Pecans in secondary

[Rob2010SS]

So I did a search for this and didn't find anything on my issue in particular so I'm creating a new thread on the use of pecans.

I added 3 lbs of crushed, roasted pecans to a brown ale in secondary. They've been in there for a week. While the beer tastes good and you can definitely tell the pecans are adding some flavor and aroma, they've also added something undesirable - serious cloudiness.

I pulled (2) 3oz samples yesterday. I pulled one and thought maybe it was just yeast trub or some powder from the pecans that I got in that sample. Pulled a second 3 oz sample and got the same thing. I'll snag a picture of it and post it in about 1.5 hrs and I'll post the hydrometer sample before secondary.

I placed the 2nd sample in the fridge overnight to see if it would settle out with a cold crash and it did not. It was in the fridge for approx. 19-20 hrs.

Has anyone used pecans and gotten the same result? How did you fix it? Am I going to have to filter this out with a filter that I do not have?

Thanks.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Before...

After...

Definitely want to fix this. I'm thinking of picking up a plate filter and pushing this through that? Would that take care of the issue?

 

[Rob2010SS]

https://www.morebeer.com/products/b...I3hUhMvGnZxYDTX4E0Y29Q8L_sbJlwhIaAmpvEALw_wcB

Here's the filter im looking at getting to fix this...

 

[TechFanMD]

https://www.morebeer.com/products/b...I3hUhMvGnZxYDTX4E0Y29Q8L_sbJlwhIaAmpvEALw_wcB

Here's the filter im looking at getting to fix this...

I would take a sample, cold crash it, then use a small dose of gelatin (dissolved in a tiny bit of water) and see if it will clear your sample (though this only matters if you would have a way to cold crash your beer). Depending on where you live, you may be able to cold crash a keg outside. Cold does wonders, and the gelatin can really brighten up a beer depending on what is causing the haze.

I don't have experience with that filter, but I have a Buon Vino filter (I don't recommend it) that uses a pump instead of CO2 pressure (I don't use it much and never used it on beer). The Buon Vino pads are the same type of material. I will say that filtering a beer as cloudy as yours may be difficult. The pads will 'clog' and moving beer through will get slower and slower. I've filtered ciders that were no where near that cloudy and it was difficult - and the Buon Vino uses 3 pads of larger surface area than that plate filter.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I would take a sample, cold crash it, then use a small dose of gelatin (dissolved in a tiny bit of water) and see if it will clear your sample (though this only matters if you would have a way to cold crash your beer). Depending on where you live, you may be able to cold crash a keg outside. Cold does wonders, and the gelatin can really brighten up a beer depending on what is causing the haze.

I don't have experience with that filter, but I have a Buon Vino filter (I don't recommend it) that uses a pump instead of CO2 pressure (I don't use it much and never used it on beer). The Buon Vino pads are the same type of material. I will say that filtering a beer as cloudy as yours may be difficult. The pads will 'clog' and moving beer through will get slower and slower. I've filtered ciders that were no where near that cloudy and it was difficult - and the Buon Vino uses 3 pads of larger surface area than that plate filter.

I tried the cold crash. No noticeable difference after almost 2 days. Although, I will say that when I emptied the glass, there was a coating on the bottom of the sample glass which leads me to believe it is the oils from the pecans.

I bought the filter. I'm going to try it and see how it goes. I bought some extra pads for it as well, just in case i run into a clogging problem.

 

[JimRausch]

Rob- I think you might have your answer as to cause- oils from the pecans. That also explains why they won't cold crash, and sorry, but I'm guessing they won't filter either. Hopefully it will work for you and you can come back and tell me I'm wrong. I might suggest that next time you add the pecans to the mash. I've done that with filberts before. Let me tell you- what a great tasting mash. I wanted a cereal bowl and milk. Not much flavor came through in the finished beer though.

 

[Rob2010SS]

Rob- I think you might have your answer as to cause- oils from the pecans. That also explains why they won't cold crash, and sorry, but I'm guessing they won't filter either. Hopefully it will work for you and you can come back and tell me I'm wrong. I might suggest that next time you add the pecans to the mash. I've done that with filberts before. Let me tell you- what a great tasting mash. I wanted a cereal bowl and milk. Not much flavor came through in the finished beer though.

Appreciate the info. I'l follow back up this weekend with results of the filter. I got 5 micron pads, 2 micron pads, and .5 micron pads. I'l try them all if need be.

 

[Rob2010SS]

As a follow up to this, figured I'd post how this went.

Below is a pic of the beer post filtration. While the beer cleared up, it still looks like a completely different beer. Looks nothing like the post fermentation pic, prior to the pecans above.

Pecan flavor is gone. My assumption is that the milky look was from the residual oils in the nuts and that's where the flavor was coming from. By filtering out the oil, I removed the flavor from the pecans as well.

I'm scrapping this beer and re-doing it this weekend. Not only is the pecan flavor gone and it's no longer an 18 SRM Brown Ale, it's just not what I wanted. I'm going to carb it and see how it tastes to see if I can still drink it, but it's definitely not being given away as a xmas beer.

Anyone ever used the brewers best pecan flavoring? I bought some of that this weekend. My brew shop had a stout and a pumpkin ale on tap that they actually let me dose a sample of both beers with the pecan flavoring to sample and see if I'd like it. It was hard to pick out the flavor in the stout, but from what I could tell, it would be a decent pecan substitute. Wondering if anyone has other opinions of this flavoring? It is a little bit like pecan pie but since I'm pairing it up with a touch of maple syrup, I figured it'd be OK.