milk stout or PB/chocolate porter

If you go true PB in a brew, then far and away, a milk stout with choc/cocoa will be far easier to handle.

I made a Peanut Butter Porter as my first all grain way back when (yeah, I was adamant on going all in). I de-oiled the PB for a good 3 months before I brewed, and it still had head retention problems. Now, you could always use PB2, the powdered substitute for PB, but if you're going all in, you need a decent amount of time to get the oil off of the peanut butter.

Cocoa, on the other hand, is pretty straight forward.

 

How does one deoil peanut butter? Vodka?

 

Milk stout. Lactose is easy to work with, and milk stouts are likely to come out well, especially if you follow the KISS protocol.

Cocoa is rumored to be easy to work with, but I haven't used it so I can't really say. Peanut butter is ... well forget it, I'm not working with that stuff anytime soon!

 

Natural peanut butter, cheese cloth and a strainer, and a whole helluva lot of time. Well, thats the method I used.

 

I never brewed with peanut butter by PB2 sounds promising. Midwest Supplies calls for it in this kit: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/chocolate-covered-beavr-nuts-all-grain-kit.html
Their instructions say to add to a 2ndary. You can read about it and reviews in the link and elsewhere on the web. Jokelahoma made this kit (or a facsimile of it) and you should be able to find his thread about it in the archives of this forum. The Midwest Supplies reviews suggest to me that 13 oz of the peanut butter powder stays pretty hidden in a rich and roasty dark beer, so that is something you might consider if making your own recipe.

 

PB2 is VERY subtle, you will have to add more than you think, to retain the flavors you are trying to achieve, just keep that in mind.

 

Have you tasted it in anything but stouts?

 

I've used it twice now, 32 oz in a 5 gallon batch and 32 oz in a 3 gallon batch, both imperial milk stouts (See BA mag for recipe) with TCHO cocoa nibs and TCHO 99% cocoa chocolate (no sugar). The first batch had a nice, subtle flavor whereas the second one had a pretty pronounced peanut butter flavor.

Additionally, the first batch picked up some oxidation (most likely from shaking the shit out of the carboy to get the PB2 suspended after I racked onto it) that resulted in some fattyness in the finish (I seemed to be the only one to notice this), whereas the second batch was racked into a CO2 purged carboy with the PB2 added after racking, with no shaking or stirring, and it was perfect. Both sat for around 7 days on PB2 before racking to a CO2 purged keg.

While both medaled in comps, the second one was vastly superior and was a really good beer; unfortunately I didn't get to drink much more than a glass of it as the keg was for the groom and bridal parties at a friend's wedding and kicked in 15 minutes.

 

That sounds like a tasty stout.

Anyone know where to actually get a Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout ?

 

No, I've only had it in stouts, so it may be more pronounced in lighter ales I guess.

Well, after de-oiling my PB for 3 months, I brewed an Elvis' stout (Peanut Butter Banana Stout), and semi-ruined it IMO. I should have used real bananas, but went with the banana extract. It took over the beer, unfortunately.

 

I brew a PB Porter, and it's pretty damn simple. I actually add the PB2 at flameout like a hopstand. Enough to dissolve it, and then I make sure to get everything out of the kettle into the fermenter.

I used a pound in my beer and it comes through but not a defining thing. You smell it in the glass, you get the nutty sweet finish, but you don't feel like your eating a peanut butter and nutella sammich.

I also use dutched cocoa in the boil late, and use cocoa nibs in secondary.

 

I want this.... This sounds good

 

Shoot me a BM if you want a recipe. My porter is pretty fucking close to a "stout".

 

I would if I was a brewer. Wouldn't know where to begin

 

I used PB2 and cacao nibs to make a chocolate peanut butter porter. It tasted exactly like chocolate peanut butter in a porter, which, I'm warning you, freaked my friends and me out when we tasted it. There was nothing wrong or off with the brew itself, it just didn't work right as a porter.

I would recommend brewing it as a stout -- maybe the mouthfeel difference would make it better.

 

I'm looking at the price of PB2 and that'd be like $20 worth of peanut butter for each of these beers. Worth it?

 

The second one was pretty darn good and I will be brewing it again in the New Year, the first, with its fatty, weird finish, wasn't to my liking at all (others liked it, and thankfully they drank it all). As long as you're extra careful about oxidation (think paranoid), it'll turn out really well, just also make sure you have a very solid and well tested base beer. Throwing PB2 on top of a beer thats not a good match for it, isn't worth the extra cost of PB2. If doing chocolate and peanut butter, some really high end nibs or cacao will help as well.

 

Sounds like PB2 is going in the boil.