How to get a "candied" flavor

[Preston Gaines]

I have some roasted pecans steeping in vodka right now that are destined for a amber ale kit I have (extract brewer, this will be my 4th brew). I have had good luck so far with flavoring stouts, trying something new with a free kit I acquired. I want to make a candied pecan amber, but I'm unsure how to get the "candied" flavor. How would you get the caramelized brown sugar flavor infused? is it as simple as putting some brown sugar in the pecan extract I'm making? Will a few tablespoons of sugar (I assume, I'd add until I got the flavor I want) kick more fermentation alive in a 5 gallon kit? I plan to rack the beer onto the extract as a secondary fermentation. Probably about a week.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[Jag75]

I wonder if steeping some specialty malts might get you where you want .

 

[Kickass]

Perhaps encouraging a higher final gravity will lend sweetness. Then prime/carbonate with brown sugar. That’s what immediately comes to mind.

 

[Cyclman]

Molasses?

 

[bracconiere]

i'm streching it a bit, but....pecans do have starch, i'd soak them with some 2-row, then give them a low stew in the oven with the malt...then roast them to carmelize the sugar....maybe put the malt through a food proccesor first before soaking with the nuts though to loosen up the amylases....

 

[Preston Gaines]

I'm liking where everyone's head is at.

I will talk to northern brewer about grains, I may yet try that route. Molasses doesnt appear to be the route I want to take.

I made a coffee stout some time back and primed with maple syrup and was disappointed with the lack of flavor it imparted. Maybe brown sugar will do better? I may try this with a small sample of bottles as a control group.

Bracconiere, I'm sorry, but I don't follow what you're saying. I'm pretty new to this brewing game, I just make extract recipes and try to make fun flavor combos (currently dreaming of a Brut IPA with orange peel - a "mimosa" Brut).

What I'm currently leaning towards as an easy shot in the dark is adding some lactose in the boil - probably 1/4-1/2 lb - and putting some cocoa nibs and vanilla in the pecan extract - maybe 1 oz of nibs, and 1 vanilla bean. The hope would be lactose increases the sweetness, the vanilla and chocolate gives it a candied taste. Not a true caramel flavor, but maybe enough subtle sweetness.

Still pondering! Open to ideas and criticism!

 

[bracconiere]

Maybe brown sugar will do better?

brown sugar is just white sugar coated with a bit of molasses, you'd be better off with candied sugar i believe..
[

QUOTE="Preston Gaines, post: 8910961, member: 267024"]
Bracconiere, I'm sorry, but I don't follow what you're saying.
[/QUOTE]


LOL you're not alone, from what people tell me, most of them don't either.....(but if you ever get into all-grain, you'd get it, i think)

 

[Velnerj]

Brown sugar will not add very much sweetness if any. It's highly fermentable and will just dry out the beer and raise abv. You'll need to steep some caramel malt which contains complex sugars too difficult for yeast to ferment. Something like C60 perhaps?

I think vanilla also adds perceived sweetness but it may not remind you of caramel/toffee flavor you're after.

There's a recipe on HBT that uses homemade candied sugar in an amber ale and supposedly leaves a toffee flavor in the beer. You might want to look into that.

 

[Preston Gaines]

C60 looks promising! Most of the kits I get from Northern Brewer have a bag of grains you steep while heating the kettle, then the syrup goes in. I'm thinking one pound of C60 steeped while bringing the kettle up to 170° would be about right. Any thoughts?

 

[Velnerj]

Here's that recipe I was referring to, it gives detailed instructions on how to make a candied syrup that leaves a caramel flavor in the finished beer. I haven't made it myself but folks on here rave about it.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/caramel-amber-ale.167880/

 

[Preston Gaines]

Actually, you got me reading more on grains, now I'm heavily considering steeping this caremel 60L


I'll read the recipe you just posted as well.

Thanks!

 

[Dgallo]

Be careful when thinking about making a beer sweeter, if you go too sweet you’ll never want to drink it.

A combination of lactose and c40 will probably get you there, but you can always do a brown sugar rim of the glass so that you can get your sweet fix but not ruin the beer

 

[Preston Gaines]

Great point on not over doing it. To clarify, Right now I'm leaning towards either/or. I went and pulled the kit down and looked in it, they do supply Briess Caramel 40L steeping grains (.5 lb) during warm up. I'm likely to either add more steeping grains, or go with lactose and the provided grains in hopes it brings out more of the caramel flavor. Given this kit is supposed to be used with the pumpkin spice add in, it is likely fairly sweet already (I just happen to abhor pumpkin anything). I just want the pecan flavor to be almost even or slightly more powerful than the caramel flavor as well - kinda like popping a well caramelized pecan into your mouth while opening Christmas gifts!

So far I've had good luck with prior flavor adventures, I tend to appreciate subtle flavors more than in your face flavors. This one will be more powerful than my previous two (vanilla coffee stout, and Chocolate, vanilla, coffee milk stout)

 

[Preston Gaines]

For anyone who cares (or finds this later...I have learned SO MUCH from searching)

The base kit was Northern Brewer's Smashing Pumpkin Amber Ale. I discarded the pumpkin spice, and added 1/2lb of 60L malt to the partial mash. They supply 1/2lb of 40L, so I just added more, darker caramel malts. Right now the wort smells about where I want it.

I have 16 oz of pecans steeping in vodka. I will add 1/2 a vanilla bean to this when they arrive this week. I'm on the fence if I will add chocolate, if I do, it will be a very small amount. The plan is to rack onto the pecans for about a week in secondary.

I will update after tasting if I made paint remover or beer!

Thanks to all to helped, lots of good ideas here.

 

[Dgallo]

For anyone who cares (or finds this later...I have learned SO MUCH from searching)

The base kit was Northern Brewer's Smashing Pumpkin Amber Ale. I discarded the pumpkin spice, and added 1/2lb of 60L malt to the partial mash. They supply 1/2lb of 40L, so I just added more, darker caramel malts. Right now the wort smells about where I want it.

I have 16 oz of pecans steeping in vodka. I will add 1/2 a vanilla bean to this when they arrive this week. I'm on the fence if I will add chocolate, if I do, it will be a very small amount. The plan is to rack onto the pecans for about a week in secondary.

I will update after tasting if I made paint remover or beer!

Thanks to all to helped, lots of good ideas here.

Sounds good. My only comment would be;

If you already made a pecan tincture, there won’t be any added benefit to rack the beer on top of them for another week. All your oils in the pecans would have been extracted into the vodka, so all you’ll have to do is add that tincture to the beer at the time of bottling or kegging. By racking to the secondary your just increase oxidation risk but not increasing flavor