Anyone successful with peanut butter?

[Ultima]

@Ultima: Quite interesting, but it's probably not peanut-butter/chocolatey enough for my tastes. Nothing like brewing with PB and chocolate for a big-time dessert beer. Your recipe does sound tasty, though. Wonder if it has to do with the Belgian yeast. I don't brew Belgians--not my style, really--but I wonder what that would taste like with a low attenuator like WLP002 or Wyeast 1968. Hmmmm.

Yeah definintely, I'm looking forward to trying it and having other people play with the recipe and different yeasts. I bet with a nice clean yeast and a good percentage of Special B and Chocolate malts in your grain bill, and very low on the hops overall, you would end up with a recipe that tasted darn near chocolate peanut butter. If you've never brewed with Special B, try it out some time. Its character is...Special!

 

[PanzerBanana]

Not peanuts but I've been pondering an brew with black walnuts. The problem is fat and oil. Being that oil isn't water soluble you'd need to concoct a brew with enough of the nut to taste, and high enough ABV for the oils to dissolve into. Being that oils are soluble in alcohol.

Best bet would likely be to add them to the boil and perhaps a little to secondary.

 

[skultch]

Just did a taste test. No peanut flavor whatsoever. I wonder if I didn't let the racking process agitate the PB/cocoa mixture. Should I not have cooked the PB/vodka before racking? I guess I'll add some PB extract when bottling. I'm not sure if I'll do the PB/vodka next time I make this. Either I messed something up or it's just not effective enough to be worth the money and trouble.

 

[shauntraxler]

Just did a taste test. No peanut flavor whatsoever. I wonder if I didn't let the racking process agitate the PB/cocoa mixture. Should I not have cooked the PB/vodka before racking? I guess I'll add some PB extract when bottling. I'm not sure if I'll do the PB/vodka next time I make this. Either I messed something up or it's just not effective enough to be worth the money and trouble.

Did you post your recipe skultch? Also, maybe you've got too much going on with that brew. Vanilla, Bourbon, Peanutbutter, etc... It's very possible that the bourbon could overshadow a few flavors.

 

[skultch]

Yeah, http://hopville.com/recipe/576080/home-brew/peanut-butter-cup-stout

Makes sense. It's still a decent chocolate stout at this point and I still haven't bottled, so at least I know I at least have a drinkable beer.

Hey Nige, where did you get your peanut extract and how much is half a bottle? Watkins 1oz?

 

[shauntraxler]

Skultch,

You can either get Watkins from their site or on eBay. There a many different reputable sellers. Just do an eBay search for Watkins extracts and the auctions will allow you to choose from like 10 different flavors.

Also, yes, half a bottle is 1oz most of the time. I do believe they sell them in 4oz sizes as well, but 2oz is standard.

 

[skultch]

Thanks Shaun.

I'm also considering just adding some more PB2 to the bottling sugar. I'd have to do the math and compensate for the sugar that they add to PB2. I've been told that since my beer is already >5% ABV I shouldn't have to worry about contamination. This would allow me to bottle today instead of the end of the week. This batch is already at 5 weeks+. I know it wouldn't hurt and might even help to wait another week. I'm not sure what I want to do.

In addition to the lack of PB flavor, this batch tastes a little "thin" to me. I'm not sure why. It could just be all the cocoa masking the other flavors. Maybe it's the lactose, the vodka, or the sugar from the PB2 that got fermented. ????? I wonder if another week in secondary would help out. hmmmmmmm........ It's looking more and more like I will make this a much bigger beer, like you guys did, next time. Time will tell, I guess.

 

[shauntraxler]

I wouldn't add PB2 to bottles. You will end up with a metric-ass-ton of sludge at the bottom of your bottles!

That's strange it tastes thin to you. I don't really know what went awry there. I don't really think that letting it sit another week in the secondary is going to help the body much. And the lactose should actually prevent it from tasting thin. Who knows?

But definitely keep me updated.

 

[Ziggybrew]

"metric-ass-ton" LOL That should be a new, official homebrew unit of measurement.

 

[skultch]

I'm gonna bottle tonight. Nige used 1oz of PB extract for 3 gallons, so I'm going with 2oz for my 5 gallons, since I assume he had some peanut flavor before adding the extract, and I have none.

 

[shauntraxler]

Aye. That's a lot of extract! Be careful and good luck!

 

[skultch]

Yeah. Kinda hasty. I didnt taste it before or after the addition. I wont know if i over did i until the bottle carb is done. Yikes!

