Reese's beer fail - lesson learned.

[strantor]

I had a "bright" idea a few weeks ago. I split half my batch of pale ale, and in one half I mixed in 2lbs of molten nestle semisweet chocolate morsels and half a tub of Jif creamy peanut butter.

Total waste of time. Tastes like death. literally made me puke in my mouth a little. That's probably an obviously retarded idea to you experienced brewers out there, but if any of you noobs like myself ever think of doing something like that, DON'T.

 

[homebrewdad]

I had a "bright" idea a few weeks ago. I split half my batch of pale ale, and in one half I mixed in 2lbs of molten nestle semisweet chocolate morsels and half a tub of Jif creamy peanut butter.

Total waste of time. Tastes like death. literally made me puke in my mouth a little. That's probably an obviously retarded idea to you experienced brewers out there, but if any of you noobs like myself ever think of doing something like that, DON'T.

Sorry, man. I know that it's not funny, but your description made me chuckle, anyay.

 

[Dynachrome]

Good thread title too, Anyone searching for a Reese's recipe will know to not do it this way.

 

[strantor]

Interesting development:

after posting this, I got curious and went back and tasted it again. It's been "conditioning" (I suppose) for about 10 days since I last tasted it, and I must say, it has come a long way. I gave it a 0 out of 10 initially. Now I give it a 4 out of 10, marginally drinkable. Not a shining success, but not a total loss either. who knows, maybe another 2 weeks in the back of the closet and it might even be enjoyable!

Don't worry, you can laugh. That's why I posted, to entertain and inform. If we can't make light of our failures then why try?

 

[HeavyKettleBrewing]

Interesting development:

after posting this, I got curious and went back and tasted it again. It's been "conditioning" (I suppose) for about 10 days since I last tasted it, and I must say, it has come a long way. I gave it a 0 out of 10 initially. Now I give it a 4 out of 10, marginally drinkable. Not a shining success, but not a total loss either. who knows, maybe another 2 weeks in the back of the closet and it might even be enjoyable!

Don't worry, you can laugh. That's why I posted, to entertain and inform. If we can't make light of our failures then why try?

There is quite a bit of oils in pb and chocolate. I imagine the beer being viscous and thick.

 

[nicklepickles]

There is quite a bit of oils in pb and chocolate. I imagine the beer being viscous and thick.

Yeah, and i thought oils were the enemy of head retention... hows the carbonation and mouthfeel on this thing?

 

[strantor]

Yeah, and i thought oils were the enemy of head retention... hows the carbonation and mouthfeel on this thing?

carbonation: ...eh. not impressive

Mouthfeel: not sure what that means

 

[Larzean]

I was looking to make peanut butter cup beer, planning to add cocoa powder & powdered peanut butter to a porter.

 

[nicklepickles]

carbonation: ...eh. not impressive

Mouthfeel: not sure what that means

Mouthfeel is... how it feels in your mouth. Is it think and viscous, or dry and crisp? Just wondering how those oils effect the feeling of the beer, considering the original was an APA

 

[Denny]

I learned many batches ago that just because you like a certain food or flavor doesn't necessarily mean it will make a good beer.

 

[ktblunden]

I was looking to make peanut butter cup beer, planning to add cocoa powder & powdered peanut butter to a porter.

That's the proper way to go about it. From what I've heard the powdered peanut butter makes a really bad mess in the fermenter, so be aware of that.

 

[strantor]

From what I've heard the powdered peanut butter makes a really bad mess in the fermenter, so be aware of that.

I doubt it could be any worse than the ordinary peanut butter (see below).


First pic: This is what it looked like when I took the lid off. 3/4" thick layer of crust, I assume the chocolate that came out of solution. I tasted a bit of the crust. Had to drink an entire coke to get the taste out of my mouth.

Second pic:
This is what was on the bottom. All the peanut butter.

3rd pic: this was some of the slurry that was filtered out.

4th pic: more slurry

I ended up filtering twice. First time just through the strainer. Second time through a paper towel inside the strainer. Still have a lot of sediment in the beer.

 

[ken_manke]

Credit to you for taking a risk. The pictures had me rolling, thanks for making my day.

 

[strantor]

Credit to you for taking a risk. The pictures had me rolling, thanks for making my day.

You're in Katy? Me too! I'll be a Texas Homebrewers today @ 4:00 for the weekly demo. I'm bringing some of this funky crap, as a "gag"

 

[libeerty]

Something tells me you had the munchies when you made that decision..

 

[Dynachrome]

Interesting development: ...It's been "conditioning" (I suppose) for about 10 days since I last tasted it, and I must say, it has come a long way.

