Make a nutty beer?

What do I add to give my beer a light nutty flavor (ie: hazelnut) and when do I add it. I have very basic equipment, but will be expanding soon.

Thx,

Cuch.

Not sure about hazelnut, but you can get nutty flavors from some malts.

If you are adding extract or any other flavoring agent for that matter, you should rack into secondary then add the flavoring.

The darker malts can give a nutty taste. If using hazelnut you can add it to the secondary or at bottling or kegging. Taste it at kegging/bottling so you know how much to use.

The Hazelnut Brown Nectar kit from Brewcraft and Rogue Brewing uses hazelnut extract before bottling. The grain mixture may also be tweaked to give a nutty taste too as people above alluded to. I don't know how it tastes. I have a bottle of it in my cellar that I just haven't gotten to yet.

noisy123 said:

The Hazelnut Brown Nectar kit from Brewcraft and Rogue Brewing uses hazelnut extract before bottling. The grain mixture may also be tweaked to give a nutty taste too as people above alluded to. I don't know how it tastes. I have a bottle of it in my cellar that I just haven't gotten to yet.

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If you have never had a Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, you're missing out. It's one of my favorite beers, along with Deschutes Black Butte Porter. MMMmmm...

I second adding Hazelnut extract at secondary or prior to bottling. Just make sure you add a little at a time to your bottling bucket/secondary, and mix it well...then taste it.

You can't really take it out once you add too much; Hazelnut extract can seriously overpower your beer.

I also second using specialty grains during your mash/steep. Go to your LHBS and start chewing on a few grains. You'll find that Victory, Biscuit, certain Brown malts, and to a lesser extent American Munich and American Chocolate malts tend to have "nut-like" or "cracker-like" flavor and aroma qualities.

Just like using hazelnut extract though, be aware of the total amount of specialty grains in your steep/mash. A little bit can go a long way.

Thanks all, very helpful and i will will def. try your recommendations. I've got an idea for my perfect beer and I'm so pumped to try to make it.

Cuch.

Definitely be careful. The only brew I ever tossed was a hazelnut brown ale. I added hazelnut flavoring at bottling and it completely overpowered the beer. My brother said it was like drinking a Reeses peanut butter cup. Not cool.

Still, I plan to try this again in the future, but with a tiny amount of hazelnut extract.

Bonneville said:

Definitely be careful. The only brew I ever tossed was a hazelnut brown ale. I added hazelnut flavoring at bottling and it completely overpowered the beer. My brother said it was like drinking a Reeses peanut butter cup. Not cool.

Still, I plan to try this again in the future, but with a tiny amount of hazelnut extract.

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How much did you add?

JLem said:

How much did you add?

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2oz in 5gal per recipe... I think the grains also added major nuttiness, but it was a kit so I'm not sure exactly what I brewed. No more of that.