GF Brewing with Chestnuts

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Ok, thanks for everyone's help, but I'm a little confused now on the consensus.

Can I add chipped chestnuts to a barley mash and obtain conversion of the chestnuts. Or do I need to boil the chestnuts and then add them to the mash?

I would like to avoid using amylase if possible.

Thanks again guys. :mug:
 
Ok, thanks for everyone's help, but I'm a little confused now on the consensus.

Can I add chipped chestnuts to a barley mash and obtain conversion of the chestnuts. Or do I need to boil the chestnuts and then add them to the mash?

I would like to avoid using amylase if possible.

Thanks again guys. :mug:

I would boil, then add. The amylase is already there.
 
So is anyone else having a consistently disgusting end product when using chestnuts? I've done two batches with chestnuts, the first was way too dry and no matter what I did with it, it tasted like a really nasty wine. The one I did recently isn't as nasty but nasty just the same and still nothing close to what beer tastes like.

I feel like other people had a lot of success with chestnuts so I'm wondering if you were all full of it or if I am just not doing something right.

Also I'm not a celiac or gluten intolerant so I don't drink GF beers so maybe I'm just comparing it too much with barley based beers.
 
So is anyone else having a consistently disgusting end product when using chestnuts? I've done two batches with chestnuts, the first was way too dry and no matter what I did with it, it tasted like a really nasty wine. The one I did recently isn't as nasty but nasty just the same and still nothing close to what beer tastes like.

I feel like other people had a lot of success with chestnuts so I'm wondering if you were all full of it or if I am just not doing something right.

Also I'm not a celiac or gluten intolerant so I don't drink GF beers so maybe I'm just comparing it too much with barley based beers.

Hate to say this but...., but it must be you, Rex Halfpenny who publishes the Michigan Beer Guide www.michiganbeerguide.com said in his March - April 2008 issue regarding some samples I had sent him, and I quote from his article on alternative beers, " On the beer scale it was the most beer like gluten free beer I have ever tasted." I have beer snob freinds that love the stuff I make out of 100 % chestnuts.

Google up "gluten free chestnut beer", and you'll see many first page articles about chestnut beer, including some on www.bellaonline.com by Carolyn Smagalski who is a certified internationally respected beer judge and expert.

leeinwa
 
Maybe he just needs to dial in his process. That and you should send him one of your beers so he knows how it should turn out :D

Guess I could round up a couple bottles of dark ale that I have left.Haven't made a beer in a year, Delveoping a chestnut liquerur {tremdous} and working with craft distilleries to produce a spirits of chestnuts. Very time consuming.

If his palate is preset he probably won't mine either. I'll need an address.

Leeinwa
 
I know you have a limited number, but I would be very interested in trying some chestnut beer as well. I have been looking to make some, but haven't found the desire to partake yet.
 
So is anyone else having a consistently disgusting end product when using chestnuts? I've done two batches with chestnuts, the first was way too dry and no matter what I did with it, it tasted like a really nasty wine. The one I did recently isn't as nasty but nasty just the same and still nothing close to what beer tastes like.

I feel like other people had a lot of success with chestnuts so I'm wondering if you were all full of it or if I am just not doing something right.

Also I'm not a celiac or gluten intolerant so I don't drink GF beers so maybe I'm just comparing it too much with barley based beers.

Why don't you detail the specifics of the process you did to create these two beers and your recipes and measurements that you had throughout the process? With this information I am sure Lee and the rest of us could help you find the issue in your process.
 
That is odd, but what other piece of the recipe could contribute that? I've always associated sorghum with a metallic twang...

No idea...maybe something about the yeast reacting to a greater amount of simple sugars? The cidery taste people describe when using too much table sugar?
 
I know this thread has been inactive for a while, so here's hoping that someone still reads this. I just started brewing gluten free beer for me and my girlfriend. The first batch was a failure, not the fault of the chestnut chips, but some bad hops. I'm trying to figure out how people are getting their beers to be so clear or if there's something I'm doing wrong. It's too expensive to keep making these mistakes :). What techniques are people using and what ingredients are people using to create a clear beer?

Besides the first failed batch, my second batch is a gluten free blueberry beer, which is currently aging in my 5L keg. A test-bottle that I opened last weekend after 10 days in the primary, 14 days in the secondary, and 7 days bottle conditioning was still a bit young. I used 1 tsp of pectinase during the mash but the end product looked like muddy water. In the last 15 minutes of the boil I added 1oz of irish moss. By time I siphoned it to the primary, it was still pretty cloudy.

