Honey Roasted Peanut?

[Irishgnome]

Looking for a whisky recipe that has a honey roasted peanut flavor to it, or a good place to start.

I have been searching through HD and a number of other sites for a good starting point.

I have tried Honey Bear Bourbon. I’ve added honey and chopped roasted peanuts to the HBB mash before starting the ferment. I have also added the same (+ additional sugar) after dry to the HBB mash to compare the flavor.

Nothing that seems to scream honey roasted peanut, which is what I’m looking for.

I am more than willing to run through the process on this, testing and refining.
Just curious if anyone out there has something that they are willing to share.

Thanks for any and all help here!

Cheers,
- Irish

[still_stirrin]

Peanuts don’t contain starch or sugar, just proteins. So you won’t extract fermentable materials from them. But you can extract some flavors from them, especially when macerated.

Toast them and glaze them just like when you’re making honey roasted nuts (check the internet...lots of recipes there). Anyway, after making the tasty treats, weigh out a bag and then grind them to a relatively fine meal. Add them to a jar of your base spirit (a whiskey, if so desired), and then let them macerate a few weeks. The maceration will pick up the sweetness and the nutty toastiness.

You’ll have to strain through coffee filters once the maceration has soaked long enough for your desired flavor. And there will be some cloudiness from the oils extracted too, since peanuts have a lot of oil in them as well.

Good luck with the effort.
ss

[Irishgnome]

SS
Thanks for the suggestion.

I should explain why I started to venture down this path, I purchased a bottle of scotch from the Blair Athol distillery in Scotland.
Not sure of the exact scotch, but it was from this distillery.
It has a nice fiery heat up front and mellows into a honey roasted peanut aftertaste that goes on for days.

Nothing from the distillery is available in the states, at least I haven’t been able to find it anywhere.

Look forward to going back, although it will probably years before that happens.

Anyway, back to my project.

I mixed up some honey roasted peanuts in a food processor, added this to some honey bear. I have been sneaking sips as I let this age.
It’s been about two weeks now.
The flavor isn’t bad, but not what I think I want. I’m going to let it sit for a few more weeks, testing along the way.

What I’ve realized from sampling this is that I need to work on the distillate before I get too carried away any add-on flavors.
At the same time, the peanut flavor has me questioning what different avenues I could take.

The other day I was at the grocery store and noticed PB2 powdered peanut butter.
So, I grabbed a can for testing.
I added some of this to some old DWWG that I had sitting in the basement and mixed in some local unfiltered honey.
I flavor came through almost instantly. It tastes like Reese’s peanut butter. It’s freaking delicious!
This is not what I was originally aiming for, but it’s taking me in a different direction that could be really good.
I’m going to let this stuff sit for a few days and see how much the taste changes. I have a good amount of white to add back if it gets too much peanut flavor.
Think I may add some coco powder to this as well. Or, maybe some chocolate flavored liquor.

The peanuts and powder settle quickly, I’ve been agitating in the morning and night.

I’ll keep posting until I find something that works, or at least let you know where this leads me.

Cheers.
-Irish.

The bottle to the left has three tablespoons of the PB2 powder and one tablespoon honey. The bottle on the right has three tablespoons of the PB2 (no honey). Just wanted to compare the two. The bottles hold 14oz of fluid.
The last image is the color, after the powder settles.

[distiller_dresden]

I missed out on this (Irish ya bastard lol) but this is utterly the kind of vanguard experimentation and imagination brought to mashing and distilling that I am so ALL completely about.

Please save me some next time, Irish! Good reaching and screeching until you found a way to do what you had in mind; ya gotta scream into the world and find your passion and chase those crazy ideas because nobody else is gonna do it.

[NZChris]

Put your roasted peanuts and honey, separately or together, into a mini gin still with some of your new make whiskey and make essence to blend into your whiskey.

[Irishgnome]

NZ,
You have my attention. Based on your suggestion, I am assuming that you have made something similar?

Just to get this right, you believe mixing some honey with some whiskey and running this with chopped up peanuts in a gin basket would produce an essence/concentrate to mix in with my whiskeys.

I have a five gallon alembic and I have soldered a copper hook in the onion head to suspend a copper mesh bag. I will admit that I have yet to run my still utilizing this idea, but it sounded like it would work. Maybe a gallon run with 30/35% mixed with honey and play with the percentages.

Would you run it this way? Or, should I get my hands dirty and make a small gin still?

Dresden, - I filtered some and put it on oak to see what develops. If it turns out I’ll be sure to send some your way.

Cheers!
Irish

[ShineonCrazyDiamond]

Doesn't help create it, but you need this bottle for reserach. It is absolutely roasted peanuts in a glass. They are localish to me, hopefully you can find it.

https://www.dogfish.com/distillery/spir ... anut-vodka" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[Irishgnome]

Damn, I need to try that

Thanks for the info SCD!

I know that I can get their beer at the local liquor store. I can get it mailed through an online source, if I can’t find local.

Still want a whisky taste in the background, but this sounds interesting.

Cheers,
Irish

[NZChris]

I've done a superb hazelnut liqueur using this method.

For small trials and essences, a mini gin still with a large gin basket is the duck's nuts. I use a saucepan and steamer set I got for a few dollars at a charity shop, flour paste seals and an existing Liebig, but ended up building it it's own SS Liebig. Done this way, the gin basket is about the same volume as the boiler, which is very handy for some products.

[BlackStrap]

Hey NZChris I like the idea of doing things small scale before going "BIG".
Would you be willing to post a pic of the saucepan and steamer setup?

[NZChris]

Hey NZChris I like the idea of doing things small scale before going "BIG".
Would you be willing to post a pic of the saucepan and steamer setup?

I've resisted the temptation so far
Mine was mostly made out of whatever I had hoarded in the shed, only buying the saucepan and steamer and a bulkhead fitting for the riser.

[Irishgnome]

As I was looking for an online source for the Dogfish Head Vodka, I came across this site: http://highproofspirit.com/infuse/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow.

They have a few different charts for infusion flavoring. I’m sure some of the guys here have already ran into this, but I figured it was worth posting.

I found two online suppliers for the Dogfish Head Vodka, but they were both sold out.

NZ, if you have an image of you set-up I would love to see it.

Cheers,
- Irish

[Oatmeal]

Inteerestin. The hazelnut sounds good. Really curious about the honey aspect coming through. Been contemplating pinion nuts in the gin too....

[Ben]

Honey seems like a common note in scotch style whiskeys, maybe you can get that part to come through from aging; honey sweetness may come from the second use barrels, or the finishing cask.. Peanut seems to be common in bourbon, may be from the corn dustiness. It's a shame you don't have more details on the original whisky, do you know if it was a single malt, or what the cask treatment was?

I would be looking at some roasted malts in your grist, something like a 300srm roast barley, and lean in on one of the lightly kilned base malts, maybe light Munich or biscuit.

Have you tried peanut butter? Peanut butter beer is sort of common, might save you the maceration step... throw some in the ferment and see what comes across. There is even honey roasted peanut butter available.