Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter

A couple summers ago, I had a chance to try DuClaw Brewing Company's Sweet Baby Jesus. It's not much of a summer beer, but it made for a great sipper one late night in a smoky, air-conditioned central Pennsylvania bar. I'm an admitted sucker for chocolate; coupled with a rich but not overbearing peanut butter presence, I was sold from the first taste. Of course there was nothing for it but to make one myself. When a deal on PB2 peanut butter powder came up last fall, I jumped on it; much of the oil has been removed, making it more suitable for use in beer than other forms of peanuts. I'd planned to make this beer this coming fall, but when I realized that the expiration date on the PB2 was approaching, it became clear its time had come.

Not necessarily looking to clone DuClaw's beer, I started my recipe from scratch. The plan was for a big base beer--an imperial porter--to lend a big malty backbone upon which I could layer the peanut butter and chocolate additions. Brown malt has had a very positive impact on my dark beers in the last few years, particularly in a brown porter from earlier this year that aimed at using the grain for forty percent of the grist. The oats went in to add their characteristically slick mouthfeel; the toasting was to add colour and a cookie/malt complexity. The lactose and English yeast conspired to keep the beer from finishing too thin; the low mash temp worked to keep it from finishing too high. By the numbers, the final gravity is just about where I'd like it; this isn't meant to be a light summer drinker.

I've messed with adding chocolate to beer before, usually with cacao nibs in secondary, but have found myself mostly unsatisfied with the results. Not having a lot of experience with baker's chocolate or cocoa powder, I went for broke and used both at separate points in the brewing process. Following some highly technical internet searching, the PB2 seemed the clear choice for adding the peanut butter element. However, it seemed as though it might take quite a bit to make a real impact on the final beer. Again, I went big, adding two full pounds of the powder over the course of the process.

The brewing process could best be summed up with the word "sludge." High-pressure sprayers and long, hot OxiClean soaks left the fermenters no worse for wear, thankfully. My friend Graham, fellow low brass player and sometimes homebrewer, helped out on brewday; it was nice to have assistance filtering out as much of the post-boil sediment as possible. I was surprised to find that the gravity increased following the secondary peanut butter and chocolate additions, which leaves the gravity reading following primary in some question. The sample at bottling had a pleasant peanut butter presence, though the chocolate could've been more substantial. I don't plan to consume much of this over the next few months of intense heat, but I do look forward to trying it once carbonation is complete, and hopefully enjoying it over the fall and winter.

Update: The peanut butter character pretty over the top, but the chocolate was lacking. The bottles spent the summer in a very warm (80F+) environment, and I kept worrying over the peanut oil going rancid. In the end, this batch really didn't end up being what I'd hoped it would be, and I dumped most of the bottles. May someday return to this concept, upping the chocolate, toning down the peanut butter, and brewing it on the cooler end of the year.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter

Batch size: 4 gallons
Projected OG: 1.085
Projected SRM: 34.4
Projected IBU: 29.4
Boil time: 60 minutes
Brewhouse efficiency: 67%

Grains/Fermentables
57.2% - 8 lb Malteurop 2-row
21.4% - 3 lb Crisp Brown malt
10.7% - 1.5 lb Toasted organic quick oats - roasted @ 350F for 15 min, 400F for 15 min
3.6% - 8 oz Crisp Chocolate malt
7.1% - 1 lb Lactose (10 min)

Hops
.6 oz Magnum (14.2%) (60 min)

Yeast
WY1469 West Yorkshire Ale - cake from Brown Malt Porter (w/ 1-liter starter)

Extras
16 oz PB2 peanut butter powder (5 min)
4 oz Unsweetened baker’s chocolate (5 min)
16 oz PB2 (secondary)
8 oz Organic cocoa powder (secondary)
2 Vanilla beans, chopped and scraped (secondary)

Water additions (mash)
8 qts RO water (w/ 8.5 qts filtered SLC water)
1 g Baking soda
1 g CaCl

Brewday: 14 May 2014
Mash: 147F for 90 minutes
Pre-boil volume: 5.8 gallons
Pre-boil SG: 14.6P (1.060)

Ferment in swamp cooler at 64-66F.

17 May 2014: Fermentation slowing; brought swamp cooler up to 68F. Agitated periodically.

Secondary: 30 May 2014
FG: 1.026
ABV: 7.7%

Sample was on the boozy side, but had decent chocolate notes and a slight hint of peanut butter in the background.

Bottled: 28 June 2014
FG: 1.030 - backsweetened by the peanut butter & chocolate?
Bottled with 2.8 oz table sugar (2.3 volumes C02).

Tasting notes: Lots of peanut, not a lot of chocolate, going rancid after being stored too warm too long? Sadly, a dumper.