Agave nectar

I have searched the threads and web and find the starts of several threads involving using agave nectar, but there has been minimal or no follow up posts on results. Most threads turn into a discussion about meads.

I am thinking of brewing with agave nectar. I personally find it has the sweetness of honey but a unique taste. I was thinking of adding two or three pounds of it at flame out... Either for a batch of blonde or wheat.

Has anyone actually brewed a batch with agave nectar and if so, how'd it turn out?

 

I used 16oz in a saison. It took a long time for that beer to mellow out and be drinkable, but it is now very nice. I don't know how much of that is because of the agave though, because I also used ginger and I believe I used a little too much.

I get agave cheap at Costco, so I will be using more in the future. My next plan is to use it in a brown ale, possibly to prime.

 

Not sure how it tastes, but the last issue of Zymurgy had a recipe for "Pulqueza" hybrid agave beer, which sounded pretty good. the recipe was 4lb lme, 4lb agave nectar and 2oz cascades with 1lb carapils for steeping.

 

Irish Brewer, did you have any success with this? How did it turn out?

 

Crappily enough, I haven't had a chance to brew it yet. I have everything I need including 3+ pounds of agave nectar but just no time. Hoping to get to it this weekend.

 

i used some in a tripel and the beer came out great. I couldn't say it tasted any different than using table sugar, it has quite the mild flavor.

 

There are 3 types of Agave, much like maple syrup. Light, amber, and dark. Stronger flavors (and I suspect more unfermentables) with darker syrup. I use a pound of light in an Agave Wheat, and it leaves a hint of something different. I put it in the boil at about 20 minutes left. I might try an amber soon.

 

I think it's Breckenridge that has an Agave Wheat that I really like. Sounds promising. I have a bottle that I use occasionally as a sweetener and Its a nice flavor. I imagine you could substitute it for honey in any recipe right? this site (All About Agave - Substituting Agave Nectar for Other Sugars) suggests using a 1:1 ratio when replacing honey, so probably don't even need to tinker with the ratio.

Now I'm thinking of brewing up a simple Agave Blonde for spring. (Mexican Blonde?)

 

You need to see what kind of agave product you're using. There's agave syrup which is like a corn syrup. It's refined agave sugar in a syrup. It has almost no agave flavor. Then there's agave nectar, which can be refined to be a lot like honey in flavor or very raw and more tequila-like. I've used the more processed stuff (in a mead) and you get some agave flavor but the more raw it is the more flavor you will get. Look in organic food stores, health food stores and higher end grocers for the less processed stuff. You can tell the amount of processing by looking at the color (the lighter the more processed).

 

Here is a recipe I've made several times with great results. It is a very simple tasty wheat. I use the Amber Agave Nectar in hopes of more flavor coming through. This goes for the use of US-05 as well, I think a wheat strain would overpower any delicate agave notes that you're looking for. I wouldn't say that the agave hits you in the face but it is most definitetly different from a wheat without it. The reason for using 23.5 ounces of Agave was that was the size of the containers I bought them in. The next time I brew this I plan on changing out the 2-row for Pilsner malt and upping it to a 90 minute boil. It's very enjoyable after about 3 weeks of conditioning but continues to improve over the next few months.

Agave Wheat
Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
Type: All Grain Calories: 181
Rating: 4.0 Efficiency: 75 %
IBU's: 12.07 Boil Size: 7.00 Gal
Color: 3.6 SRM Batch Size: 5.50 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes

________________________________________
Estimated Actual
Brew Date: - 10/22/2011
OG: 1.055 1.050
FG: 1.016 1.008
ABV: 5.11 % 5.50 %
Serve Date: 12/06/2011 / /
________________________________________

Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp Estimated Actual
Primary 21 days @ 68.0°F 10/22/2011 10/22/2011
Bottle/Keg 21 days @ 74.0°F 11/11/2011 11/15/2011

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
5.00 lbs 47.76 % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 60 mins 1.036
4.00 lbs 38.21 % Wheat Malt, Ger 60 mins 1.039
23.50 ozs 14.03 % Agave Nectar 60 mins 1.034

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
0.75 ozs 10.03 Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 60 mins 4.00
0.25 ozs 1.21 Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 10 mins 4.00
0.50 ozs 0.83 Hallertauer Mittelfrueh 3 mins 4.00

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg Safale US-05 Fermentis (null)

Additions
(none)

Mash Profile
________________________________________
Medium Body Infusion 60 min @ 154.0°F

Add 11.25 qt ( 1.25 qt/lb ) water @ 170.9°F
________________________________________

Carbonation
Amount Type Beer Temp CO2 Vols
4.90 oz Corn Sugar - Bottle Carbonation 74.0°F 2.50

 

Rob, what is the hop flavor like? I found Saaz and Tettnang nice with agave. Wondering how Hallertau plays. I imagine similarly, given the region

 

Thanks for the recipe Rob. This one will be one of my last extract brews and I hope to go all grain within a month or so. Defininatly would like to brew that once I change over. The nectar I have is Honey Tree Organic Agave Nectar and is dark amber in color. What did you factor for its SG? I have three 24.7 ounce containers and am not entirely sure how much to use. I read somewhere to use 1.036 for SG. I use the iBrewmaster app on iPad but it didn't have it listed, I need to manually add it.

