PB2 Reese's Stout

So, after searching the threads for good info on using powdered peanut butter in my beer, I wasn't able to come up with any really good results. I found a few threads that gave me a little inspiration, but decided to take things into my own hands. Here's my recipe... It's an Imperial Reese's Stout. It's a 6 gallon batch to make up for trub loss due to the PB2 and Chocolate. Around 9%abv.

15lbs. - UK Pale Malt
1.25lbs. - Crystal 60L
1.00lbs. - Crystal 40L
0.75lbs. - Chocolate Malt
0.50lbs. - Roasted Barley
0.40lbs. - Black Patent
0.50lbs. - Flaked Oats
0.50lbs. - Malto Dextrine (20min)
1oz. - Northern Brewer (60)
1oz. - Northern Brewer (20)
6.5oz. - PB2 Chocolate (45)
6.5oz. - PB2 (45)
6.5oz. - PB2 Chocolate (10)
6.5oz. - PB2 (10)
12oz. - Girardelli Powdered Baker's Chocolate (10)
2 - 11gram packs of US-05


Transferring it to the fermenter, there was an incredible chocolate flavor, with a little peanut butter aftertaste. I mashed at 154F for 1hour.

I'm now soaking an additional 6.5oz of each PB2 in enough 3 Olives Chocolate Vodka to get a creamy texture (about 1/4 of a bottle). After primary is complete, I'll be transferring the beer to secondary for 3 weeks on top of the additional PB2. I'm hoping the vodka will bring out the flavor a bit.

I'll continue to post updates on this as I go. Hopefully I'll get a good idea of what needs to be done with PB2 to make a good reese's beer.

What is PB2? Sounds interesting.

PB2 is a powdered peanut butter from Bellplantation.com

I didn't want to go through the two month process of deoiling a peanut butter, so I opted for the powdered version. It has the oil already removed and just contains roasted peanuts, sugar, and salt.

Very interested in how this comes out. Keep us posted.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

PB2 is a powdered peanut butter from Bellplantation.com

I didn't want to go through the two month process of deoiling a peanut butter, so I opted for the powdered version. It has the oil already removed and just contains roasted peanuts, sugar, and salt.

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That's interesting. So no preservatives? You said you had a chocolate one too, what source of chocolate do they use? I wonder how it's going to taste after the yeast has chewed up some of that sugar. I would consider maybe opting out with that if the chocolate is too artificial and adding some extra cocoa powder.

Also with your times, I don't think adding the powder at 45 will do much as I'm assuming you won't get much bitterness from the powder, you'll just drive off the volatile compounds. I wouldn't even do 10 minute additions, I'd go for <5 to preserve as much as possible.

arover said:

That's interesting. So no preservatives? You said you had a chocolate one too, what source of chocolate do they use? I wonder how it's going to taste after the yeast has chewed up some of that sugar. I would consider maybe opting out with that if the chocolate is too artificial and adding some extra cocoa powder.

Also with your times, I don't think adding the powder at 45 will do much as I'm assuming you won't get much bitterness from the powder, you'll just drive off the volatile compounds. I wouldn't even do 10 minute additions, I'd go for <5 to preserve as much as possible.

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This was mentioned in another thread. I would usually never add it before the last 5 minutes of the boil, but I'm experimenting. Another person used 4 jars of this stuff in the last 5 minutes and couldn't even taste it come bottling time. So... I'm trying to see if there's some potential for peanut butter when used in longer boils. I had a discussion about it with a somewhat local brewery and the brewer there seemed to think the 45 minute addition would work out.

As for the chocolate PB2, I'm not sure of they're source. It just says it has cocoa in it on the ingredients list. I've tasted it, and it's not overly chocolatey, so you could probably do without it.

I just updated my PB Powder stout thread with notes from my sample last night.

I'll be curious to see how your chocolate flavoring turns out. I'm a little disappointed that mine tastes too much like a deep, dark chocolate and not milky like I was hoping for. I guess I need to use a lot more lactose?

Yeah, lactose is the key for chocolate beers, but I wasn't sure how it would affect the peanut butter flavor, so I left it out of mine. I'll update this thread when I transfer mine to secondary in a week or so.

??? wondering how its going.

Transferred to the keg today. Will pull the first pint next week sometime. The transfer sample was once again stellar. A good friend from Australia who also brews is visiting and she loved it. She thought it had a perfect balance between peanut butter and chocolate. But then again, they don't have reeses down there...

psutimmah said:

??? wondering how its going.

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I haven't tasted mine quite yet. I'll be transferring to secondary this weekend, and I'll update at that point.

Well, I got a chance to sample mine tonight. It's got a lot of time left. There's a lot of foam on top, but it doesn't look like krausen. I'm thinking its the chocolate bubbling up with the co2 at the top.

