Pistachio beer?

[biggrigs173]

So I currently live in Sicily. One of the biggest cash crops here are pistachios. They make an incredible pistachio cream. I have been contemplating making some kind of pistachio themed beer. Maybe adding the pistachio cream to the boil in the last few minutes and into the primary kind of like a pumpkin ale. The only problem is I have no idea what kind of base beer may be compatible. Maybe a pistachio porter? What do you guys think?

 

[jknapp12105]

I it were me, I would split the pistachios, toast them on 300 degrees or until nice and brown, then add them to the secondary. Put them in the secondary first then rack beer on top. Also I would wrap them in cheese cloth before dropping into the secondary because you won't lose as much beer as you would just dropping them in the secondary. If you just put them in the primary whole and fresh out the shell, they will not put off a solid enough flavor. Just my two cents.

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Given how delicate the flavor is, my first thought was a Pistachio Lager. Maybe a lighter lager with a hint of munich malt and a touch of biscuit.

You'd probably lose head retention due to the oils. Read up about peanut butter stouts to get an idea for what you're dealing with.

That's all I got, sorry.

 

[SixStrings]

I agree that a lighter beer will probably then the pistachios shine through better. The new BYO had an article about brewing with nuts; for pistachios it calls for making an extract by roasting the nuts, steeping them in boiled water and freezing it to separate fat, which should help with the head retention problem. They also give a recipe for a pistachio pale ale if you're interested.

 

[Chris7687]

SixStrings - I have this recipe and I am looking to do a 2.5 gallon batch of it, but I am a little unclear on what is being frozen. My understanding is to steep and then freeze just the water or am I freezing the water with the pistachios in the water?

 

[weirdboy]

As an experiment, I made a pistachio porter using extract a while back...it was tasty, but I could only really drink one beer and then I'd want something else that didn't taste like pistachios. It just had this very "rich" flavor that was good but only in smaller quantities.

 

[daksin]

Have you ever had Rogue's Hazelnut Nectar? It's a delicious malty brown ale with a strong hazelnut flavor- I think something similar would be great with pistachios. Both would be complimented by the nice nutty and chocolately flavors in a brown ale.

 

[Chris7687]

I was thinking a pistachio cream ale and experiment in a 1-2 gallon batch size. Was going to go to the LHBS to grab the 3 gallon carboys and give it a whirl. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 

[Liquisky]

I was thinking a pistachio cream ale and experiment in a 1-2 gallon batch size. Was going to go to the LHBS to grab the 3 gallon carboys and give it a whirl. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

My friend asked me for a pistachio beer. Any of these ideas pan out?