The last batch I did things a little different. The pectinase was the same during the mash. I "primed" the irish moss this time in a couple tablespoons of water. I added 1oz at 30min of the boil and another 1oz in the last 15min. I am cold crashing for 48 hours in the fridge at ~35F prior to kegging. I'll know tomorrow for certain what the results of this batch will be, but I'm optimistic.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm all on board to brew GF chestnut beer, but it's difficult to relax and have a homebrew when I keep making new variations of the same mistake over and over.
 
I've done 2 chestnut brews. both using fresh picked chestnuts that I've chipped and oven roasted. i've just bottled the second brew a couple weeks ago and it still looks like water from the Murry.
for my second brew i used gelatin fining and cold crashed for 2 weeks at -2C (28F) and it still looked like mud.
my first brew was a proof of concept and only 3ltrs (3.2quarts) and i didn't do anything it still had hops floating around when i bottled it.
anyway here's my advise, TIME. box them up and put them away, the longer the better, don't even think about opening one for 3 months and when you can't wait any long put some in the fridge and wait longer (2 weeks) and then marvel at the difference.
the hops infused mud i first bottled looked, smelted, and tasted fantastic after 6 months (as long as you were careful on the pore, no cold crash etc before bottling meant there was a very thick layer of crap on the bottom of the bottle)
hopefully someone else can give you a faster clearing method, but if you ask me you should age your beer that long anyway.


I've never tried this on a large scale, but I've noticed that if you freeze the beer solid then let it defrost it clears up in a day or two. This will kill the yeast so you will have bring it up to temp and re-pitch to bottle or just keg.
if you still have that first brew and a deep freezer it might be worth experimenting.
 
I've never made a gluten free beer that came out clear, but then I never really tried very hard either. I've never been bothered by cloudy beer and actually kind of like the idea of it being a little "hardier" and robust (I know this might just be me rationalizing, but hey...it works). But like opm said, after some time aging a bit and in the fridge, a lot of the solids drop out.

Good luck.:mug:
 
As I learn more about homebrewing, I learn that that it takes a good 3 months for the beers to condition to proper flavor. From what I have studied, this holds true for gluten free beers as well. Or even more so. Four months is sounding more like what they need. I chose the dark roast to be ready for the early fall season as a celebration of the coming winter. Welcome to fall...BANG! -> in your face deep winter stout. That is what I'm talking about! I will mix it up, I promise. A nice amber as my next batch might just be the thing.

There are some considerations from what I have read about chestnuts when it comes to beer. Number one, it has a low fat content, which is good for beer AND as a food source. Oils will kill the head of your beer. The main consideration is that chestnuts do not have the amylase enzymes on their husks to convert the starches to fermentable sugars. This process takes about an hour with barley. For the chestnuts the recommended mash time is 24 hours. I am assuming that it is this long because of the size of the ground nut so that the water and enzymes have enough time to soak in and penetrate into the nut itself. Questions arise in my head about the grain size and whether or not that can be modified as the 24 hour mash time can be a bit troublesome for people. For me, not so much. I chose to add amylase and pectinase for the mash. Pectins will cloud the beer and keep it from looking like beer, even though it's not beer but we want it to resemble beer. That part is for presentation. It's not necessary.
I've also read that these beers can be overpowered by the hops, do I dialed them back a bit. The oils in nuts can reduce head retention, so I decided to use my mash tun instead of a steeping bag in the kettle. When using the mash tun, the oils floating on the surface can get trapped in the surface of the grist in the tun and be reduced somewhat not making it to the kettle. Some folks were getting a very dry high alcohol content with no sweetness at all to the beer or body. So I added chocolate nibs and goodly amounts of maltodextrin and lactose which are unfermentable sugars that have mild sweetness and I added a good amount of sugar, much more than most people were adding because I've read that the amounts of fermentable sugars from the chestnuts have been coming out low for many people. Whether that is the chemistry of the nut, the extraction process that the brewer used or a combination of both is kind of a grey area for me now until I get deep into some science of the nut itself. The lactose will make it more complex and I believe the maltodextrins will aid in head retention as well. So these two ingredients seem to be the backbone of Chestnut beer in my early opinion of brewing this batch. It's only my first batch so my opinion can be ****e at this point. I also used Gypsum to help balance the pH. I'm not sure what the best pH is for chestnut brew and amylase/pectinase, but our city water has a good amount of Calcium (gypsum) anyway, but I put it in just in case. It didn't raise the pH any (constant 5.4) but it may have kept it from lowering. Many people encounter a very muddy beer when finished so I also added much more whirfloc and irish moss to the boil as well as pectinase to the primary fermenter. Something called cold crashing will help with this also. Personally, after 4 months in the bottle it will probably all settle out anyway, but at least with the extras that I put in, I can drink a few before then. We will see. Hopefully they wont taint the flavor any. Again, time heals all wounds.

