Brewing With Nuts

[whitegoose]

Does anyone have any experience/advice with brewing with nuts? (Please keep the testicle jokes to a minimum)

I'm planning on adding some crushed, toasted hazelnuts to a beer for a bit of an experiment. I'm not expecting it to taste specifically like hazelnuts but do hope to get some nutty complexity out of it.

Everything I've read says that brewing with nuts is probalematic as the oils mess up the beer's head retention, and the fats can reduce the shelf life of beer. I'm willing to accept both of these issues in the name of experimentation. So does anyone have any advice regarding when and how to add nuts?

Mash? Boil? Fermenter?
I have also read about soaking the crushed nuts in a jar of vodka (just enough to cover the nuts) for a few weeks which is meant to really bring out the flavours into a kind of "extract" and then adding that to the fermenter. Any thoughts?

Note: I'm not interested in using a pre-made hazelnut extract, I want to use nuts!

 

[bum]

Note: I'm not interested in using a pre-made hazelnut extract, I want to use nuts!

I did a quick bit of googling and it seems that hazelnut extract is made by the spirit process you've outlined above so if you were going to go down that road to avoid the oil/fats issues then you should possibly consider commercial extract anyway.

If you do make an extract yourself some recipes use brandy in place of vodka. I'd be thinking that a cheap vodka would be a more neutral spirit base but the extra complexity from the brandy might be nice.

Are you going to BIAB? (Sorry, couldn't help myself)

 

[manticle]

Does anyone have any experience/advice with brewing with nuts? (Please keep the testicle jokes to a minimum)

I'm planning on adding some crushed, toasted hazelnuts to a beer for a bit of an experiment. I'm not expecting it to taste specifically like hazelnuts but do hope to get some nutty complexity out of it.

Everything I've read says that brewing with nuts is probalematic as the oils mess up the beer's head retention, and the fats can reduce the shelf life of beer. I'm willing to accept both of these issues in the name of experimentation. So does anyone have any advice regarding when and how to add nuts?

Mash? Boil? Fermenter?
I have also read about soaking the crushed nuts in a jar of vodka (just enough to cover the nuts) for a few weeks which is meant to really bring out the flavours into a kind of "extract" and then adding that to the fermenter. Any thoughts?

Note: I'm not interested in using a pre-made hazelnut extract, I want to use nuts!

Not advice as I'm in no position to do so. However since you're experimenting, you're probably open to ideas. Toasting nuts (dry, oven roast until fragrant) brings out the flavour and releases a lot of the oil. I'd try this and allow to drain on absorbent paper to remove as much of the oil as possible. Then maybe do some with and some without vodka/brandy.

 

[Tony]

Incider lives on the other side of the country mate!

 

[Bizier]

I have been thinking the same thing recently as I am working back out in SW Syd, where I have access to a lot of beautiful fresh nuts.

I was thinking of adding pulverised well-toasted pine nuts or cashews to a mash.

Does anyone have suggestions as to whether any mash enzyme group (eg proteolytic) that will potentially break down problematic oils?
Will another yeast or bacteria be capable of 'fermenting' these oils?

 

[Bizier]

http://beernews.org/2010/02/sam-calagione-...talian-brewers/

The four consulting brewers met in Boston this week to brew the first test batch of Eataly beer, an English Mild fermented with Italian chestnut powde

ED: Just thinking that chestnuts are an Italian staple source of carbohydrate, so this makes sense. They are probably also a lot less oily.
I would love to do a porter with fresh roasted chestnuts.

 

[whitegoose]

Well I ended up brewing a hazelnut ale. Not a "nut brown ale" as you would expect, I guess it's a hazelnut pale ale of sorts - a bit of an experimental brew.

Anyway I ended up roughly smashing 3/4 of a cup of whole, toasted hazelnuts. Half of that went into the mash, and the other half went into the boil @ 20 minutes.

Tasting the results during bottling - wow, it was hazelnutty alright!! Spectacular. Not really in the aroma, but big in the flavour. I'll report back once I crack one.

 

[jyo]

Well I ended up brewing a hazelnut ale. Not a "nut brown ale" as you would expect, I guess it's a hazelnut pale ale of sorts - a bit of an experimental brew.

Anyway I ended up roughly smashing 3/4 of a cup of whole, toasted hazelnuts. Half of that went into the mash, and the other half went into the boil @ 20 minutes.

Tasting the results during bottling - wow, it was hazelnutty alright!! Spectacular. Not really in the aroma, but big in the flavour. I'll report back once I crack one.

MMM, sounds interesting, WG. You've got me thinking of a hazelnut porter... :icon_drool2:

 

[O'Henry]

Now this you must bring to class. I am very excited to taste it. What volume were you making (just to make sense of the 3/4 cup)?

Edit: I'll be trying to use real nuts in two brews time. Let me know if you have any issues in the ferment. See you tomorrow...

 

[whitegoose]

Ah good point - this was a 9L batch, stovetop mash - small enough so that I'm not heart broken if it all turns out badly!

 

[newguy]

I'm a bit late to the party but... I once brewed a pecan porter. I added some chopped pecans to the boil - from memory something like 400g in a 40ish litre batch. It was okay but not great. The base beer wasn't my best but you could detect a nice pecan flavour and aroma. I tried to be very careful with the pecans (no woody shell bits) but a few did make it through, and they're bitter as hell. I could taste that woody shell note.

I will probably attempt this again but I'll be more careful inspecting the nuts for bits of shell.

 

[Dazza_devil]

Does anyone have any experience/advice with brewing with nuts? (Please keep the testicle jokes to a minimum)

Sorry I just can't resist.
I always keep mine attached when I brew, I find that the resultant beer puts hair on your chest.

 

[big78sam]

Holgate use macadamia nuts in one of their beers

http://holgatebrewhouse.com/nut_brown.html

I'm not sure how they do it but if you email them maybe the brewer, Paul, will give some advice. There's a Bendigo and Districts HBC meeting at Holgate in a month or so and Paul will be tasting some of the beers. If I remember, I'll ask him what they do.

 

[O'Henry]

Please do. I emailed them a while ago but they didn't get back to me. Their 10th Anniversary Brown was awesome!