Day 12: Belgian Nut Brown by Bryan Luukinen

[Scott H]

Details are on the bottle. Also from the Spoilers section:

The base recipe is a S. English brown ale, maris otter (56%) with the addition of some pilsner malt (20%). Special malts are Crystal 80 & 120, special roast, chocolate malt, and carafa II. Fermented with a belgian yeast and about 5.1% ABV. Hops are Willamette, at 60 minutes. I'm experimenting with adding hazelnuts late - I roasted the hazelnuts and soaked them in my just-boiled priming sugar for about 90 minutes. I used about half a pound of chopped and roasted hazelnuts. We'll see if the hazelnut comes through at all. The finished beer tasted great before conditioning, so I'm interested to see what happens.

[klinger]

Hey Bryan,

Just getting around to posting my thoughts on this one. Very low carbonation. Had to pour with vigor and swirl a fair amount to get an 1/8 inch head to pop up. Was this bottle conditioned or bottled off a keg? Good looking beer, very clear. I could smell & taste the hazelnuts right at the front. Aroma was otherwise fairly subdued, but it isn't an aromatic style. I liked the taste of this one, though I kind of suspect I would have liked it better with just an English yeast strain. I felt like it needed just a hint more residual sugar to make the hazelnut pop & I'm guessing the Belgian yeast attenuated pretty well. I loved the front end of the flavor on this beer, but then on the back end when the yeast esters came in, I didn't love it as much. Which Belgian yeast strain did you use?

Interesting experiment.

[Chris Creech]

I really enjoyed this one. It was just unique enough - with the belgian yeast and hazelnuts - to really stand out, but still subdued enough to be an easy drinking beer. I think the hazelnuts really complemented the belgian yeast well, though there weren't a ton of belgian esters, as I suspect you fermented this one somewhat low? I think that's good, as I was worried it would be too much with the blend of the roasted malt, nuts, and belgian yeast.

This one poured quite nice for me, and had a good amount of carbonation for a brown ale. It wasn't super-carbed like some belgians are, but again, I prefer the lower carb since it wasn't super belgian flavored and more of the focus was on the malt and the nuts. Good work!

[luukinen]

Hey guys, great comments, thanks! The beer was bottle conditioned, and I suspect that the hazelnut oils may have affected the head retention, but low carb may have contributed to that as well. This was definitely an experiment, and Mark nailed the two things I think I would change about the beer - the lack of residual sugar (maybe low body, too) and the low-ish carbonation. Chris - glad to hear you enjoyed it! Yeah, fermented at 68, so low esters, which I think is good as well. I might like them a little more present, but I agree it all goes together pretty well flavor-wise. This experiment showed me that the classic styles work really well for a reason - all the flavors are in the right place. However, with some tweaking for slightly more residual sugar, a little less roasted malts, and a touch more carbonation, I think this recipe could yield a really cool beer. Cheers!

[carboywonder]

I enjoyed this as well. Smelled like banana nut bread. I don't find it too dry but if you were to carbonate it more highly in the next crack at it, then it would probably benefit from a bit more sweetness. Perhaps adding a bit of lactose, or maltodextrin if you are more concerned with the body.

[bryan]

A very unique brew, for sure. There's a lot going on by virtue of the experimentation and I do like variety/complexity in my beers...

The hazelnuts came through strong in both smell and aftertaste at first, but after a few sips, it seemed like the yeast really took over. I think the banana but bread smell nails it pretty well!

My bottle was also low carb with little head retention. But like you mention, that's the oils at work. Would love to try this with a bit fuller body.

Thanks for sharing!

[Heiko R.]

Hi Bryan,

my bottle also was a little on the low carbonated side. Definitely strong hazelnut aroma and flavor. As others said together with the yeast this was reminiscent of a banana-bread. Very much enjoyed this experiment (as did Debs). Thanks for sharing!

Heiko

[Scott H]

Hi Bryan, sorry for the late review here. I think this was my favorite beer of the group so far. I loved how the hazelnuts contributed to the taste. It added this really gentle softness to the taste that was really a surprise. It was a really nice addition on top of a solid brown ale. I'm definitely going to be brewing this one myself. Any chance you could list specifics about the recipe, like amounts on the grains you used, mash temperature and stuff?

[mavus]

This was a great beer, I liked the carbonation level. This is my favorite so far, reminded me a bit of Rogue Hazelnut brown with a twist. I personally wouldn't go any higher on the sugar, I thought it was well balanced.
--Jesse

[luukinen]

Thanks so much for the kind words, Scott and mavus! Glad you liked it! Here's the details on the recipe:

6 lbs. maris otter
2 lbs. pilsner
1 lb. crystal 80
10 oz. crystal 120
8 oz. special roast
6 oz. chocolate malt
4 oz. carafa II

1 oz. willamette (7.5%) 60"

wyeast 3522
mash at 152 for 60 mins

ferment at 68 degrees,
roast 1/2 lb. hazelnuts in oven at 350 until toasted
soak in hot priming sugar solution for 90 minutes
bottle condition at 68 degrees