So this is what I did:

Heat 6.5 gallon of declorinated (sat over night) tap water to 180F. Transferred to mash tun with the Chestnuts already placed in there. It was 175F so I waited until it dropped and proceeded to:

Got my yeast starter going with 16oz water 2 tbsp demerara sugar and 1/4 tsp yeast nutrient

The mash temp after an hour was 170, I let it drop a little more then added:
2.5 tsp amylase
2.o tsp pectinase
2.o tsp gypsum
pH 5.4
3 hours later it was 155F
10 hours later it was 130F
21 hours later it was 105F

It tasted slightly sweet, chocolatey, and mildly roasty. YUM! I did not take a hydrometer reading, but it was only mildly sweet. I may have added the amylase to the mash when it was too hot. It's OK, I added so much sugar afterward that it will be nice.

At this point my yeast starter was really slowing down so 'EFF IT' I added another packet to the starter.

{Linton Kewesi Johnson, Dread Beat and Blood}

So here is the recipe:

Boil Wort
60 min 0.5 oz Fuggles
45 min 0.5 oz Kent Goldings
30 min 0.5 oz Fuggles
10 min 0.5 oz Kent Goldings
Dissolved solution of:
1 gallon of water
3.0 oz molasses
3.0 lb Demerara Sugar
2.0 lb Turbinado Sugar
5.o oz Malto Dextrin
10 oz Lactose
3 Whirfloc Tablets
2 tsp Irish Moss
1/2 cup Chestnut coffee

Chilled to 78F
Strained through a grain bag pitched with a total of 2 oz Nottingham yeast (one in the starter, one hydrated in the started 1 hour before pitching)
2 tsp pectinase straight from the bottle.
Ferment started 6 hours later
24 hours later, no krausen but a decent ferment at 70F ( I put frozen water bottles around the base of the fermenter because the yeast works best at 65F)

Secondary Ferment add 4 oz chocolate nibs

So that is the most intricate recipe that I have attempted thus far. I almost lost track of some things at times, but made it through. The next step is to remember the 4 oz chocolate nibs for the secondary fermenter.
 
Hey all. Sorry about that informal first post. It was taken from my blog. A little weird, to read if you didn't know that.

I have a gluten intolerance and am trying new ideas and have found this thread most illuminating! Thanks to you all for sharing your info and thank you very much Lee for all that you have done for chestnuts! So far, I am impressed big time! I'm looking for feedback as well as how you all are fairing with your chestnut and gluten free recipes. I am dying to learn more. Literally. I love real beer, but it kills my intestinal villi. I'm in pain right now! ha ha ha

anyway, thanks everyone, thank you Lee!

Sean
 
I discovered I cannot tolerate gluten a month or so back either from an intolerance or some kind of allergy. I've been drinking hard ciders and wine, but I simply love beer, especially homebrewed beer. I have done all grain, and the idea of stuck with a sorghum twang didn't excite me.

I am super excited by this thread.

To get my feet wet I am going to try the following. Let me know if I am missing anything.

For a 5 gallon batch:
5# light roasted chestnut chips
3# corn sugar
Nottingham Yeast
1 oz Chinook @ 60 minutes
1 oz Cascade @ 20 minutes
2 oz Cascade dry hopped.
 
Why corn sugar rather than rice syrup solids? Make sure you acquire amylase and pectinase for the chestnuts, as directed!
 
Why corn sugar rather than rice syrup solids? Make sure you acquire amylase and pectinase for the chestnuts, as directed!

I just picked corn sugar because that is what the chestnut vendor had on their website. I also changed to the medium roast.

Which do you recommend between corn sugar and the rice solids? I have no personal preference since this is my first GF brew.

Also, do you guys bother to sparge? I never did before. Can I use my old mash tun as usual rather than a bag?
 
the type of sugar shouldn't matter that much, but it will probably all get used up and have no residual sweetness for mouthfeel and taste really dry. you might want to cut back on the hops a bit too. I'm not sure but that amount sounds like it might be overpowering. Read up on maltodextrin. I"m not sure about the amount you are using, but that may be a bit heavy too.

