Peanut Butter Porter Issues with PB2

I am struggling to find too many people out there making Peanut Butter beers so there isn't a lot of experience for me to draw from. Here's my situation:

1. Brewed a porter almost a month ago and added 1 jar (6.5 oz) of PB2, or powered peanut butter that's equal to a 18 oz jar of regular PB, at 15 of the boil.

2. Tasted 2 weeks later and no PB aroma or flavor present. Probably got strained out when added to the primary.

3. Moved to secondary and racked onto 16oz of PB2 that I had boiled with some water to make sort of a PB soup to insure it's sanitized. Ended up with about 3 quarts of PB soup that was added to the bottom of the carboy.

4. After 1 week I tasted without any aroma or flavor still!? So that's after adding roughly the equivalent of 54 oz of PB? I gave the carboy a good gentle stir and decided to revisit again in a week.

5. It's time to taste and test again tonight as it will be a month since I brewed and I'll have some decisions to make.

Anyone think the more time the better chance of results or is 2 weeks enough time to know either way?

See this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/peanut-butter-porter-w-powdered-peanut-butter-61538/

A lot of the posters talked about not getting much PB character from even 2 jars. It sounds like you need a lot of the stuff in order for it to be noticeable.

smiller said:

See this thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/peanut-butter-porter-w-powdered-peanut-butter-61538/

A lot of the posters talked about not getting much PB character from even 2 jars. It sounds like you need a lot of the stuff in order for it to be noticeable.

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Yeah, that's what I'm experiencing too. I think I might take that thread's suggestion and get some Watkins PB extract and rack onto it when I transfer to the keg. I hate to waste another $10 and add more PB2 at the risk of the same result.

You had to figure PB beers must be hard or there'd be more of them around and now I know they are both hard and frustrating.

i brewed a version of a peanut butter cup porter last year with PB2, doing additions about what you did. some at the end of the boil and some in the secondary before bottling, as you would dry hop a beer. i can taste it, but to me, it's not a true peanut butter flavor... it's kind of creamy and a bit off tasting, but not bad and actually as it sits in the bottle it's getting a bit better. i think the flavors are still coming together, BUT i agree, if you want a real peanut butter beer, you need to use the real stuff, skim off the oils, or do what ever needs to be done because PB2 just isn't the same. it was a good experiment, but it's not on my rebrew list

I went to one of my local breweries that had a peanut butter cup stout on tap, and frankly they used peanut butter cups, a whole bag of them for a 5 gallon batch. Force carbed, head retention sucked but damn it was tasty. Tons of peanut butter flavor.

I wonder when they add them? The mash, do you think? Or secondary?

My two favorite things together? Peanut butter cups and beer? I'm in now you have me scouring the web for ideas on how to do this with real peanut butter. I am starting to see the benefit of 1 gallon batches for tests like this. If I screw it up, its only a gallon at a time.

Renegade Brewery here in Denver uses real peanut butter cups. Very tasty, and lots of peanut butter flavor.

smiller said:

I wonder when they add them? The mash, do you think? Or secondary?

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They add them into the keg inside a muslin bag. The first few pours they said are sickeningly sweet but after that it clears up to a beautiful peanut butter and chocolate beer.

Biohazard said:

They add them into the keg inside a muslin bag. The first few pours they said are sickeningly sweet but after that it clears up to a beautiful peanut butter and chocolate beer.

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So they just add a muslin bag of PB Cups into a keg of Porter? That's crazy simple! Any restrictions on how long the keg can last before quality is impacted or if there's any concern for PB cups causing an infection?

I suppose you could put them in a blender with a little bit of vodka, then let that soak for a couple of weeks to sanitize. Then you could either add it to the keg or secondary on it (probably in plastic) if you bottle. You could pour the sludge into a muslin bag over the keg or bucket and then tie the bag and rack on top of it. Of course, you would have to throw all concern about head retention to the wind at that point, but who cares if it tastes like PB cups!

Thought I'd get on and summarize the end result with a few points I learned along the way.

1. Using PB2 in the boil & secondary provided very little PB flavor to my big porter (7% ABV)
2. 8 oz. of Lactose in a 5gallon batch really helps sweeten the final product but will lead to a confusing FG reading of you just rely on BeerSmith's OG values.
3. PB flavor is best achieved using the liquid extract (2 oz Watkins added to a tertiary vessel but will just go into secondary next time)

Overall results were great and well received as a sweeter Chocolate PB porter.
Hope this helps with the learning curve for others tackling a PB beer.

Just wondering if there was any update news on the peanut butter cup porter. Willoughby Brewing on the east side makes this brew and its wonderful. What type of porter do you shoot for with this style.
I was thinking a brown porter using something like a 1272 which should leave some residuals. I'm glad you posted because i was going to go look for some PB-2, but heading over to Marc's and buying a couple.of bags of bp-cups will be alot easier. Maybe the vodka trick will help on the heax retention side. BB

jmfitzgerald said:

i brewed a version of a peanut butter cup porter last year with PB2, doing additions about what you did. some at the end of the boil and some in the secondary before bottling, as you would dry hop a beer. i can taste it, but to me, it's not a true peanut butter flavor... it's kind of creamy and a bit off tasting, but not bad and actually as it sits in the bottle it's getting a bit better. i think the flavors are still coming together, BUT i agree, if you want a real peanut butter beer, you need to use the real stuff, skim off the oils, or do what ever needs to be done because PB2 just isn't the same. it was a good experiment, but it's not on my rebrew list

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When I did a peanut butter and jelly beer I put a TON of peanuts in the mash. About 2/3 the weight of the grain in peanuts.

bovineblitz said:

When I did a peanut butter and jelly beer I put a TON of peanuts in the mash. About 2/3 the weight of the grain in peanuts.

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What level of peanut flavor did you get by doing this?