I get a definate roasted chocolate flavor from the beer, but only a slight hint of peanut butter. I'll be transferring to secondary on friday after a few more days in primary, and I'll leave it in secondary for two weeks with the peanut butter I soaked in vodka. Hopefully it pulls out a bit more peanut butter. If I get to bottling and it's still subtle, I'll add another 2 jars of PB2.

I took a pint of mine to Blind Tiger (arguably one of the best beer bars in NYC) to share with the bartenders and the Friday lunch locals. It got a glowing response! The comments (other than the obligatory wows) were that it had an incredible peanut butter smell and a general nutty flavor mixed well with the dark chocolate foundation.

I'm going to nearly halve the cocoa addition next time and up the lactose by 50%. I think I've hit another homerun with this one! Sucks that there is zero head retention though...

Well, I transferred to secondary today and added 2 more jars of PB2. One was regular, one was chocolate. I tasted after the addition and it definately helped up the peanut butter. Hopefully after a few weeks, it will be just where I want it.

For anyone thinking about doing this type of beer with PB2...plan big. I brewed a 6 gallon batch assuming I'd lose about a gallon in trub. When I got done racking to secondary, I had a little over 4.5 gallons after losses. It's probably going to be more once I bottle.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

For anyone thinking about doing this type of beer with PB2...plan big. I brewed a 6 gallon batch assuming I'd lose about a gallon in trub. When I got done racking to secondary, I had a little over 4.5 gallons after losses. It's probably going to be more once I bottle.

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+1 on that. When mine finally hit the keg, it was closer to 4 gallons than 5. The yeasty/peanut sludge in the secondary was a pain to get out too.

Another update:

I bottled my Stout about two weeks ago, but haven't yet tried it. I did sample it at bottling and was a little dissappointed. The beer tasted great, but it was a lot of chocolate. The peanut flavor is noticeable, so I'm hoping it will get better when the chocolate flavor fades. Either way...it doesn't taste like reeses, so I'll have to tweak the recipe to improve that. It tastes more like roasted peanuts and chocolate.

I'm wondering if the high alcohol content effected the flavor of the peanut butter. After all the PB2 additions, I'm estimating this is around 10.5-11%abv.

More updates when I crack one open in the next week or so.

Well, I just tried one tonight. I got impatient and decided to taste one. It definately needs some time. The chocolate and roasted malts are the most dominant flavors, with a subtle hint of peanut butter. I can't tell if that's because I know it's there, or if I actually taste it.

I'm giving some of them out for x-mas presents, so we'll see what others say.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

Well, I just tried one tonight. I got impatient and decided to taste one. It definately needs some time. The chocolate and roasted malts are the most dominant flavors, with a subtle hint of peanut butter. I can't tell if that's because I know it's there, or if I actually taste it.

I'm giving some of them out for x-mas presents, so we'll see what others say.

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That was my problem as well. The bold, complex flavors of the stout tend to bury the peanutty goodness. I can definitely taste it in mine, but it kind of gets lost. I'm leaning toward using it in a chocolate brown mashed really high with virtually no hops the next time. Totally eliminate roasted barley from the recipe...

I'm brewing a dry peanut butter stout this weekend. I couldnt get pb2 in time without paying a to bin shipping so I starred looking elseware. I found trader joes sells peanut butter flour (does not contain flour but they call it that because of the consistency). It comes in 1lbs packages for under $4. I'm doing a 10 gallon so I'll probably pitch two packs at flameout and then one in the secondary.

alexnphillips said:

I'm brewing a dry peanut butter stout this weekend. I couldnt get pb2 in time without paying a to bin shipping so I starred looking elseware. I found trader joes sells peanut butter flour (does not contain flour but they call it that because of the consistency). It comes in 1lbs packages for under $4. I'm doing a 10 gallon so I'll probably pitch two packs at flameout and then one in the secondary.

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What does it say on the ingredient list? What's the fat content on the label? You've piqued my interest!

alexnphillips said:

I'm brewing a dry peanut butter stout this weekend. I couldnt get pb2 in time without paying a to bin shipping so I starred looking elseware. I found trader joes sells peanut butter flour (does not contain flour but they call it that because of the consistency). It comes in 1lbs packages for under $4. I'm doing a 10 gallon so I'll probably pitch two packs at flameout and then one in the secondary.

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I saw this stuff also, but I think that fat content was so high that I decided to go with PB2. There's also a site online that sells the same stuff labeled as "dehydrated peanut butter". I can't remember what the name of the place was though.

Mischief_Brewing said:

What does it say on the ingredient list? What's the fat content on the label? You've piqued my interest!

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going to pick it up tonight. I'll let you know. Here is a pretty good article on all the different dried peanut butters.

http://www.wellsphere.com/healthy-living-article/powdered-peanut-butter-a-review-taste-test/1238218

also, while we're talking about it. What should I do for the secondary? I was thinking about bringing the peanut butter to a "boil" with some water, covering, and cool in the freezer before pitching it.