The recipe that I posted a few days back seems to be going well. I added well over the amount of amylase and pectinase during the mash, added mega extra whirfloc tabs and she seems to be clearing up nicely. She's got some curdled looking material at the top and still bubbling away. When I transfer to secondary I"m gonna add the chocolate nibs. I can't wait! If you guys wanna see my blog post about it and some pics here is the link:

http://begreenandflow.blogspot.com/2012/05/chestnut-chocolate-stout-and-delaware.html

Just skip the first two paragraphs.
Prost!
 
the type of sugar shouldn't matter that much, but it will probably all get used up and have no residual sweetness for mouthfeel and taste really dry. you might want to cut back on the hops a bit too. I'm not sure but that amount sounds like it might be overpowering. Read up on maltodextrin. I"m not sure about the amount you are using, but that may be a bit heavy too.

The recipe that I posted a few days back seems to be going well. I added well over the amount of amylase and pectinase during the mash, added mega extra whirfloc tabs and she seems to be clearing up nicely. She's got some curdled looking material at the top and still bubbling away. When I transfer to secondary I"m gonna add the chocolate nibs. I can't wait! If you guys wanna see my blog post about it and some pics here is the link:

http://begreenandflow.blogspot.com/2012/05/chestnut-chocolate-stout-and-delaware.html

Just skip the first two paragraphs.
Prost!

I'm just going to make your recipe.
 
Has anyone tried making Belgian style beers with chestnuts and the methods in this thread? I'm really trying to sink my teeth into this style of brewing.

Also, how long do chestnuts last?
 
Has anyone tried using chestnut flour? I was thinking of giving this a try, but most places seem to be sold out of chestnut chips. Figured I could mix the flour with some water and bake little patties to gelatinize the starches and get the level of roast I'm looking for. Any suggestions or comments?
 
Has anyone tried using chestnut flour? I was thinking of giving this a try, but most places seem to be sold out of chestnut chips. Figured I could mix the flour with some water and bake little patties to gelatinize the starches and get the level of roast I'm looking for. Any suggestions or comments?
That's an interesting idea. I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on if it would work or not, but I'm curious to see what others have to say. You could always just do it on a small batch and see what happens.
 
Hi guys, sorry if this question has already been explained but i live in New Zealand and im trying to make my own chestnut chips. Has anyone attempted to do the same thing if so could you lend me any help?
 
I was also looking for Chestnut beer recipes. The link is to a 50:50 Chestnut/Malt recipe http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=9527.0
Anyway, the brewer refers to boiling the chestnuts in the shell, roasting, then shelling, then grinding with food processor, then using ground chestnuts in mash. You could mash with only chestnuts, but my guess is that you would have to add some additional sugar (maybe dextrose). Chestnus roughly have the same nutritional content as malted barley (doesn't mean they taste the same) except the sugars are not as readily available. You will need to add amylase. Amylase is an enzyme that breaks starch down into sugar. It is found in human saliva so I guess you could chew the chestnuts up instead of using a food processor. There's a peruvian beer made by chewing corn called chicha. Probably you would just want to buy amylase powder. I hope this is useful.
--ray
 
I was also looking for Chestnut beer recipes. The link is to a 50:50 Chestnut/Malt recipe http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=9527.0
Anyway, the brewer refers to boiling the chestnuts in the shell, roasting, then shelling, then grinding with food processor, then using ground chestnuts in mash. You could mash with only chestnuts, but my guess is that you would have to add some additional sugar (maybe dextrose). Chestnus roughly have the same nutritional content as malted barley (doesn't mean they taste the same) except the sugars are not as readily available. You will need to add amylase. Amylase is an enzyme that breaks starch down into sugar. It is found in human saliva so I guess you could chew the chestnuts up instead of using a food processor. There's a peruvian beer made by chewing corn called chicha. Probably you would just want to buy amylase powder. I hope this is useful.
--ray


Brewing with PROPERLY prepared chestnut chips is just like brewing with barley. People have a tendency to over complicate it. Yes, a little amylase breaks down the unfermentable starches, and to increase alcohol potentiality corn sugar can be added.[This gives a clean tasting alcohol] That doesn't over-ride the chestnut flavor. The beer chips I produce are shelled, dried, chipped and roasted and make a great tasting beer base without a bunch of additives. Google up Trails End Chestnut Beer and read some reviews. Leeiwa
 
Want to make a chestnut brew but am having trouble finding the chestnut chips? Anyone have a link? A "chestnut trails" link I found online was dead, and not having much luck with Google
 
I ordered about 50 lbs from lee several months ago...unless he has changed his mind he is only selling in bulk to a commercial brewery in Canada.

I was able to buy some of what he had left in stock. I think there is a guy in Michigan that sells them but I have not tried them yet.

Try grouse millet or the malted rice online...both will produce a great gf beer but the mashing has a bit of a learning curve
 
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