Got an imperial stout in the primary. Have 1 oz cocoa nibs soaking in vodka, and planned to add that and 2 jars pb2 to secondary. More I read about people using the pb2, the more skeptical I get. Anybody had good luck with it? I have some hazelnut extract from the local brew shop as a back up. What should I do?
What size is your batch? 1 oz of nibs in an Imperial Stout sounds subtle or even insignificant to me, unless you are doing a 1 gallon batch. As for pb2, never used it, but I have been working on a recipe for a pb beer so would be interested in other responses. My current thoughts are it may fail to meet expectation because we typically taste PB and fat and sugar together, so it may be much the way that cocoa powder does not taste like a chocolate bar.
Probably not the same, but I mixed in some PB2 into my imperial stout just to see how the flavor was... OK at best. In small amounts it works better, once I added too much the flavor was pretty gross. But again, this was just mixing in the glass and not during secondary or anything which may help. Was mainly just a flavor test.
What if you added it to the mash and then you could see where the profile is prior to going into the fermenter? Then, if you want more of a profile, you could make a tea with small amounts of water and it to the secondary. You could also add some more prior to bottling. Just my opinion. I think it's definitely more of an experiment before you perfect it. If you're really serious about it, you could make about 3 gallons and try different techniques. Let us know how it turns out.
I've had good success with adding cocoa powder to the mash and then adding more to the primary since the profile wasn't exactly what I wanted.
The only time I messed with PB2 was with a Sam Smith Oatmeal Stout. It was a 5 gal batch and I used roughly 6 or 8 oz of PB2 in the last 10 min of the boil. It was a weak PB flavor. I think you need quite a bit--especially in a big beer. I've heard others say that you can add this stuff after fermentation, but I'd be leery that the stuff would clump together like DME. Hazelnut sounds really tasty if you don't peanut butter your beer. Are you bottling or kegging?
Never used PB2 and don't know what it is. will look up later. 1oz nibs is a small amount, but if you used it with a small amount hazelnut extract it might work. I just cant say how much extract, never used it, always use real coffee. good luck.
Thanks for everybody's input. Think I'm going to add 2 jars pb2 to the secondary along with cocoa nibs, then rack on top. Gonna roll the dice.
I just did a Oatmeal Stout with PB2 and coffee. I used 3 6.5oz jars of PB2 in secondary, just racked on top of it for a week and barely notice the flavor. I plan on brewing it again and using 4 next time.
I've been wanting to do this for a while but I've read a lot of people getting infections from adding directly to secondary without boiling. Nothing firsthand to add but I'd look into it more before risking a batch. Never ended up adding it to the beer and my wife used up the PB2 in her morning shake!
When I did a PB cup stout I soaked my nibs in some grain and then I mixed PB2 into that tincture. Figured that would take care of any unwanted bugs. Just an idea.
I've had mediocre results with PB2 using what I consider to be copious amounts. In high ABV stouts when I've added enough to get the flavor to come through the resulting beer had a noticeably chalky mouthfeel. Next attempt I will try to use a Peanut butter extract/flavoring. It's very likely that beers like "Sweet Baby Jesus" use an extract or flavoring.
