Real nuts in a nut brown ale?

The beer of the day on my "365 Bottles Of Beer For The Year" calendar is Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan Brown Ale, which actually uses pecans in its recipe.

Has anyone used nuts to make a true nut brown ale (or any other color)? If so, what did you use, how did you use them, and how did it turn out?

"Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale is the first beer in the world, to our knowledge,
made with real roasted pecans. The pecans are used just like grain and provide a
nutty characteristic and a delightful depth to the flavor profile. The brewing process
takes full advantage of our very soft, slightly alkaline water, which is known to
bring out the deep flavors of darker malts"

From the brewery's website, which actually goes into a bit of detail (although no recipe).

http://www.lazymagnolia.com/SouthernPecan.html

This might help you out somewhat:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=58853&highlight=pecan

Way back when I was a brewing n00b (using mr. beer extract kits) and had no idea what I was doing, I made a bazillion recipes that I might brew one day- one of which being a honey almond porter. This was before I knew honey completely ferments out & gives a dry & tart flavor. Anyway, the plan was to take about a pound of almonds, crush or slice them, toast them in my oven for however long without burning them, and chucking them into the 2ndary for about 2 weeks or so.

Never got around to brewing it though, but I think it would be a good idea. I like walnuts better than pecans, but I'd be afraid of them imparting a very dry flavor (although if that's what you're going for then why not). I still plan to make the almond porter, although I might use honey for the honey character.

Go for it, throw some pecans into a 2ndary, or into the boil even. Why not?

I wonder if they are using some type of extract? The oils in any nut would certianly have a negative impact on head retention.

I'm not speaking from experience, but I've heard oils from nuts can ruin head retention. Maybe someone with some more experience can confirm or deny this.

Big10Seaner said:

This might help you out somewhat:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=58853&highlight=pecan

Click to expand...

Somewhat? The actual brewer shows up and gives advice!

I made a Pecan Wee Heavy last year (Wrath of Khan) and there certainly wasn't much head and I don't think it had enough pecan flavor. Something wasn't right about it, but it was worth a try. I'm working on a Hazelnut Stout, too....

Hi! Sorry I took so long! The resident "nut" is here now though!

OK, nut jokes aside, here's the follow up from Hammer One's recipe:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=64020

Here's the thread on the Pecan Wee Heavy that I wound up involved in:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=45344

Here's the recipe for my Pecan 80/- that I brewed, and ClutchDude did a variant of:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=49707
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=66687

Hazelnuts, at 62g of fat in a 100g serving, will probably not give you any head.

Jamil says that the victory malt and the pale chocolate bring out the hints of nut in his nut brown ale

Look into nut extracts. I'm using some Hazelnut extract in Jamil's Chocolate hazelnut Porter. Probably the easiest route.

Also you could maybe roast and smash the nut then lay them out of wax paper or something to get the oils out like when using peanut butter in brewing. Don't know if this would strip out all the flavor or not.

My buddy and I recently made a Maple Pecan Nut Brown Ale. We mashed nearly a pound of them in with the grains in our partial mash. We had toasted them about 6 times to get any oils off. We added maple syrup five minutes before the end of the boil. We kegged it, and when we tapped it, it had an amazing nitro-stout like head even though it was on CO2. As long as you get the oils off by toasting and mash them in, the head should be fine. The beer was amazing (and the smoothest 9% I've ever had!).