Pecans???

So I made my Pecan Porter this weekend! Wow does it smell, look and taste great. But, how do you calculate the yield of pecans? I took really good notes as always but can't be sure that my efficiency and such is correct becasue I really don't know how to figure the yields for adjuncts. So where would one go to look for things such as pecans, almonds, honey, etc???

How many pecans did you use? I can't answer your questions, but was considering something like this as well. Do you foresee any problems with pecan oils and head retention?

Here's the recipe:

Batch Size: 5.500 gal
Boil Size: 7.000 gal
Boil Time: 1.000 hr
Efficiency: 75%
SG: 1.054
OG: 1.065
FG: 1.015
ABV: 6.5%
Bitterness: 28.2 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 32.6 SRM (Morey)

Roasted Barley - 10 oz
Chocolate Malt - 4 oz
Carmel/Crystal 60 - 10 oz
MaltEurop Pale 2 Row - 7 lbs
Flaked Barley - 1 lb
Maris Otter - 1 lb
Carmel/Crystal 120 - 10 oz
Pecans - 2 lbs


Northern Brewer @ 60 min
Cascade @ 5 min
Northern Brewer @ 15 min


Irish Moss
Yeast Nutrient

Wyeast - Thames Valley Ale 1275

I have a Porter recipe that is great, so I tweaked it to make this. 2 lbs of pecans may be a lot, but I don't think it will be. I roasted them 4 times for 15 min each time at 300F. In between roastings, I dried and crushed them, not too much on the crush, just a rolling pin over them a few times to break them up. I layed them out on paper towels and covered them in paper towels while I rolled over them. Then I put them into a container for about 36 hours. I hope I got most of the oil out, but won't know for a few weeks.

I look forward to hearing about the results. Please remember to post back lol. I contemplated similar, but didn't make the jump yet.

Absolutely. I'm pretty excited about this one, so I will keep you updated.

I really hope someonw can answer my question though!

I did a Pecan Porter that is in the secondary now. I only used about 12 oz or so in a 10 gallon batch. Mashed them with the grains.

The porter is excellent, but definately could use some more pecan flavor to it. 2 lbs in a 7 gallon batch should be interesting, let us know how prevalent the taste is.

knightbeer39 said:

I did a Pecan Porter that is in the secondary now. I only used about 12 oz or so in a 10 gallon batch. Mashed them with the grains.

The porter is excellent, but definately could use some more pecan flavor to it. 2 lbs in a 7 gallon batch should be interesting, let us know how prevalent the taste is.

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Were able to figure out you PPG and yields, or did you just ignore it?

I think 2 lbs is going to be about right, but it may actually not be enough. While tasting the samples, the pecan was very slight and mostly in the aftertaste. I'm sure it will come through more after fermentation, but in the beginning it was not overpowering at all. I also added the pecans to the mash and did a 60 min mash at 152F.

Nobody? Really? Revvy, Yoop, anybody???

Jason_Merritt said:

Were able to figure out you PPG and yields, or did you just ignore it?

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I just ignored it. With as little as I put in I didn't figure it would matter too much.

I have a very slight aftertaste of pecan on mine. It's nice, but I would have enjoyed a bit more of the pecan flavor. I toasted mine in the oven until they were very dark brown, then I did the ol' cuisinart on them and put them in with the grain. I think I mashed at 158 for 60 min and mashed out at 180. I was looking for more body in this beer.

Do you think crushing them more in the cuisinart helped? I just smashed mine up pretty good but left some small "chunks". SWMBO suggested sticking them in the cuisinart but I didn't do it.

Jason_Merritt said:

Do you think crushing them more in the cuisinart helped? I just smashed mine up pretty good but left some small "chunks". SWMBO suggested sticking them in the cuisinart but I didn't do it.

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Always listen to SWMBO!!

I think it did; helps to impart more flavor in the beer and spread the pecans through the mash a little more thoroughly.

Jason

If you consistently hit a set effeciency (e.g., 70%) and overshot your target OG, couldn't you just assume the gained points were from the pecans? I would calculate your target OG with malt only at your normal efficiency. If you overshot your target OG, you can then figure out how many points you gained from the pecans. So, if you were 6 points over target OG, yould would assume a 3 point extract addition per lb of pecans.

That makes sense. However, my target SG was 1.054 and I hit 1.050 and my target OG was 1.065 and I hit 1.060. So know what?

