Chestnut Ale.

So finally got around to brewing this yesterday and done it blind as in no help from software to see how it turned out and overall I was quite impressed.Recipe was,
1kg Minch pale malt 4-6 EBC
500g Best Cara amber 70 EBC
500g Best Château ruby 50 EBC
600g of sweet chestnuts which have been roasted,dried and blended to crumble.
1kg Golden granulated sugar
Safale US05 yeast.
Mash at 66 Celsius in 10 litres of water for 1 hour then dunk sparge in another pot 6 litres.Should leave around 13 litres pre boil with 10.5 post boil.
Gravity reading when cooled was a shock as it was 1.076 so added another 2.5 litres of water.This has been cube chilled on the garage floor.
Year pitched last night and now bubbling away alongside a Pale ale kit I also brewed yesterday.So all in all a busy day.🍺👍



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This sounds lovely!

Do the chestnuts replace the hops?

Do you mash the chestnuts or just add them to the boil? It certainly sounds interesting. Where did you get the idea from?

Used the chestnuts in the mash with the grain and the aroma is fantastic as it adds the slightest nutty aroma to it and the tasting of the wort makes for impatience to get it bottled.
Because I have done it on the fly and looking at my previous experiments I thought the OG would have been around 1.062 but was surprised when it came out at 1.076.
I came across the idea a while back when I was contemplating taking up HB again and decided I would like to try something different for myself but realised after researching and gathering horse chestnuts that they are not fit for human consumption.So went searching for sweet chestnuts.Found a tree but fruit was so small I practically gave up until one day whilst shopping in LIDL found them selling sweet chestnuts,pricy at £3.85 for 500g but bought two bags.
I certainly will say that the preparation before mashing is a lot as you must prepare each one prior to roasting,peel,dry in oven then blend.Overall about 8 hours prep for the chestnuts but let's hope it's all worth it.
I couldn't find any value for mashing chestnuts but if it turns out to be good shall run the same recipe without the chestnuts and subtract the difference even it won't be exact but should give me a ballpark figure.👍

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very interesting brew let us know how it turns out

cheshirehomebrew said:

very interesting brew let us know how it turns out

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Shall keepyou informed but shall be the New Year as I have got to like the 2+2+2 idea whereas before I would normally have bottled straight from the primary FV.:thumb:

Still slightly under carbonated but the chestnut flavour and aroma is fantastic.Strong in flavour so I'm guessing that a kilo of prepared chestnuts shall be ample for 20 litres.Shall definitely brew again but a slightly bigger volume next time.

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Brilliant link but couldn't resist. Sorry! :whistle:

Gerryjo said:

....... realised after researching and gathering horse chestnuts that they are not fit for human consumption........

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Er ... horses love 'em, which is why they're called "horse chestnuts". :lol: :lol: :lol:

Any kid who has gathered "conkers" will have tried eating one and you are right, they are NOT fit for human consumption! :thumb:

Back to the recipe. I've modified it for a 23 litre brew and to use my own ingredients and kit as follows:

INGREDIENTS
2.0kg Maris Otter Malt
1.0kg Caramel Malt
1.2kg Châtaignes (roasted and dried)
950g Golden Syrup
Wilco Ale Yeast
Yeast Nutrient

PREPARATION
Mill 3.0kg of Maris Otter Malt
Mill 1.2kg of dried Châtaignes
Mill 1.0kg of Caramel Malt
Put out 1 x Protafloc Tablet
Put out Wilco Ale Yeast
Put out Yeast Nutrient

MASH METHOD
Strike Water = 2.6 litres per 1kg of grain/châtaignes = 14 litres at 70 degrees
Mash at 65 - 67 degrees for one hour.
Run off wort and circulate using TWO vessels until wort runs CLEAR.
Heat SPARGE water to 68 degrees.
Sparge at one litre per minute. Stop sparge when runnings reach SG 1.008 / SG 1.012.
Overfill boil kettle to 27 litres so that there is no need to add more water later.

