Brewing with piloncillo

[mejiajav]

I am brewing an English Brown Ale using piloncillo. I melted and dumped about two pounds into the last ten minutes of the boil.

My plan it's to scorch scourge pound to pound and a half and dump it into secondary.

Had anybody ever worked with piloncillo before? My question is if i should melt and then scorch the piloncillo for secondary, our just scorch it straight from its solid state.

 

[motorneuron]

I have used piloncillo a bunch, but I'm confused about what you mean by "scorch." Are you trying to caramelize it? I have never done that before, but if that's what you mean, I would recommend doing it at a controlled temperature and melted in a little water, not through direct heat.

Anyway, if it's a five gallon batch, I don't think I would use more than 2 pounds anyway. Using too much sugar will give you a pretty dry, thin beer for a given alcohol level. I don't think that would go well with an English brown.

 

[signpost]

I used piloncillo once before. I did about 6 oz. in a Kolsch and it dried it out just a bit and gave a slightly darker color. I had another batch of Kolsch without the piloncillo to compare side by side.

I don't know why you would use 2 lbs. of it though (and definitely not more than that), unless you are doing a 10 gal. or bigger batch. And I certainly don't know what you mean by scorching it. And the sentence, "My plan it's to scorch scourge pound to pound and a half and dump it into secondary" seems like it has been translated through several languages on google translate, so I have know idea at all what you were talking about there.

Bottom line, piloncillo is a good option if you are looking to boost gravity and dry out a beer a bit. But probably a pound per 5 gal. is about all you need to accomplish that.

 

[mejiajav]

HAHAHAHA!!! Sorry, I typed all that from my phone and Swype's word detection sucks.

Anyway, yes, it's a 10 gal batch, hence the 2 lbs of piloncillo in the boil.

I wanted a flan/creme brulee feel taste to it with the piloncillo and someone suggested I torch it (not scorch it) to give it a charred sugar flavor and then throw it in secondary.

 

[signpost]

Ah, thank God! Auto-correct is a much better explanation than the alternative.

A 10 gal. batch makes the 2 lbs. make sense. As far as the torching and flan/creme brulee flavor, I'm not so sure that's going to come through. I don't know if you've brewed with other types of sugars much, but in my experience you don't get a lot of flavor from it most of the time (except for really dark belgian candi sugar). It is possible torching the sugar could provide some different flavors, but I would think it would be a lot of work to shave it down and torch it all evenly. Because if it isn't evenly torched, then a lot of the sugar won't be changed at all, and then some of it will just be completely burnt which can't possibly be a good thing.

If you are set on the flan/creme brulee flavor profile (which could be super tasty in a brown ale), you might be better off trying to find grains that could get you there rather than trying to use the same ingredients as the desserts. I don't know that for sure, but my instincts are telling me that the piloncillo is not going to give you the flavor (and definitely not the mouthfeel) you are looking for.

 

[mejiajav]

Yeah, originally, I just wanted to make a brown ale with piloncillo. When I started talking to people about it everyone started throwing out suggestions. I think what you're saying is true since I had my doubts about it. Let's call this one a test batch and see how it goes.

 

[McboBrewer]

Hi, anyone in this post interested in piloncillo (also call panela or papelón) just send me a private message, I'm in Venezuela and I can ship it to US using DHL or FedEx, here they have the best papelón in the world, if you're looking for good brown unrefined sugar, this is a most try.
Is just 1$ per pound!!!

Regards

 

[badducky]

I've done a lot of brewing with Piloncillo, as it is cheap and easily available where I live at a very high quality. (Hooray for South Texas!)

It is a fairly neutral sugar, though it will impart some color. I've made even very simple beers with piloncillo and never had a "Boom, piloncillo all up on my beer" moment. It does impart a sort of... something. A dryness in the beer, but a pleasant dryness, and not cidery like plain sugar, or fruity like candi sugar.

Best results were achieved with British Ale Yeast.

I'm drinking a Southwestern inspired Wheat Ale, right now, that had 10% piloncillo in the grain bill, and piloncillo as the priming sugar. I can say the flavor is present as a slightly rough, rugged caramel-like undertone, like the flavor of sweetened earth.

I get mine from the Mexican market, and it comes from El Salvador wrapped in corn husks. Definitely look for the real thing, and avoid anything that's American in origin. That stuff will just be white sugar with molasses backfilled and formed into a pilon. Not the same as real panela piloncillo.

I'm drinking this Anole Chaser right now, and it is fantastically tasty on a sweaty September day down here where there are no hard freezes, and I have citrus trees and avocado trees in my yard.

http://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/anole-chaser/brew-logs/101608

 

[badducky]

Oh, easiest way to deal with processing Piloncillo is to put a tablespoon or two of water with the pilon of sugar into a NutriBullet and let it go for about five minutes. The engine heat and the powerful blade with the liquid to smooth it out will make easy work of that chunk of tasty sugar. It takes a while to melt if you don't. Dropping a whole pilon in at 10 minutes, for example, is no guarantee that it will all melt in time before the end of the boil.

 

[Nomad]

I made a fantastic Belgian Dark Strong last fall with one cone of Piloncilo, about a pound, that I cut up directly into the last 15 min of the boil. 1080 SG. Lots of grain in the grist. It's such a dark sugar that I doubt you'd get any extra flavor from torching it. The wort was super molassesy tasting, but that flavor didn't linger after fermentation. Good stuff.

 

[828brewing]

Hi, anyone in this post interested in piloncillo (also call panela or papelón) just send me a private message, I'm in Venezuela and I can ship it to US using DHL or FedEx, here they have the best papelón in the world, if you're looking for good brown unrefined sugar, this is a most try.
Is just 1$ per pound!!!

Regards

Thanks for the message - is this still available?

 

[mbauer013]

Not sure if you've already brewed this or not, but I've done a similar beer and used vanilla and a touch of roasted barley to create the charred and vanilla charachter of creme brule. Kinda have to look at the flavors you want instead of what caused them in the non-beer recipe because fermentation changes them all. Sugar (even molasses) rarely leaves any residual sugary flavor, vanilla is a good substitue because it is similar to the flavors that happen when you caramelize sugar, use that and a light crystal malt to give it a bit more caramelly goodness and you can get there pretty well. Or back sweeten with lactose to really bring it out.

If you did brew it let us know how it went!

 

[rhys333]

Thanks for the message - is this still available?

If you're looking for a quality piloncillo, seek out your local Mexican or Central American grocery store and they should have it. If you're brewing with it, then I strongly suggest choosing the light instead of the dark. The dark imparts licorice flavors you provable don't want.