Were you over on volume? If so you could correct your target OG.

I was a little under volume. I've been having some issues with boil off.

Lets see if my logic flows the right way today... There's a lot of assumptions that have to be made.

Nutrition facts on pecans http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3129/2 - 13.7% carbohydrate by weight

Nutrition facts on malt barley flour http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5788/2 - 78.4% carbohydrate by weight - which is similar to the figures oft quoted as "lab yeilds" for barley.

So assuming the enzymes in the malt are capable of converting the starches in pecans to fermentable sugar, pecans should have .137/.784= 17.5% the yeild of 2 row. Since you used 2 pounds, this should give a yeild equivalent to .35# of 2 row.

Sounds about right to me... any flaws in my logic?

Where were you with this info Sunday?!?!?!?! haha Thanks.

Ah. Your post reminded me to go googlefoo on it ;-)

Jason

Any udpate on this beer? I'm going to be doing something similar with chestnuts and am trying to determine the amount of chestnuts to use.

I'm thinking about making an amber or nut brown as the base beer. Are the pecans hidden by all the roasted malts in a porter?

It's still in conditioning in the bottle. Only been a little more than a week. The sample was very roasty tasting, with a nutty flavor. The pecans weren't very prevalent. I think next time I will crush the pecans a lot more, maybe even put them in the food processor. Of course until I crack one open it's hard to tell what I need to change. I'll post an update when I drink the first one. Probably another week or two.

Update...Opened this first one today. It is GOOD! The aroma is fantastic. Very nutty. But the flavor does not have a lot of nuttiness but has a roasted flavor. The hop schedule couldn't have been better. Slight bitterness. Next time I make this I wll mash at a slightly higher temp probably 155F or 156F. My temp was 153F on this one and I think it's a bit thin. Probably will add some Carafoam as well to help the body. I am also going to up the pecans to 3 lbs next time and crush them in the cuisinart. Overall I am very pleased with this beer. I am entering a chili cookoff next weekend and I think I am going to add one bottle of this to my chili.

Great to hear, Jason. My chestnut brown hydro samples taste pretty good. I only had 2 lbs of nuts after roasting, but I milled mine along with the grain. I roasted the chestnuts until they were amber in color, which gave them a sweet caramelly taste. Surprisingly, the flavor is fairly prominent in the beer.

The higher mash temp will definately help the body. None of the Pecan Porters I have made or had, had very good head retention. I have never roasted my pecans so much so I was wondering if that helped with yours?

I usually use 4 oz. of Pecans per 5 gallons in the mash, I could see where more couldnt hurt but 4 times more and you still dont get the nuttiness?

chriswilkes33 said:

The higher mash temp will definately help the body. None of the Pecan Porters I have made or had, had very good head retention. I have never roasted my pecans so much so I was wondering if that helped with yours?

I usually use 4 oz. of Pecans per 5 gallons in the mash, I could see where more couldnt hurt but 4 times more and you still dont get the nuttiness?

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Head retention was actually pretty good. Roasting them defintely helped get the oils out. Like I said, the aroma is fantastically nutty, but the flavor is more "roasty". It's only been in the bottle 3 weeks so I'm sure it will change some. It's defintely a good beer though.

Update: Took this beer with me to Thanksgiving dinner. OMG! Couldn't have asked for a better pairing with the fried turkey, glazed ham and yams and cranberry sauce. The flavors were almost overpowering they came on so strong. But it was perfect pairing of food and beer. This beer has gotten better with age. I am down to about 6 left and they will be gone in the next week or so. This will become one of the regulars in the Wild Ginger Brewing stable. I am looking forward to making it again with 3 lbs of pecans though. It has been very well received by my friends so I guess it is officially a hit!

Great, Jason. I made a chestnut beer with 2 lbs of roasted chestnuts. They were roasted to a dark amber color. This beer is finally carbed and very tasty. I was surprised that the roasted chestnut flavor came through in my beer. As you've experienced I'd up the total amount of nuts.

Any issues with head retention in your finished product? None here as chestnuts have virtually no fat.

Chestnuts sound good! I may give that a shot one time too. The head retention has not been a big issue. I roasted the pecans numerous times and crushed as I went and I think that helped quite a bit. If I up the pecans to 3 lbs like I probably will, then I think I will want to roast them even longer though.