Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer (Natural) Hazelnut Brown Ale

I am a huge fan of hazelnuts, but I can't stand the artificial flavor of hazelnut extract (notable in Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar). My lady wanted a hazelnut beer for her birthday, so I brewed this up.

The grain bill started as a mild ale that I was planning to brew. I was running out of time to have this beer ready for her birthday so I just added some things to get to a Northern English Brown style beer.

As for the hazelnut flavor, I took a note from a local brewery. (512) Brewery does a wonderful pecan porter by roasting the nuts and adding them to the mash. I crushed a pound of hazelnuts in my food processor and roasted the at about 200* for 20 minutes. I put 3/4 in the mash and 1/4 in the kettle at 5 minutes.

Yes this killed the head retention. The oils in the nuts are probably the reason the head on this beer dissipates so quickly, but it's tasty and appearance is always second to flavor in my book. I wanted a nutty brown ale and I got it, even if there might be some detraction in the look of the pint.

The flavor of this beer is mostly the flavor of a lot of browns, good caramel and toasty character, but with a nice distinct background note of hazelnuts and some buttery english yeast character.

I fermented on the cool side and cold crashed after a week to 40* (mostly to make room in the primary fermentation chamber). I force carbed and tapped the keg just over a month after brewing, and it's drinking nicely right now.

Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 84.46 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.45 %
0.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2.82 %
0.25 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.82 %
0.13 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 1.46 %
.75 lb Hazelnuts (Mash 1.0 hours) Misc

1.00 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 20.1 IBU
0.25 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.0 IBU
.25 lb Hazelnuts Misc (5 min)

1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Mashed 45 minutes @ 158*

I am brewing a similar beer tomorrow; looking around I found this. Mine is a Northern Englishish nut brown, but bigger and just a tad darker using a little chocolate wheat as well as pale chocolate malts. 1.062 or so and 35 IBUs with 4-5 oz of toasted hazelnuts in the mash. If it turns out good I'll post the recipe!

I just kegged a hazelnut brown. I used 1.5 lbs of toasted hazelnuts in the mash, then another 1 lb in the boil for the last 10 mins. I had 30 IBU in a 1.071 OG. Since I really wanted the nuts to come through I used 1.5 lbs of Fawcett crystal II, 0.5 lbs of brown malt and 0.2 lbs of carafa special I. I didn't want too much roast/bread flavor in it.

Going into the fermenter the wort had a lot of hazelnut aroma, and the nuts were definately present in the flavor. After 2 weeks, though, most of the aroma is gone, although there is still a bit of flavor. I think in the future I'll skip the mash nuts and "dry hop" with a pound. Hopefully the alcohol will help pull some of the flavors and aroma out into the beer.

I'm brewing this recipe right now for SWMBO. I'll keep you guys updated on the outcome, and post a picture of the final product for you also. I love this hobby!

Edit: That sure was an interesting brew using hazelnuts. I am cooling the wort now, and can definitely see an oily film lingering on the top of it. The Williamette hops smell so good, and the hazelnuts added to them makes it heavenly. Thanks for the recipe Slim, looking forward to drinking this one in several weeks. I'll post a pic of the first pint I pour for anyone who is interested. Cheers!

Just drank a bottle of rogue hazelnut nectar tonight. Has anyone considered using frangelico (hazelnut liquor) as their flavoring? Its made with real hazelnuts. And saves the hassle of head loss, and will boost the ABV a bit too! Just a thought...

Definately would like to brew a similar beer, and perhaps try a few 2.5 gallon batches with different nuts in it too!

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Update: I bottled my beer almost 3 weeks ago, and popped one tonight. Definitely not long enough in the bottle. I am thinking maybe three to four weeks longer and it should be perfect. Beer is heady at first pour, but loses it quickly. I'll post again in about a month with updates.

sounds awesome, had an idea myself for nuts. Hazelnut Porter with a sweet finish. You think dry hopping with a couple pounds of fresh hazelnuts will give the right flavor without killing head retention?

Buuuuuuuuump. Anyone try this with dry hopping???

I've done a filbert nut brown (filberts are a sister to hazelnuts). I added 10 oz during the mash and I felt like the nut flavor came though (also used biscuity and bready malts)

I have some hazelnuts that were given to me recently and was looking for a home brew recipe to try using them. This sounds like it might be a winner.

My thoughts on the head retention issue is to extract the flavors from the hazelnuts using alcohol first. There are recipes for hazelnut liqueur where people are soaking the nuts in vodka for a few weeks and adding a sweetener. If I can successfully get good hazelnut flavor using the alcohol, it will greatly reduce or eliminate the amount of oils that make it over to the beer. It could go into either the boil and drive off the alcohol and leave just the flavor or could be added to the secondary to increase the ABV.

I think you've got the right approach. I recently made a brown ale with roasted pecans, and it was fantastic. I did put 20 oz roasted pecans in the mash, but I believe all of the good flavor and aroma came from the "dry hop" roasted pecans. For the dry hop, I used 4 oz roasted pecans, infused in Everclear along with one split vanilla bean. I strained the infused alcohol into the beer at kegging. Tasting before and after adding that infused alcohol convinced me that the pecans in the mash didn't do much for flavor although they may have added color. Roasting schedule for the pecans was 350 degrees for 15 minutes, followed by degreasing on a brown paper bag, followed by another round of roasting at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, followed by storage in open paper bag for 24 hours to off-gas the more acrid portion of the aromatics. Then into the alcohol for about a week.

Beerophile said:

, followed by degreasing on a brown paper bag,

Click to expand...

Whats the process for degreasing on a paper bag?

158 degrees for the mash seems high. Any reason why you mashed that high?

Anymore feedback on any of these methods?

I'm going to be making a hazelnut brown for the holidays. From what I've read so far, it sounds like it would be best to either infuse some in alcohol and then add at kegging, or "dry hop" with the hazelnuts.

Also, what is a good amount of hazelnuts? I would rather underdo it than overdo it.

Also considering adding a bit of allspice with it. Good idea or terrible idea?

I'll second - any updates on this?


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I put in 6 oz. of toasted hazelnuts. As noted the oils break up the head but I just ignored it. It was very tasty.