Toffee flavor in beer? How to create it?

[D_Nyholm]

A friend asked me if I could brew up a toffee flavored beer. They want it to taste like a heath bar!! I have done a little research on here and I am looking for a few suggestions. I am thinking I am either going to make a standard porter or a milk stout (to get the creamyness and sweetness of a candy bar). Other than that the ideas for the toffee are difficult to determine what will work.

One poster recommended taking table sugar, spreading it out on a baking sheet and baking it in the oven until it melts and starts to brown. The longer you bake it, the more flavor you will get.

Another poster recommended cooking a sugar water mixture to create caramel and adding that to the beer.

I assume I am also going to have to up the crystal malts (probably C120 since I have it on hand) to get some flavor that way as well.

What would be the best way to create this sort of flavor? Are there any other malts that would be helpful? I am not very familiar with them all so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[thesemicullen]

I've been toying around with this idea myself (getting some toffee/caramel flavors, not a Heath bar beer), and everything I've read seems to point to using piloncillo.

 

[D_Nyholm]

I've used piloncillo in another beer. While I liked the taste, it really added almost a cinnamon spicy taste to the beer. I dont think it was very toffee like. Made a great brown ale (Austin homebrew kit).

 

[unionrdr]

I use 1lb of demerara sugar (raw cane sugar) in my IPA/pal ale malt profile. It adds a slight taste of light brown sugar laced with honey flavor. So piloncillo sugar is slightly more refined somehow. A toffee hazelnut brown ale would be good. And the ale malts described as bready to me,taste more like buiscotti. So maybe combining the bready maltier grains with the piloncillo might work?

 

[jCOSbrew]

A couple ideas:
Dark candi sugar, brown sugar or maybe molasses.
Ferment at a slightly higher temp for a sweeter finish, less dry.

Porter would be a good base recipe. Vanilla porter is pretty common.

 

[unionrdr]

I was thinking more of a brown ale. Like Leinenkugel's old Fireside Nut Brown,but with toffee flavors.

 

[BigFloyd]

The darker crystal/caramel grains (90-120L) will also provide a toffee like flavor to a batch as will D-90 Belgian candi syrup.

 

[microbusbrewery]

As others have said, crystal malts will give you caramel and toffee flavors. Chocolate notes can be obtained from malt, cocoa, and/or nibs.

English toffee is made with sugar and butter and those are the flavors that stand out to me. IMO, the butter component is necessary for toffee to taste like toffee. Normally you don't want butter flavors in a beer, but you could always pick a yeast strain that is known for producing higher levels of diacetyl then intentionally trying to get it to produce more by under-pitching and under-aerating...basically intentionally stressing it. Then cross your fingers that it doesn't taste like cr@p.

Another option might be to add crushed up Heath bars near the end of the boil. The fats/oils will likely kill head retention and the chocolate will be messy, but that might be the best way to get the profile you're looking for.

There's also toffee flavored extract (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XWKHZO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) that you could add post-fermentation. Getting the right flavor profile can be tricky with extracts...too much and it'll ruin a beer.

One word of advice, richer dessert beers like this tend to hang around for a while...at least at my house. Most people won't turn down a few sessionable pale ales, dry stouts, etc., but they probably won't want to down three or four Heath bar beers while watching a game. I still probably have a case of a creme brûlée milk stout sitting in my fridge that I made a few years ago. So if you do try it, I'd suggest doing a small batch.

 

[Cyclman]

Very dark candi sugar would be my thought. Maybe some almond extract and chocolate nibs in secondary.

Maybe I'm thinking of a Heath bar, oh how I love those. Living in the South, Brewsters heath bar crunch ice cream, greatly missed.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,we used to get that heath bar crunch ice cream down in Cinci years ago, Great stuff.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I personally want to take a little of each and use them all but we know that will surely ruin it!

We are making 10 gallons and I am not sure if she wants a dessert type beer or one that you can taste hints of toffee and caramel.

Though I am thinking of throwing a few bars of candy in there just for the effect. Though it will ruin retention and make a mess, I think it will be necessary in order to call it a heath bar beer.

 

[D_Nyholm]

Heathen ale?

 

[shetlandshaun]

I have been researching this also trying to get a toffe flavor iPa. I spoke to brewer at Innes and gunn whose original beer tastes exactly like toffee with a touch I vanilla. He said sing British crystal malts possibly some oak chips too could help get the taste. The malt they use is golden promise I believe.