Nut flavour in beer

[effectrammstein]

Do you guys think that a nut flavour would go well in a beer?

like a strawberry hazelnut cream ale etc?

can nuts be used in beers, if so, what part of the brewing?

I think that the flavour from nuts comes from the oil, which is bad yeah?

Maybe a syrup or something (maybe for priming???)

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I've never used nuts in a brew before. I've gotten the same nutty taste from Special Roast. For nuts, I'd be concerned about the amount of fat in the nut and how many pounds of nuts you need to use to achieve a favorable taste. Give it a go with some small scale experiments (maybe 1/2 gallon?) prior to jumping to a 5 gallon batch. This way, you can judge what flavor the nut will bring, how to deal with it (mashing, sparging, etc)...

 

[Edcculus]

I'm going to add macadamia nut extract to my stout.

 

[issack]

I'm going to add macadamia nut extract to my stout.

extracts are a great way to go for adding nutty tastes in beer.

I did a coconut porter once.. and used a ton of coconut. and it was mild. you have to use a lot of nuts to get flavor.. also in the mash and boil is the best to add it.. the oils is what you need.

I was told that the nut oils reduce head retention but i didn't have that issue with my coconut porter.

 

[effectrammstein]

extracts are a great way to go for adding nutty tastes in beer.

I did a coconut porter once.. and used a ton of coconut. and it was mild. you have to use a lot of nuts to get flavor.. also in the mash and boil is the best to add it.. the oils is what you need.

I was told that the nut oils reduce head retention but i didn't have that issue with my coconut porter.

That was my concern - the oils ruining the head retention.

I think extract would be the way to go - or making my own extract - boiling some water + sugar + nuts to make a syrup or something similar to the candi sugar recipes.

 

[Moonpile]

It's not actually a nut, but someone around here was doing Peanut Butter Stout or something. Search on it.

 

[boodyrischous]

My buddy and I made a Maple Pecan Nut Brown Ale. We started with a pretty zesty nut brown recipe. We toasted nearly a pound of pecans about 6 times (patting them with paper towels to soak up the oils in between toasts) at about 110 degrees for 10-15 min each time. We added them in to our partial mash. We kegged the beer and tapped it. The head was like that of a nitro-stout even though our beer was on CO2. The flavor was perfect. Another thing to do to help with head retention is to prime through kraeusening (taking a measured amount of hot wort out at the end of the boil and storing it in the fridge until bottling and replacing your priming sugar with the unfermented wort). It really helps with body and head rentention.

 

[Evan!]

I wouldn't do it in the boil because, well, it'd hurt like a *****. Just dunk 'em in, teabag style, right before you bottle/keg. Make sure you wash 'em off real nice beforehand, and you may want to dunk 'em in star-san for a minute too.

 

[SuperiorBrew]

I made a PB porter with this PB2
At first you couldnt taste the PB but as it ages it becomes more pronounced. I will still add more to the next batch.

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

I wouldn't do it in the boil because, well, it'd hurt like a *****. Just dunk 'em in, teabag style, right before you bottle/keg. Make sure you wash 'em off real nice beforehand, and you may want to dunk 'em in star-san for a minute too.

Damn, beat me to it. I would also advise shaving beforehand. A nice shorn nut teabag effect could be pleasant. I would also advise a steep before the boil... 100 degF would probably be perfect.

 

[Brewkowski]

Not sure which sounds more unappealing...wort covered nuts or a powdered PB&J sammich!

 

[banjopicker16]

I believe "nutty" flavors are only from malt. Adding nuts (or nut extracts, which I never thought of) cant really do much, as far as I know. The term "nutty" is just the closest association of the flavor to our language. Like, "wet cardboard" doesnt mean someone added wet cardboard to the mash. I really dont know about adding actual NUTS (hehe) to the beer, but I have definitely had success getting that malty flavor by doing this:

2 lbs of pale malt spread evenly on a cookie sheet or 2
bake at 350 deg F for 10-20 minutes the night before you brew.

THIS is a WONDERFUL nutty, buiscuity flavor, you should definitely try this before adding nuts. I think nuts would cause problems, and not give you good results.

NOTE- I use 2 lbs for 11 gallon batches, definitely use less and bake a less time if doing for 5 gallons. Subtlety is always the key.