talk to me about brewing with nuts...

Anyone done this?

When is the best to to add the nuts? Im thinking during the last 5 min of the boil (as opposed to dry-nutting, lol) so the essential oils are extracted.

Never done this before, but I've heard that you really shouldn't use nuts in your beer. You know how your hands get greasy after you've eaten nuts? Those same oils will come out in your beer as well. This will result in little to no head retention and possibly an oily surface at the top of your beer. If I were you, I'd try looking for an extract of the nuts you're looking for which will result in you not having the oils in your beer at least.

Maybe some toasted nuts? rsmith is right, you don't want those oils floating around, but there has got to be an efficient way to extract the nut flavors...

I drop mine in tea bag style.

yaaa.... I only dip my nuts in beer when its someone elses at a party.

Shinglejohn said:

I drop mine in tea bag style.

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If you do that, be sure to filter afterwords. Don't want any short curlies in your beer.

Ha nut extract...

rsmith179 said:

Never done this before, but I've heard that you really shouldn't use nuts in your beer. You know how your hands get greasy after you've eaten nuts? Those same oils will come out in your beer as well. This will result in little to no head retention and possibly an oily surface at the top of your beer. If I were you, I'd try looking for an extract of the nuts you're looking for which will result in you not having the oils in your beer at least.

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Last time I brewed with nuts, they were completely schlitz faced long before the boil even started. Caused all kinds of problems.

They do make nut extracts...here's some pure Almond Extract. Note that there are also 'imitation' almond extracts that are much cheaper than the 'pure' stuff.

Have no idea how it would fare in beer though.

SpanishCastleAle said:

They do make nut extracts...here's some pure Almond Extract. Note that there are also 'imitation' almond extracts that are much cheaper than the 'pure' stuff.

Have no idea how it would fare in beer though.

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Hesitant to click on the "Nut Extract" Link at work.... Shouldn't this be in another forum?

I've used pecans and walnuts. It's possible, but takes a while.

I crush and toast the nuts. After toasting, I crush them as much as possible and into paper bags for as long as possible. Once you've sucked up some oil, toast again and back into the bag. Crush and repeat ad naseum till you've pretty much extracted all of the oil.

Honestly, I've done it only twice and, if possible, I'd use an extract instead. One batch barely had any taste of the walnut and the pecan left some oil residue around.

Extract is the way to go.

lol...def safe for work IP.

Didn't we have this discussion in chat yesterday?

I had been thinking about making a nut brown or something (though a brown is bubbling in my basement right now) but hadn't thought about the oils... I'll probably skip it now.