Well, I made a brew yesterday that calls for a PB2 slurry. I read that I should mix 12 oz of PB2 Peanut Butter Powder to 6 oz. of a high test neutral spirit. When I tried to mix with 6 oz of Everclear, it was still too lumpy and powdery, so I added more, and more, and then I realized I added all 25 oz to the powder mix.
I did the math by assumption (that my brew will ferment down to about 1.011, yield me a 6%'er, OG was 1.056), and the assumption with that in mind is I’ll be much closer to 8.5% if I add the slurry.
I am okay with this, but I may not like the flavor. I am scared that this will be too ethanol forward and not really taste like beer, but more like bready rocket fuel with a hint of peanut butter.
My plan was to add this slurry, albeit strong and thin, to a secondary fermentation and let it blend for about two weeks prior to moving it to a serving keg. Does anyone by experience think this is a lost cause and that I shoud ditch the slurry and have a very nice brown ale instead? (the base grains from the recipe were basically a brown ale). Or should I keep the slurry, add it and enjoy the beer?
I would start over with the slurry ingredients, but the Everclear was $17 and the PB2 was $11. I really do not want to invest another $28 into this.
I really want to add this slurry and actually tasted it. It is strong but still has a nice peanut butter taste, but with a rather strong ethonol profile. I would hope that 5 gal of beer could subdue that.
On a side note, and not that this has much to do with anything, but I mashed warm at 156 with the hopes of producing a sweeter beer.
Personally, I would try it with a finished beer before adding it into the batch. Calculate how much of the slurry would be in each beer and add that amount to a glass and pour a nice brown ale over it to try. Or even half the amount in half a beer, etc. If it tastes good to you, go ahead and add it. If not, maybe pick up a bottle of chocolate liqueur and have Reese’s cocktails with the slurry.
Thank you for the reply. I think I am going to go in the direction you mentioned. I may just do half with 1/2 the slurry and half as a standard brown ale.
With the remainder of the slurry I will add the chocolate syrup, as you suggested, and have a very enjoyable “pants off dance off” Christmas party.
Ok I am bumping this back to the top as I scratched my original slurry (will probably make some cello out of it and gift it).
This time I attempted the slurry again with roughly 8 oz of 151 Everclear and this is how it came out…very mealy. Not sure if this is correct.
Would the 151 proof spirit be for sanitation purposes and the consistency doesn’t matter as it is going into the secondary and then it will be racked into a serving keg in a couple of weeks? Or is this consistency way off?
Can’t say I’ve ever used PB2 and I’d have tried the same things as you with everclear. Looks like the typical use of it is to add water to make it peanut butter consistency but what about over dosing it with water to thin it out enough that you can get it to disperse in the beer? No idea how prone it’d be to settling out but perhaps add it thinned out with water to secondary, let it settle out and transfer off any solids that settle out to the keg?
Haven’t tried any of this, just offering up some ideas.
