Peanut Butter Cup Porter

[briandickens]

Coming off of a decently received Strawberry Wheat, my wife suggested we make a Peanut Butter and Chocolate beer. (I like keeping her involved in the brewing so that she'll be okay with me spending money on it. Also, I get to have a kegerator in the dining room.) So I've been thinking about it and I think I put together a decent enough recipe for a PEanut Butter Cup Porter, but I want some advice.

I am going to use Hershey's cocoa powder at the end of the boil for the chocolate flavor. I am torn on where to get the peanut butter flavor from. I know I can get nuttiness from grains, but I think I want to use some sort of peanut product in the beer. I've seen recipes using low fat peanut butter, natural peanut butter with the oil poured off over the course of 6 weeks, and peanut butter extracts. I've also come across a product called PB2 which is a powdered peanut product made by squeezing the oils out of peanuts. I think I'd be willing to try the PB2 out as it seems I could use it at the same time I add the cocoa. Right?

Another thing to take note of is that even though I have put together an all grain recipe, I've never actually brewed an all grain batch. I am doing my first this weekend (ordinary bitter).

So, here's the recipe as it stands so far. I mostly adapted it from some of Jamil's porters, but took out black malt to avoid the bitter tastes and replaced with more chocolate malt to give it nutty tastes. And it still says peanut butter, but I might change that out for something else later. Any suggestions? Thoughts? Ideas?

9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 72.00 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.00 %
1.00 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 8.00 %
1.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 8.00 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.00 %
1.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (60 min) Hops 32.3 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min) Hops 2.6 IBU
0.50 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
2.00 oz Peanut Butter (Boil 30.0 min) Misc
4.00 oz Peanut Butter (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
8.00 oz Cocoa Powder (Hershey) (Boil 2.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale

[Crut]

Funny that you post this, i was just thinking about the same thing for a recipe with PB. Since i havnt even looked for a recipe yet, i am not totally sure on where to start. Looking at your recipes, it looks good, but i personally would probably go a little simpler, escpecially for your first AG batch. Sometimes simpler is better.
-I might take out the Munich, dont treally know if youd gain much from it.
-The hops bill looks good.
-As for the peanut butter, I dont think you would need to boil it at 60 and thirty, maybe at 10 or 5, and some at flameout/fermenter.
-The 001 would work nicely, and if you try again, i might try wlp004 irish ale.

This is my two cents and I salute you sir for trying something new on your own. Let us know how it turns out.
-Crut

[Bugeater]

A guy in our club has brewed a peanut butter beer a couple of times. He uses the PB extract (Watkins, I think) and it isn't bad. I don't really like peanut butter all that much in anything, so the fact that I liked this at all says that it must be pretty good. I would be leary of the oils in regular peanut butter due to head retention problems so I would lean towards the extract approach.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[briandickens]

-I might take out the Munich, dont treally know if youd gain much from it.
-As for the peanut butter, I dont think you would need to boil it at 60 and thirty, maybe at 10 or 5, and some at flameout/fermenter.

I think those are great points. I am going to try removing the Munich and maybe replacing with Pale Malt. Or not. Maybe it doesn't need it.

Still not sure how to approach the PB. I thought putting in early would help get it into the wort better. But yes, it would probably get in there if I put it in 5 minutes before flameout.

Thanks for your advice!

[PDub]

I would put the PB in very late, no longer than 10 minutes. Boiling longer doesn't necessarily get more flavor out. It's kinda like spices in spice beers. You get more flavor by boiling them for less time. I agree with cguntzviller, for your first brew, keep it pretty simple. Use a base malt with maybe just a couple specialty grains.

You should make cider. Then you could have "Hot Dickens Cider".

[briandickens]

Yeah. I took advice read here and on another forum and edited the recipe. I took out the munich malt and changed the PB to be added at 5min before flameout. And I may try the PB2 if I feel like ordering 4 jars of it. Otherwise I'll just drain oil off of natural peanut butter (PB1?) until it's more or less dried out.

[Geistbier]

I have been pondering doing something similar but with oven roasting raw peanuts, coarsely breaking them up and pouring the wort over them before chilling it. I know the potential head retention issue, but I am pondering add a bit of wheat to Robust Porter and see how it goes, if it fails miserable (ok JP, when). I then may try with the extracts, it just sounds like a fun idea. I even have some boysenberry syrup from Knotts Berry Farm and if I can get the recipe to work I may occasionally add a bit of the syrup for a PB and J Porter.

[Crut]

MMMM, PB&J porter sounds delicious. I'm glad im not the only one with twisted senses. Im always looking for odd/weird/strange recipes or indgredients. I am excited to hear how the PB porter turns out.

Geistbier, i like your idea about the roasting raw nuts. I wonder if adding some crushed nuts in the mash would help any, and then some/most in the fermenter?