 

[shauntraxler]

Just FYI to all those interested, I am brewing up another batch of this stuff. The last one was good, but a little sweeter than I would have liked. I'm not going for the 100% dessert beer most of you did. I'd like a nice, roasty, but nutty Peanut Butter stout. So here's what I'm doing:

Amount Item Type % or IBU

--Malts--
3 lbs 4.8 oz Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 25.93 %
3 lbs 4.8 oz Dark Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min] Extract 25.93 %
2 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 15.72 %
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 7.86 %
12.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 5.89 %
12.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 5.89 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 3.93 %
6.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.95 %
4.0 oz Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 1.96 %

--Hops/Misc--
1.25 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 29.3 IBU
1.00 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (20 min) Hops 5.5 IBU
8.0 oz Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 3.93 %
13oz PB2 @ 30, and 15mins
13oz PB2 (Vodka soaked) in secondary.

I'm going to brew a 6.25ga batch to account for some of the trub loss. We'll see what happens.

 

[coffeeroaster]

I have been roasting coffee for years but just started home brewing. Saw this post and thought it was funny since we just launched a Peanut Butter flavored coffee with 50% more caffeine!!
Pretty intense PB flavor with hints of milk chocolate.

Not sure I could see this flavor in a brew....

 

[Streeter]

Hi,

I know this is an old thread sorry. So with a new bag of PB2 I would assume this stuff is sterile from the factory? I heard everyone talking about vodka soak but is it really necessary? There is a Chocolate Beavr Nuts recipe from Northern homebrew and they say to use PB2 in the bottom of the bucket when you rack to secondary. No mention of sanitation necessary. I have a pound of it and wasn't sure in 5.5 gal if I should add almost all of it or only about 8oz? Any suggestions there? I also used some cocoa nibs in the boil and will be adding about 3 oz of those to secondary- those I soaked in vodka just because they were already open.

My other option is to skip the PB2 and use the dram of PB flavoring I got from Adventures in Homebrewing. https://www.lorannoils.com/p-8520-peanut-butter-flavor.aspx The guy in the store gave me the recipe for his PB stout and he only uses the flavor and those guys haven't heard of PB2.

Thanks

 

[bobashleyx]

My family never liked panut butter. So I was not successful with. In looking for a healthy peanut butter alternative I found speculoos. Speculoos is a great tasting spread for children and grown ups. A spread,ideal for those who want something different for breakfast.

 

[Frogmanx82]

I'm getting ready to flavor my porter with Watkins chocolate and Watkins peanut butter extract for a Reece Cup Porter. I've tested with drops in some beers and think I'm good with 2 tsp of each in a 5 gallon batch.

 

[mi6op]

I've spent over an hour reading various posts about adding PB (usually dried or extract). Everyone has a different place in the boil or primary/secondary to throw it in. But I've hardly seen it mentioned about taking PB2 and boiling it with water and after a cooling adding it to a keg.

This is the situation I'm in. I've been working on making a coca vanilla sweet stout but the one I have on tap now I think could greatly benefit from some PB character. I have a good bit of PB2 and would like to boil some up to liquefy and sanitize then throw it in my keg. Your thoughts?

 

[Spartangreen]

I know this is old, but I was successful using actual peanut butter.
There's a trick to it.
Oil naturally separates from wort.
5 gallon keg batch.
Do a larger boil to end up with 6 gallons going into the fermenter. With 5-10 minutes left add the peanut butter. I used FOUR 1-lb jars.
You should have about 6.5-7 gallons of wort after adding the peanut butter.
Chill to pitching temp. Put the lid on it and let it sit for 20 minutes. The oil will separate out to the top.
I used my bottom drain to rack into the fermenter, but you could use a racking cane too. Ended up being about 5.75 gallons going into the fermenter. Try not to allow the top layer of oil to make it into the fermenter.
At kegging time, rack off the bottom only. Keep an eye on it as it gets close to the top layer of oil, stop the transfer. I ended up with about 4.75 gallons in the keg. The important part is to keep the oil out of the keg.

You can use any Robust Porter recipe you want but you need to add 1lb of Flaked Barley to it for head retention.

Here is my recipe;
12lbs Maris Otter
3lbs Chocolate
1.25lbs of Crystal 80
1lb Flaked Barley
2oz Northern Brewer 60min
.75oz Golding, East Kent 10 minutes
SAF-04 Dry Yeast

5-10 minutes left in boil add 4 Jars of Aldi Organic Peanut butter.
*This Peanut Butter just contains peanuts and sea salt (& it's $1.50 a Jar). I had put the jars into a pot of hot water when my boil started. The hot water was about 130F. By the time I needed to add the peanut butter to the boil it poured right out.

Great PB flavor and smell.