SO I have been following this and I am glad someone put their skills to the test and lay out some groundwork. I am certain to try a Reese's Stout here soon. Please keep posting b/c I am still trying to put ideas together and all your insight is VERY helpful.

alexnphillips said:

also, while we're talking about it. What should I do for the secondary? I was thinking about bringing the peanut butter to a "boil" with some water, covering, and cool in the freezer before pitching it.

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The problem with boiling it in water is how much water you'll actually need. I found that mixing mine with vodka took WAAAY too much vodka and didn't give me more than a clumpy mess. After everything, I ended up just mixing it directly into the secondary by slowly stirring. I still ended up with a lot of clumped up PB2 at the bottom of my secondary though, so I'm assuming I lost a little flavor there. You'd think 3 weeks on that peanut butter would give it a good flavor though.

Harvestsmiles said:

SO I have been following this and I am glad someone put their skills to the test and lay out some groundwork. I am certain to try a Reese's Stout here soon. Please keep posting b/c I am still trying to put ideas together and all your insight is VERY helpful.

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I will keep posting as I drink them. I'm hoping that with a little time, they will mellow out and give off more peanut butter flavor. One thing I noticed with PB2 (even when mixed as normal peanut butter) is that it doesn't have an overly sweet flavor to it. It mostly tasted like roasted peanuts. I think an addition of lactose is definately needed to bring out the flavor, but you'd have to cut down on the chocolate a lot at the same time.

I'm going to give this recipe a makeover and see what I can do with it. I'll be lowering the alcohol while keeping the basic grist %'s the same, and I'll use milk chocolate (a lot less) instead of 100% baker's cocoa.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

The problem with boiling it in water is how much water you'll actually need. I found that mixing mine with vodka took WAAAY too much vodka and didn't give me more than a clumpy mess. After everything, I ended up just mixing it directly into the secondary by slowly stirring. I still ended up with a lot of clumped up PB2 at the bottom of my secondary though, so I'm assuming I lost a little flavor there. You'd think 3 weeks on that peanut butter would give it a good flavor though.



I will keep posting as I drink them. I'm hoping that with a little time, they will mellow out and give off more peanut butter flavor. One thing I noticed with PB2 (even when mixed as normal peanut butter) is that it doesn't have an overly sweet flavor to it. It mostly tasted like roasted peanuts. I think an addition of lactose is definately needed to bring out the flavor, but you'd have to cut down on the chocolate a lot at the same time.

I'm going to give this recipe a makeover and see what I can do with it. I'll be lowering the alcohol while keeping the basic grist %'s the same, and I'll use milk chocolate (a lot less) instead of 100% baker's cocoa.

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I don't have my receipe with me but it will basically be like the one below. We substitued some chocolate malts for the roasted, added lactose, add oats, and of course the peanut butter. We're using a ton of this trader joe's peanut flour so I hope we get that flavor.

I tried some of the peanut butter last night just mixed with water and like you said it tasted like roasted peanuts. I think its going to be a damn good beer.

http://www.brewmorebeer.com/category/recipes/stout/

I used vodka as well, a hell of a lot of vodka, and had to water it down significantly to get it out of the tupperware it was in to put in secondary. No infection, but hated putting unboiled water in, at least it was filtered...

Very interested in brewing this but would like to know how it turned out. been a while now. any updates?

jpaulson344 said:

Very interested in brewing this but would like to know how it turned out. been a while now. any updates?

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I drank the last bottle of mine when my sister was out visiting last month. She asked me to brew it again

My thoughts for the next time will be slightly less cocoa powder, mash higher temp, and do all 16 oz of PB2 powder in secondary. I probably won't change anything else.

jpaulson344 said:

Very interested in brewing this but would like to know how it turned out. been a while now. any updates?

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I'm confident that my recipe is a good one...but I'm not 100% sure about this batch. I'm still picking up sour notes (green apple) on the back end. I tried one about 3-4 weeks ago, so I'll probably try one within the next few weeks to gauge it's progress more.

I'm still holding out hope that this is tasting like green apples because of the high alcohol content and needing more time to condition, but I'm starting to worry. 3 months in the bottles should be plenty for it to start tasting at least drinkable.

I'm hoping that I didn't pick up an infection while adding one of the PB2 additions to secondary.

Thanks for that update guys. I'll be brewing this tonight. Ill test out your recommendations Mischief

Well, my batch was officially infected. I tried one over the weekend and it tastes like a flanders red. I've been wondering whether it was infected or not since I started noticing white chunks floating in my glass whenever I poured one.

Oh well...I've got a friend who's willing to drink them, and I'll hopefully attempt this recipe again, but I'll be going about it a different way.