looking for some advice. I recently brewed 5 gallons of an imperial chocolate milk stout. I kegged 2.5 gallons of the base beer, and I transferred the other 2.5 gallons onto a half pound of chocolate PB2 (peanut butter powder). The PB2 pretty much sunk to the bottom of the Carboy immediately, but I’ve been rousing it back into suspension about once or twice per day. My question is how long to let it age on the PB2 before kegging it. Does anyone have any experience with this or suggestions? My plan was to let it sit on the PB2 for one week before packaging but since this is my first time experimenting with peanut butter in beer, I thought I would check with you all first to see if you have any insight to share. Thank you in advance for your help!
Maybe these threads will help: https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...2&t=post&o=date&g=1&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8
I have made several 5-gallon batches of peanut butter beers (in lighter beers, not stouts), have used PB2, and will never use it again. It creates a HUGE amount of dregs, and it takes a LOT of PB2 to get any flavor out of it. Most of the oils have been removed, and that's where the best part of the flavor comes from. Instead, I have been using Brewer's Best Natural Peanut Butter Flavoring. It comes in a 4 fl. oz. bottle and they recommend using one such bottle per 5 gallons. I find that's not enough, even for a lighter beer, and recommend using anywhere from 1-1/2 to 2 bottles per 5 gallons, depending on how much peanut butter taste you wish the beer to have. You will have to experiment to your own taste, but you could start with one or 1-1/2 bottles and work up from there. It leaves no dregs at all and you can even add it at the very end when you keg the beer. http://www.brewersbestkits.com/natural-flavorings.html https://www.amazon.com/Brewers-Best-Peanut-Butter-Flavoring/dp/B00U9XQM7I
I typically use PB2 at the end of the boil or flame out and it works well. Then add to secondary only if its lacking pb flavor. To answer your direct question, letting it sit on the PB2 for one week should be just fine. Not sure you'd get a whole out of letting it sit longer than that because as you know it sinks to the bottom.
Thank you for the suggestions. I recently kegged the beer and I think if I were to do it again, I would use regular PB2 instead of chocolate PB2, and I would double the amount. I would also make the base beer finish drier (maybe drop the lactose altogether) because the finished beer is too sweet. Not terrible, but so sweet it is hard for me to get through a pint. The base beer was much better without the PB2. I may take @OldBrewer s advice and add natural peanut butter flavoring to supplement the PB2. Thanks for the suggestions.
I'd consider brewing a fruity blonde ale and then blending the beers to get a PB&J ale. Choose the fruit that you like best on a PB&J sandwich and use that as your flavoring. For me it would be concord grape juice.
I figured I would post an update here that I brought it to a recent homebrew club meeting and found that another member of the club had also brewed a peanut butter beer, and he also used PB2 as the source of the peanut butter character, only he used regular PB2 (instead of chocolate PB2), and he used two full containers (approximately 4 times as much as I used), and the peanut butter character was perfect. If I want to add peanut butter to any beer in the future, that is how I will do it.
