Hazelnut in Beer

[CopperBrewer]

Hello All,
This is my first thread ever so bear with me. I was thinking about brewing a porter with hazelnuts and caramel because I tasted a similar beer by Shipyard that was a delicious hazelnut porter. With all my beers I prefer to brew using real ingredients so I was thinking about using real hazelnuts and homemade caramel to flavor the beer as opposed to flavors. Does anyone have any idea of how I might accomplish this? I know that there are lots of fats in the hazelnuts and the caramel would add fermentable sugars so I was just looking for some general tips on how I could approach this. Thanks everyone.

 

[Stout-n-Braggot]

Caramelize some sugar or honey (between 1 and 3 lbs) and add it to your boil for the caramel notes, it's what i do in most of my stouts.

Not usre about the hazelnut, but I do love to drink Rogue's Hazelnut Brown Nectar...

 

[TipsyDragon]

well unfortunately i have 0 experience using real flavors like you want to do (very cool by the way). i would suggest making small 1 gallon test batches, maybe save a gallon or so off the main batch, and add the nuts and caramel to that in different amounts till you get it right. once you got it dialed in scale it up to full batch size.

 

[stevedasleeve]

I recently did a Nut ale with Hazelnuts in the mash. I toasted them and added them to the mash - 1/4 lb toasted at 350 for 15-20 mins.

No problems, decent enough I would probably add 1/2 lb next time. This aged well.

 

[CopperBrewer]

I recently did a Nut ale with Hazelnuts in the mash. I toasted them and added them to the mash - 1/4 lb toasted at 350 for 15-20 mins.

No problems, decent enough I would probably add 1/2 lb next time. This aged well.

I was thinking along these lines as well. For my Chocolate Coconut Cream Stout, I toast the coconut along these lines to sterilize and drive off some of the fats. Thanks for the amount too, I'll definitely try that.

 

[CopperBrewer]

well unfortunately i have 0 experience using real flavors like you want to do (very cool by the way). i would suggest making small 1 gallon test batches, maybe save a gallon or so off the main batch, and add the nuts and caramel to that in different amounts till you get it right. once you got it dialed in scale it up to full batch size.

And I'll try it at a small batch first. My one gallon bottles are currently being used but I love using the actual flavoring components because I've tasted a lot of different flavors and unless you can get into the industrial flavor suppliers, you're usually dependent on one flavor from one company that has a 50% chance of actually tasting like what you want. Only problem is that actual ingredients tend to cost much more money. But thats the price of quality I guess!

 

[CopperBrewer]

As soon as I develop a recipe I will post it and keep you all updated about the progress I make.