Hazelnut / Chestnut beer

[CJBrew]

I was wondering whether any of you have attempted to make a beer with hazel or chestnuts in.

I know (from googling) that there are some Italian styles with chestnut. Hazelnut extract can be obtained for use with liqueur making. Probably it's possible to get chestnut flavouring too.

I could also use chestnut puree, or knacker my thumbnails by peeling about 3 lb of roast chestnuts.

Any ideas, people?

cheers
CJ

[dave-o]

Well i haven't done this exactly, but i do have some culinary skills, and what i'd suggest is:

Grab a load of roast chestnuts
Don't bother shelling them - the shell has a lovely taste
Put them in a sturdy bag (perhaps a pillow case) - you may need to do a couple of batches if you are doing 3 kilos.
Beat it with something hard and wooden (steak tenderiser, mallet?) until they are broken up into small pieces
Put this into a large pan and add as much water as your pan will handle.
Bring it to the boil and simmer for as long as you can be bothered - at least half an hour as we want the hard, rubbery old chestnuts to break down as much as possible.
Strain off the water and squeeze as much out of the chestnut pulp as you can

[CJBrew]

Well i haven't done this exactly, but i do have some culinary skills, and what i'd suggest is:

Grab a load of roast chestnuts
Don't bother shelling them - the shell has a lovely taste
Put them in a sturdy bag (perhaps a pillow case) - you may need to do a couple of batches if you are doing 3 kilos.
Beat it with something hard and wooden (steak tenderiser, mallet?) until they are broken up into small pieces
Put this into a large pan and add as much water as your pan will handle.
Bring it to the boil and simmer for as long as you can be bothered
Strain off the water and squeeze as much out of the chestnut pulp as you can

Basically that's a chestnut tea? Would you add that at flame-out?
And would it be worth reducing the liquid to concentrate or do you think it'd negatively affect the flavour?

Maybe I should give it a go with a small amount of chestnuts to see what sort of flavour I can get...

[dave-o]

I'd probably add it about 5 - 10 minutes before flameout, but that's just a feeling.
I don't see any advantage to reducing it, although it may caramelise slightly. I don't imagine you'll have more than about 3-4 litres by that point.

Yes perhaps try it with 200g or so, and see what comes out. Try drinking it and seeing if it's nice or nasty.

I think you'll need a LOT of chestnuts to flavour a batch of beer. Chestnuts are quite subtly flavoured, and it in my experience it takes a huge amount of natural ingredients to add any noticable flavour to a beer.

For the hazelnuts you may want to consider using a flavouring, although it does kind of go against the grain (no pun intended). Or perhaps that hazelnut syrup they use in coffee.

[CJBrew]

I think you'll need a LOT of chestnuts to flavour a batch of beer. Chestnuts are quite subtly flavoured, and it in my experience it takes a huge amount of natural ingredients to add any noticable flavour to a beer.

For the hazelnuts you may want to consider using a flavouring, although it does kind of go against the grain (no pun intended).

Yes, I quite agree -- I'd love to make more fruit beers but you seem to need about 2lb per gallon of beer and that gets very very expensive...
I don't really see a problem with using flavourings especially if it's a 'natural' sugar free essence.

[dave-o]

Or perhaps that hazelnut syrup they use in coffee.

I edited this comment in after you replied. Yuo might have missed it.

[CJBrew]

I have just finished making a chestnut ale.

Inspired by http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art38250.asp, I decided to mash the chestnuts -- it's probably not going to be clear, but based on the flavour of the wort I think it will taste really good I can't tell how chestnutty it will be once the sugars ferment through.

Here's my recipe:

3 bags of chestnuts (total 1.2kg). Smash up with a lump hammer then roast for about an hour in the oven.
Now put the chestnuts in a large pot and add water (basically until it stops absorbing any more). Boil for about 30 minutes.

5kg Maris Otter pale malt
250g Special B
50g Roasted Barley

Mashed overnight -- started at 68'C (liquid/grain ratio ~2 l/kg)
Mashed out and sparged.

In the boil:
28g E.K. Goldings (60 minutes)
28g Saaz (10 minutes)
2 tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes)

Yeast is WLP002

[Mitchamitri]

I would have used roast sticky chestnuts a) for the sugar and b) for the roasty flavour - gawd know where i would have got them from!!!!!

[dave-o]

Let us know how it turns out. I'd be surprised if it ends up tasting of chestnuts, but let's hope so.

[Mitchamitri]

Morrissons have two crimbo beers in (hand in hand with titanic brewery) - a CHESTNUT BITTER, and a VANILLA & CHOCOLATE STOUT

[benspray]

Sorry to bump this after so much time but how did the chestnut beer turn out?
I'd really like to brew something like the Morrisons chestnut ale but cant find any other threads about it....

Cheers
Ben

[CJBrew]

Hi Benspray,

It's been good drinking. Overall the Special B comes through quite strongly with a full, creamy mouthfeel and sweet maltiness.

It definitely has a nutty flavour but I think it's hard to identify chestnuts. I think I'd describe it as the slightly bitter flavour of nut skins, e.g. Hazels, Almonds etc. That may have come from including the shells in the mash.

It's not unpleasant but it's not really the flavour you expect in a beer. I think if there was a more distinct taste of nuts it would taste less like an off-flavour -- so I'd be tempted should I make it again to add some chestnut essence at racking/bottling time.

cheers,

Chris

[benspray]

Hi Chris

Cheers, Im on the lookout for some form of Chestnut extract / puree of some sort, and will give it a shot

Cheers
Ben

[chivelegs]

Had a bottle of this a few weeks ago
http://www.brasseriepietra.com/en/pgs/pietra1_en.htm

tastes OK, definitely chestnut flavour there, but wouldn't bother with it again. (it was on offer in Waitrose...)

The website states

"PIETRA beer, the original product from the Brewery is a specialty bottom-fermentation beer with 6° alcohol strength and a beautiful amber colouring.

It is brewed using tradition and craft methods from selected malts and Corsican sweet chestnut flour.

Mixed to the malt during mashing, the chestnut is used as a prime ingredient rather than as flavouring"

[evilsoc]

I made a hazelnut beer inspired by Rogue's hazelnut brown nectar on a recent trip to Portland. I just brewed up a 5 Gallon batch of a standard brown ale with about 200g of chocolate malt and a 20ml bottle of "Prestige hazelnut liquer essence". I didnt want to risk real nuts because of the oil content. Surprisinly just 20ml of the essence is enough to give a distinct hazelnut flavour to a 5 gallon batch which married nicely to the chocolate malt. Just keep the choc malt highish and the hop flavour lowish.