BOIL METHOD
Add Golden Syrup to wort and stir in.
Boil for 60 minutes.
Add Protafloc tablet and boil for further 10 minutes.
Cool to 20 degrees, Whirlpool and run off into FV.
Add 1tsp of Yeast Nutrient.
Pitch yeast and ferment at 20 degrees.

If you see anything amiss, forget the "conkers" jibe and please let me know ... :grin:

... otherwise all I have to do now is wait for November! :thumb: :thumb:

This looks great pal.
But prepping the chestnut will be a long time for my one handed affair lol
Great that your experimenting.

Manxnorton said:

This looks great pal.
But prepping the chestnut will be a long time for my one handed affair lol
Great that your experimenting.

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Don't knock it ... :thumb:

... I've had a lot of pleasure out of one of my hands! :whistle:

Gerryjo said:

I would back of on the golden syrup as last time I used 1kg in Ruination clone attenuation was not great as you could certainly notice the over sweetness and sugary mouth feel to the brew.
There is a lot of fermentables in the chestnuts which I don't know the figures too.I would use 250g to be safe as I had a spat of GS thinking it was fantastic which it is in the right quantities.Shall brew again but in larger volume.👍😂

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I prefer low ABV beer so I'll happily follow your advice and drop the Golden Syrup to 250g.

Many thanks.

PS

I figured we should move the discussion to the original Thread rather than use the other one. :thumb:

Manxnorton said:

This looks great pal.
But prepping the chestnut will be a long time for my one handed affair lol
Great that your experimenting.

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You can use chestnut oil, flour and I mind coming across a link for roasted chestnuts prepped and ready for use.👍😂

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Dutto said:

I prefer low ABV beer so I'll happily follow your advice and drop the Golden Syrup to 250g.

Many thanks.

PS

I figured we should move the discussion to the original Thread rather than use the other one. :thumb:

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Great idea as it's a worthwhile brew and variants would be great.👍

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Gerryjo said:

You can use chestnut oil, flour and I mind coming across a link for roasted chestnuts prepped and ready for use.👍😂

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Hmmm!

Flour eh?

Gram Flour (much loved in Indian cuisine) and Peanut Flour spring to mind! I wonder if ?????? :whistle: :whistle:

I sincerely doubt I will live long enough to try all of the things that spring to mind from perusing this Forum!

Dutto said:

Hmmm!

Flour eh?

Gram Flour (much loved in Indian cuisine) and Peanut Flour spring to mind! I wonder if ?????? :whistle: :whistle:

I sincerely doubt I will live long enough to try all of the things that spring to mind from perusing this Forum!

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If it's edible why not! Anything is worth a try in my book which will take a while to write,but seriously yes I'm willing to try something different as everyone else is busy tweaking or just brewing tried and tested and with fantastic results.
If I can make a beer from scratch and enjoy it although may not to everyone elses taste so be it but bearing in mind that we all have different pallets.
Where I draw the line is cucumber and worst thing is that my wife and the four kind all love it.....yukkkkkkk

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Last year I threw 6 Birdseye Chillies into the FV of a Wilco Pilsner kit.

The finished brew didn't smell of chillies and didn't taste of chillies, but after the first mouthful a gentle heat appeared at the back of the mouth and worked its way to the lips by the end of the pint.

I vowed to increase the chilli flavour by adding eight of them this year but instead I have made a very strong Chilli Vodka and I will inject a few cl's of it into some of my MASH experiments when I transfer them to MKs for carbonation and conditioning.

Great hobby this! :thumb:

Now't like roasting yer chestnuts before a roaring fire, and drinking a pint as well :drink:
Cheers

chesters-mild said:

Now't like roasting yer chestnuts before a roaring fire, and drinking a pint as well :drink:
Cheers

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Even better if there's someone handy to cool them for you 🔞🔞

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Sounds really interesting. I've had a few good French beers with chestnut in and they were both really good.