery and it smelled like mashed potatoes and gravy?!? why doesn't the finished beer taste like potatoes? I like potatoes very much.If beer tasted more like potatoes, then I'd like it more and it would appeal to more people? mashed potatoes & gravy in a can? gross or delicious? what do you think?

Answer 1

Devilish is wrong...kinda.

The brewing process involves converting starches to sugars (maltose) and then fermenting those sugars. During the starch conversion, called the mash, the process smells like sweet oatmeal. (Leaving a few steps out because you guys don't care about recirculation, sparge, lauter, vordewurze, glatwasser, etc) During the boil, the aroma changes to a sweet and floral, due to the hop additions.

If you are smelling something foul, it is most likely the spent grains rotting while waiting for the farmer to pick them up. Our farmer was 3 days late one summer and our alley smelled like someone smeared peanut butter on a dead wet horse.

Answer 2

That is most likely due to the starch that is fermenting. Potatoes are basically all starch. Beer is made by fermenting different kinds of grains which are also made primarily out of starch. That could be the reason why.

Answer 3

I even have not, yet a pal is a specialist photographer and he sculpted mashed potatoes to look like ice cream for a image shoot they have been doing. They extra nutrients colouring and fruit and it labored impressive, and no melting below the lights!

Answer 4

Probably because of all the barley and yeast they mash to make that beer.

Answer 5

Beer is yummy. Especially micro-brews, but not too dark and not too bitter.