 

Steph- the hops play pretty nice with the agave. Even doing three hop additions the IBU's are low and flavor/aroma additions don't dominate this brew.

Irish- I use 1.034 for the agave and the numbers seem to work for me. Also if you would like to do this as an extract just replace all the grain with say 6# wheat DME. This will get you close to my OG. I can't attest to an extract version since I haven't done one but I think you'll be close, just a little darker than the AG.

 

Just brewed it finally tonight. 1.072 on the hydrometer so I figure probably 3 to 4 weeks before I test again.

 

Great information! I'm going to brew a Belgian Dubbel on Saturday, kinda bummed I got the rock candi, I heard on Jamil show they say to avoid it and go with the syrup.

I'm thinking Agave might be interesting as a substitute, but it might leave a bit too much residuals? What do you think?

 

I brewed this fall a mexican lager (vinna, munich, cara 40, and 12~oz organic raw blue agave nectar) . Dried the lager out beautifully. 2 kegs didn't last very long at my watering hole. Will remake for summertime swilling fer sure. Also used in a mead with great results.

 

Hey Rob, do you have any idea how you could substitute rye for wheat in your recipe? I don't think it would be 1:1.

 

Probably depends on how much of a rye beer you want it to be. If you just want a touch of a rye spiciness I would just sub a pound of wheat for a pound of rye, that could be a nice twist on this recipe. If you try to sub it all out the rye might overpower the agave. But if you're just looking for the agave to dry it out then it might work out pretty well. If you are trying to replace all the wheat with rye it looks like you would need to use 5.25# of rye instead of the 4# wheat in the recipe to hit an OG closer to 1.055.

 

Thanks Rob, I was just looking to add a little of the rye spiciness.

 

Ok so I made the agave wheat. Totally over did it with the agave which lead to a high ABV, coming in at almost 8%. The beer itself tastes ok, except for the alcohol taste. I bottled a case to let age for a few months, and just added raspberries to the rest. I'm hoping the alcohol taste subsides in the aged bottles and or the raspberries cover it. Overall I'd do it again but definitely add less agave nectar. I'll update with taste as time goes on.

Heres the recipe of what I did

Agave Wheat

Style: American Wheat or Rye Beer
Type: Extract Calories: 251
Rating: 4.0 Efficiency: 70 %
IBU's: 23.87 Boil Size: 5.57 Gal
Color: 7.7 SRM Batch Size: 5.00 Gal
Boil Time: 60 minutes
Estimated Actual
Brew Date: - 01/07/2012
OG: 1.077 1.072
FG: 1.018 1.014
ABV: 7.73 % 7.60 %
Serve Date: 02/08/2012 / /

Fermentation Steps
Name Days / Temp Estimated Actual
Primary 21 days @ 66.0°F 01/07/2012 01/07/2012
Bottle/Keg 2 days @ 34.0°F 02/06/2012 -

Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
6.00 lbs 55.81 % Wheat Liquid Extract 60 mins 1.036
4.75 lbs 44.19 % Agave Nector 0 mins 1.036

Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.00 ozs 15.95 Williamette 60 mins 5.50
1.00 ozs 7.92 Cascade 15 mins 5.50

Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.0 pkg American Wheat Ale Wyeast Labs 1010

Additions
(none)

Mash Profile
(none)

Carbonation
Amount Type Beer Temp CO2 Vols
9.7 psi Force Carbonation 36.0°F 2.50

Notes
See full Northern Brewer recipe instructions.

www.iBrewMaster.com Version: 1.470



Sent from my iPad

 

I'm trying to create that recipe, but having little success trying to find the sugar content and specific gravity.

 

I have used agave nectar once in a lager, and fermented with San Francisco lager yeast. I used 1.5# in the primary and it came out great! I called it my Calimex lager.

Now I can't find anymore of the agave nectar! The original amount was found sitting by itself on a shelf at Big Lots!

 

Measure one ounce of your agave (by weight).
Top up to 1 cup (8oz) with pure water.
Stir, shake, heat, whatever to dissolve it.
Measure the specific gravity.
That gives the ppg. Should be around 1.036. ( = 36ppg)

Cheers