Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Pecan Pie Ale

Mash Profile: Single infusion mash @ 154 F
ABV: 6.1%

Grains:

11# Pale 2-row
1# Crystal 60L
1# Flaked oats
.5# Biscuit Malt
.5# Carapils

Hops:

.5 oz CTZ (13.1%) @ 60 min
.75 oz Cascade (5.6%) @ 15 min

Yeast:

Fermented with approximately 2 cups of yeast slurry from a previous batch. After primary fermentation, rack to secondary and add 1# of candied pecans. I made the candied pecans in my kitchen (half a pound at a time) with the following recipe:

-Melt two tablespoons of butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat
-Add 1/2# chopped pecans and toss until pecans are covered uniformly
-Sprinkle 1/2 cup of table sugar over the pecans
-Continuously mix until the sugar has melted and then coated the pecans
-Remove from heat and let cool
-Chop a bit finer if desired
-Add to secondary fermenter

Wow this looks really good. I''ve been thinking about making a kind of pecan pie ale. How was the head of the beer tho because I''ve heard that the oils from the pecans can hurt the head. And by any chance do you have any pictures? I'm still working all extract so I'll have to convert this but I really want to try this. Thanks!

I haven't had one in a while, but IIRC there weren't any issues with the head. I do have pictures, but unfortunately a lot of my beers look remarkably similar so I wouldn't be able to ensure that the one I am showing you is the correct one. I will have one this weekend and take a pic for you.

Would making the candied pecans work without the butter? Just pecans and sugar. Seems like that would eliminate a good amount of fat from being introduced to the secondary.

I like this idea, but as much as I love butter in my cooking, I'm not real comfortable adding it to my brewing.

I'm not really a cook or a baker, so I don't know for sure, but I imagine there is a way to to what you're proposing. See if you can find a recipe without the butter use that instead.

Maybe dissolve the sugar in water first? That would allow for even coating of the pecans, but still eliminate the butter.

Ladies and gents. My first post.... nice to be here. Now in regards to the pecans being candied as previously mentioned.

You can Candy them with just water and Sugar.
Firstly weigh up your pecans for example say 1kg or 2 pounds.
Weigh up 1 pound or 500gms of Sugar . Place your Sugar in a absolutely clean pot. Add water until the Sugar is well saturated . I'm terrible with imperial measurements so let's just say 1to 1 . Don't stir it. Just boil it. When the bubbles has slowed down, and the bubbles are appearing to burst at a slower speed this can take from 5 minutes 10 minutes depending how strong your heat source is, watch the Sugar carefully. At this point you can add the pecans and stir it continuesly off the heat. Your nuts will change the core temp so rapidly the Sugar will recrystalize and coat the nuts . You can use this meathod to omit the butter.

Now if you want the caramel flavour which I think your after. You can do the same thing just wait until the Sugar starts to turn Brown. Toss in your nuts and stir off the heat. At this point if you want to add a tablespoon of butter you can, which is called deglazing it slows down the temperature from increasing and it's actually old school caramel...
the darker the colour of caramel is not going to give you more flavour. Sugar can still increase in temp by being in the pan. When you have burnt caramel ( smoke is expelled ) it may not be the desired flavour.
For the recrystalized or candied nuts the suger needs to reach 121 celcius.
For the carmelized pecans the temp is 156 to 160 celcius.

If at any time the Sugar starts to recrystalize before the temp is reached you pot was not properly cleaned. There must be no impurities

Hope this helps.

Brewed this up yesterday. Hope it will taste as good as it sounds. Will post once it's done and let you know how it turned out. Thanks for this recipe.

Just found this recipe. Next beer to brew. I can't say how happy I am. I've also found info on candied pecans by using egg whites as a binder. I know egg whites are hydrophobic, so I'm inclined to try this.

I think I found my next brew. Thank you. Might do a pumpkin spice at the same time. Now a question. How critical are the fermenting temps? Would it be wise to have a second fridge? Even in the basement here I can pretty much maintain 67f-70f.

IMO using butter and candy-ing the pecans is a bit unnecessary. Toasting the pecans is a good idea to bring out flavor and drive off some of the oils.

Here is a BYO article about nuts

http://byo.com/stories/item/2530-brewing-gone-nuts

I'm working on some sort of nut brew for the relative near future. A pecan pie beer does seem like a good idea. Im thinking toast the pecans, and use molasses or dark belgian candy sugar to give that rich deep caramelized sugar flavor.

Thanks for the motivation.

Amishbrewing said:

I think I found my next brew. Thank you. Might do a pumpkin spice at the same time. Now a question. How critical are the fermenting temps? Would it be wise to have a second fridge? Even in the basement here I can pretty much maintain 67f-70f.

Click to expand...

I would try to get a few degrees lower than you can currently get. You don't want a bunch of yeast derived flavors interfering with the pecan pie character.

Does the butter and the pecan oil kill the head retention?

cch0830 said:

Does the butter and the pecan oil kill the head retention?

Click to expand...

Not that I've noticed. I'll take a pic next time I pour one and let you know how long it lasted.

how close was this to an actual pecan pie?

I wouldn't say it actually tasted like pecan pie, but it had a nice nutty character to it that was complimented by some residual sweetness and caramel notes.

I have a pecan pie ale currently in the primary and will be moving it to the secondary this weekend. How long did you have the candied pecans in your secondary? Was it the full 2 weeks?

Thanks for your help.