Oh, in that case give it some time. Bottle conditioning takes a few weeks.

...it might creep up to a 6 or 7 out of ten!

 

[November]

I learned many batches ago that just because you like a certain food or flavor doesn't necessarily mean it will make a good beer.

So I should cancel the nacho-beer?

 

[eric19312]

Credit to you for taking a risk. The pictures had me rolling, thanks for making my day.

Awesome job getting the pictures! Way to go for it...let me know how the nacho beer works out!

 

[PatDunkel]

Wow those pictures are nasty! Although the second one looks a lot like chicken taco meat but I guess it sure didn't smell like that. Risk taking is awesome and it takes guts to share your failures with others so they don't make the same mistake. Thanks for that.

Pat

 

[F250]

Oh lord, I died a little reading this thread. Geeze!

Rick

 

[strantor]

Interesting development #2:

I took the stuff to the weekly LHBS get-together/brewing demo/beer tasting event, and got overwhelmingly positive reviews. A few people went back for seconds. The common theme was along the lines of "It's very interesting. I wouldn't want to drink pint after pint of it, but it's very good taste." I didn't hear a single nay say. Very surprised.

After hearing people say good things about it, it tasted a little better to me as well. I think my first impressions were having a psychological toll on my second impressions. I now give it a 6 out of 10. But I think some who tasted it may have rated it higher.

 

[Wakadaka]

yeah this isn't too bad of an idea tbh. terrapin makes a beer called liquid bliss which is brewed with peanuts or pb (can't remember which), and it tastes just like a reese's to me. they use a porter as the base beer, which i think would hold up a lot better than a pale ale.

do you have more info on the recipe? something like that will probably take a long time to possibly a VERY long time to age into maturity. If it went from a 0 to a 4 to a 6 already, then i would recommend holding on to some for 6 months to a year and see how it comes along.

i've never used pb or chocolate chips, but 2 lbs and a half a tub sounds like a ton.

 

[strantor]

do you have more info on the recipe?

Ok I was using a Brewer's Best American Pale Ale kit. I followed the directions until It said to dump all 5gal into the fermenter.

I pitched the yeast and dumped 3 gal into the regular fermenter. Dumped ~1.5-2 gal into the white bucket shown, and this is where our story begins...

I melted the 12oz (I think I said 2lbs before; now I'm consulting my notes) of Nestle chocolate chips and ~24oz creamy JIF in a medium saucepan with 1/2gal water. The JIF never completely dissolved; I eventually gave up trying to stir it in.

After it cooled down enough not to kill the yeast (completely unscientific temperature unit, as well as measurement technique), I threw it in with the ~2gal of APA.

measured gravity 1.070

Continued following BB kit instructions.

Fermented 4 days, then bottled (no more bubbles). strained through strainer then through strainer + paper towels before bottling. FG 1.016

Tasted after 6 days, death.

Tasted after 16 days, much better.

something like that will probably take a long time to possibly a VERY long time to age into maturity. If it went from a 0 to a 4 to a 6 already, then i would recommend holding on to some for 6 months to a year and see how it comes along.

I'll hold on to a sample. Right now all I have is in the fridge. Should I take it out and age in the closet, or leave it in the fridge?

i've never used pb or chocolate chips, but 2 lbs and a half a tub sounds like a ton.

yeah, I fudged the numbers apparently.

 

[ken_manke]

You're in Katy? Me too! I'll be a Texas Homebrewers today @ 4:00 for the weekly demo. I'm bringing some of this funky crap, as a "gag"

If I wasn't in Dallas today I would have swung by for a taste. Just moved back to Katy and getting into the brew scene. My second batch will be done in march and might need some constructive feedback.

 

[brigbrew]

So I should cancel the nacho-beer?

Hell, no! I'm drinking my jalapeño cream ale right now! Perfect nacho beer!

 

[Ostomo517]

yeah, I fudged the numbers apparently.

Bazinga!

 

[ktblunden]

Fermented 4 days, then bottled (no more bubbles). strained through strainer then through strainer + paper towels before bottling. FG 1.016

For future reference, throw away kit directions when it comes to fermenting. 4 days is just not long enough for the yeast to fully do their job. I would let it go two weeks at least on the yeast.

 

[BobbiLynn]

I'm laughing so hard, I'm crying. Please just let it condition longer.

 

[Oldskooler]

LMAO, sorry about your beer though

 

[brewsnthelou]

Thank you for sharing this, and kuddos for your creativity! But those pictures gave me the willies!