one of my bartenders just posed the idea of making a beer that tastes like butter pecan ice cream. i'm thinking something like a cream ale with a little lactose sugar and brewers caramel...but how the hell do you deal with the pecans? mash? coarse chop and throw in the fermenter? find a pecan extract? i have no idea...any thoughts you guys have will be very helpful...thanks!

The easiest route would be to find some kind of pecan extract. Rogue Hazelnut Brown uses a nut extract and it tastes good. I think there is a brewery in the Southeast making some sort of pecan beer. Maybe they would have some information.

Jeff, Lazy Magnolia in Kiln, Mississippi brews a Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale in which they put roasted pecans in the mash: http://www.lazymagnolia.com/SouthernPecan.html. I tried emailing the brewery but they wouldn't offer up any information. Best I've found on these interwebs is this, which was confirmed by a supposed LM employee:

"Pecans were toasted at 300F for 10 minutes in a single layer, then poured into a paper bag to sit out overnight, hopefully getting some of the oils out of them. Pecans were roasted 10 minutes at 400F till slightly smoking. Poured into another paper bag. Pecans were finally roasted for 10 more minutes at 350F, again, just until slightly smoking. Between each roast, I used a flat-style crowbar and smashed as many whole nuts as I could in order to expose the maximum amount of surface area. I'd recommend mashing them and layering them towards the bottom, so they won't float up on you. 4-8oz for a 5 gallon batch sounds just about perfect."

This beer is very good in my opinion and has a very distinct pecan flavor to it. I haven't tried to brew it myself yet but it is on my to-brew list. Hope this helps!

Bill

You might also experiment with soaking pecans in vodka and see if that pulls out any flavors. Another option might be to just add pecan oil.

The current beer Im making is intended to be a Toasted Pecan Vanilla Stout. The instruction I received from my local home brew guy was to toast the pecans and then soak them in vodka for at least 6 hours prior to adding to the secondary. His opinion was to add to the secondary, not at flame out or in the primary. I havent finished with the beer yet to give you definite results but hopefully this gives at least another angle to look at.

Google is your friend: http://www.amazon.com/Butter-Pecan-Baking-Flavor-Extract/dp/B00125CKTQ

You are going to have to do some test batches to figure out the right amount to add. If you use this I expect an invite to walk over and help you dial in the flavor.

Here is another: http://www.silvercloudestates.com/viewproduct.aspx?id=179

I'd say I definitely agree with the pecan extract, or even a butter pecan flavored syrup like the one they have at IHOP. Also the vodka soaking thing could work, but I'd probably chop them up a good bit prior to that if and then see how it tastes. But that baking idea could work well also.

Also I'd think a darker cream ale maybe a dark porter or even a stout (I'm thinking something like sam adams cream stout but with a pecan flavor added in). If this works out you gotta let us know if its any good.

I saw a beer from Abita that had Pecan in the label

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/3/35134
here it is.

No matter what, toast them! You'll get nothing from raw pecans... they also have pecan coffee flavorings.. could be the easiest route... other than that, like what was said above about mashing with them.

I would go with the pecan extract if you can find it. It's probably your best bet for consistency if you make more than one batch. I'd also research the Hazelnut extract to get some idea of the amount to use in your initial batch.

I concur. go with the extract.

I once tried a hazelnut brown ale where I "dry nutted" with hazelnuts added to the secondary in a grain sack. My goal was to be able to pull them out before bottling, but to many oils came out. The beer tasted good but it had a layer of oil on the top that made it undrinkable. The only way I could salvage it was for beer butt chicken. I would recommend the extract, there is nothing worse than oily beer.

I think you could also course chop and throw them into secondary. mabye even primary. doesnt protein do yeast well anyways?

Awesome advice from all of the above! Let us know how it turns out and maybe you should enter it in a comp!

Subject: Re: help me figure this one out...calling in the brain trust...
Author: bryguy Aug 24th, 2010
8:18 pm
You might also experiment with soaking pecans in vodka and see if that pulls out any flavors. Another option might be to just add pecan oil.


I don't think putting any type of oil in your beer is a good idea

Austin Homebrew Supply www.austinhomebrew.com $6.