Pecan Ale

While I was working in Atlanta last summer I discover Southern Pecan Ale.  It's an english style nut ale with pecans.  I brought some home in my suitcase and it was a big hit with many of my friends. The brewery, Lazy Magnolia, does not distribute outside the south.

I found the following copy cat recipe online:

Pale Ale Malt 8.5 lbs

Caramel Malt 1.5 lbs

Carapils Malt 0.5 lbs

Wheat Malt    0.5 lbs

Belgian Special B 0.5

Rosted Pecan 10 oz

Willamette hops 1 oz 1/2 for bittering 30 min 1/2 aroma 1 min 

White labs english ale yeast

This was an all grain recipe which we have not done before.  All of that adds up to 12 lbs of grains. The bag that held all of the grains burned during the boil.  We lost over a gallon of water in the grain bag.   

Fermentation was very active to the point that a few times the lid popped off.   

Tasting the ale while bottling I could taste some of the pecan but not as much as I wanted.  I found two recipes on line.  One said the to include the pecans in the mash, while  the other had a 60 min boil. 

We used dark corn syrup for the priming sugar for bottling because it is one of the main ingredients in pecan pie.

The Pecan ale was named Drunken Squirrel, because that is the best we could come up with.  Here is the label.

Here is the recipe that will be used next time 

Pale Ale Malt  7.5 lbs

Caramel Malt 1.5 lbs

Carapils Malt 0.5 lbs

Wheat Malt    0.5 lbs

Belgian Special B 1.5

Rosted Pecan 20 oz (Boil along with the bittering hops)

Target hops 1 oz 1/2 30 min for bittering 1/2 aroma 1 min

White labs english ale yeast

Lazy Magnolia has Southern gentleman which is basically the pecan nut ale aged in oak bourbon barrels.  So we might try using oak bourbon cubes.