I had the (admittedly crazy) idea to try and make a “NUtella Stout” My thought was to try and make either a nice chocolate stout or a chocolate milk stout as a base and add some Hazelnut extract.
Has anyone tried this, and was it horrible?
and this being the first time I tried an all grain recipe (I only just made the switch) any help with the grain bill would be much appreciated.
First, way, way too much roasted grain. To get a chocolatey character you’ll want a little residual sweetness, so I’d keep the pale malt, add 1 lb of crystal 60, then .75 lbs roasted barley and .75 chocolate malt. This will give you some nice roast character that won’t be overpowering. Personally I’m not a fan of cocoa or chocolate added to beer, so I’d use cacao nibs, cracked and added to a fine mesh nylon bag. You add the bag to the fermenter after fermentation stops and pull it when the flavor gets where you want (check every other day). As for the hazelnut, there are some hazelnut extracts/flavorings on the market that would be easier to use and give you acceptable results. Actual nuts have oils that could kill head retention or possibly go rancid. I’ve seen several kits and clone recipes for Rogue Hazelnut Brown that use the extract. Anyway, there you go - it’s a start !
EDIT - My bad, I see now that you mentioned using hazelnut extract in your first post.
I was planning on using the extract because I don’t want the oils especially if I were to add some real chocolate. I think I will use the idea of adding the nibs like a dry hop in secondary.
Derailment - this has got to be the third post in the past few days that is using a newer yeast company. It’s madness that we are getting all of these options!
Back on topic - +1 to what Jon is saying. Chocolate malt does not equal chocolate beer. I recommend finding a tried a true recipe for your first all-grain, especially if you are thinking about going crazy hazelnut and chocolate.
Nut oil is the least of your concern. Nutella (or an organic version of the same stuff I eat at home in huge amounts) contains 12% hazelnuts. But it contains at least 30% vegetable oil (80% of Nutella consists of sugar and oil) - how else would you be able to spread it? I don’t think you want that. The cocoa powder amount is only 8%.
Yeah, I get that. Except I don’t see where he planned to use actual Nutella in the beer. I took it that he wanted to make a beer with those flavors, not use the actual spread. Or I would hope not.
Awesome that’s about how I felt when I came up with the thought.
I won’t use actual Nutella because of all the oil all I need is a nice chocolate stout with some hazelnut flavor to get close.
They use a very specific hazelnut extract…here’s the recipe from the book “Craft Beer for the Homebrewer”
Rogue Brewmaster John Maier started out as a homebrewer and he and Rogue have always been big supporters of homebrewers. Several of Rogue’s most popular recipes have homebrew roots, and their Hazelnut Brown Nectar is one of the best examples of that. From a recipe created by homebrewer Chris Studach of the Cascade Brewers Society in Eugene OR, Hazelnut Brown Nectar has turned into one of Rogue’s most popular beers, winning many awards worldwide. The picture on the bottle is a caricature of Chris, giving rise to the beer’s nickname “Bald Guy Brown”.
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.016
ABV: 5.6%
IBU: 25
SRM: 26.2
Crush and steep in 2.75 gallons (10.41 L) of 152°F (66.66°C) water for 60 minutes:
2 lb. (.9 kg) Great Western Munich 10L
1.5 lb. (.68 kg) Great Western Crystal 75L
9 oz. (.25 kg) Great Western Crystal 15L
9 oz. (.25 kg) Great Western Crystal 120L
11 oz. (.31 kg) Baird Brown Malt
4 oz. (.11 kg) Franco-Belges Kiln Coffee Malt
½ tsp. Northwestern hazelnut extract (see note)
Strain the grain into your brew pot and sparge with 1 gallon (3.78 L) of water at 160°F (71.11°C). Bring the wort to a boil, remove from heat, and add:
3.75 lb. (1.7 kg) light dry malt extract.
Stir well until the extract is dissolved. Add water as needed to bring the volume to 3 gallons (11.35 L). Bring the wort to a rolling boil. Boil for 10 minutes, and then add:
1.2 oz. (34 g) Perle pellets hops (8.7% AA)
Boil for 60 minutes and then add:
.5 oz. (14.17 g) Sterling pellet hops (8.7% AA)
Remove from heat and let hops steep for 10 min. Then chill as quickly as possible to below 80°F (26.66°C). Transfer the wort to fermenter and add cold water to bring the total volume to 5 gallons (18.92 L). The temperature should be below 70°F (21.11°C) at this point. Aerate wort and pitch an appropriately sized starter of Wyeast 1764 Pacman yeast.
Ferment at 60-65°F (15.55-18.33°C) until final gravity is reached. You can either leave the beer in primary for 3 weeks, or transfer to a secondary fermenter for a week after final gravity is reached in the primary. Bottle when fermentation is complete with 4 oz. (.11 kg) corn sugar or keg and force carbonate to 2.5 vol. CO2. Add ½ teaspoon of Northwestern hazelnut extract at bottling or kegging.
All Grain Instructions
Replace extract with 7.75 lb. (3.51 kg) Great Western 2 row pale malt (approximately 1.8-2L). Crush the grain and mash all grain at 152°F (66.66°C) using 5.75 gallons (21.76 L) of water. Sparge with enough water at 180°F (82.22°C) to reach your intended boil volume.
Note: According to Brewmaster John Maier at Rogue Ales, Northwestern hazelnut extract is more potent than other brands. If you use another brand, you’ll have to add it gradually at packaging and taste to ascertain the proper amount.
That’s interesting… I would have sworn Rogue used real hazelnuts for that beer. But I see now on the website it does indeed list the ingredients as Hazelnut Extract. Maybe I’m thinking of a different beer that used actual roasted hazelnuts (maybe even someone in my homebrew club perhaps?).
I don’t have any technical expertise to offer, but I agree with some of the earlier posts about the dark grains… I’ve always been told a little goes a long way.
Dont think thats a crazy idea at all. A few years ago I brewed a Almond Joy Stout- it was just my chocolate stout with almond and coconut extract in the keg. Went over very well over the holidays!
On tap right now is a Roasted Pecan porter. For the batch (5.25g) I roasted 15oz of Pecans for 5-7 min at 350, stirred em up and gave em anopther 5-8 min. Dont want em burned but you know when theyre done cause they smell amazing! Gaave em a rough chop and just added them to the grain and mashed all together. I did also add 1oz of belgian cocoa powder during last 10 min of boil. Head retention isnt amazing but its there and lacing is still nice- would def brew it again
point being you can get good “nut” flavor from real nuts or extract IMO
