Junkyard Brewing Co.
Dear Replicator,
My son, Tanner, took me to Junkyard Brewing Co. in Moorhead, Minnesota where I sampled several of their very good and very interesting brews. The Peanut Butter Bandit stout was particularly good with a nice balance of peanut butter and roast barley flavors. Any chance you could come up with a homebrew recipe for this dark chocolate peanut butter cup in a glass? Cheers!
Jon Stika
Dickinson, North Dakota
Necessity is the mother of invention. This English proverb couldn’t be more applicable to homebrewers in general and especially so, for two recent college graduates. Operating on a limited budget due to the constraints of collegiate life, brothers Aaron and Dan Juhnke had to forge their own way. Using their own hands, their ingenuity, and whatever free time they had, the two created Junkyard Brewing: A humble 1.5-barrel (BBL) nanobrewery back in 2013.
Since those modest beginnings, Junkyard has expanded twice. One expansion was to a 3-BBL system, which coincided with a move into their current space, while the second expansion brought them up to a 10-BBL system. Despite the upgrade in capacity they continue to have difficulty keeping their taps full. One might say it’s the colder weather in Minnesota that produces a thirstier beer drinker. But I’d prefer to think it’s due to the quality and inventiveness of their brews that keeps bringing back patrons (that’s coming from a former Michigander who’s used to the cold).
During Junkyard’s existence, there have been a few themes that have woven themselves throughout the company. First is the desire for creativity and experimentation. Dan mentioned to me that Junkyard has “become known as a very experimental brewery with something new on tap every visit.” Perfect for anyone seeking out another new combination that stems from the synergy of malt, hops, yeast, and water.
Just like any R&D operation, with some of that experimentation comes proprietary information and ownership. Peanut Butter Bandit is such an example. Although the first batch of the Bandit hit the taps at Junkyard mere months after opening, Dan and Aaron had already spent a considerable amount of time and money figuring out what product gave them the dry peanut flavor and finish they were looking for. What they ended up proceeding with would be fiscally unreasonable even for a homebrewer. Darn, a dead end. But what was that about necessity again?
One of the largest concerns with adding peanuts to a beer centers on the slick and unpleasant mouthfeel contributions and impedance of head formation/retention due to peanuts’ significant oil content. When compared to other eating nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, pine nuts, etc.), peanuts share a similar profile to another nut used commonly in brewing, the hazelnut.1 And as luck would have it, the “Tips From the Pros” section in the March-April 2017 edition of BYO focused on the use of nuts in brewing with Jamil Zainasheff focusing on hazelnuts that he uses for his chocolate hazelnut porter. The take-home message is that 100% nut extracts don’t cut it; by the time you’d used enough to impart the necessary flavor in your beer, you’ve also added other undesirable flavors such as medicinal or alcoholic attributes. Dan also agreed that using peanut powders leaves such an impression on the drinker.
So where does that leave us? . . . Using the real thing. There are many partial extract peanut options out there depending on where you live and your accessibility to them. Look for fresh options with best buy dates and a maximum oil removal of 80%. This will ensure there’s still enough oil and consequently flavor in the product. You could also attempt to de-oil peanut butter. It’s a multi-week process that I honestly can’t recommend. But if you’re a brave soul, who’s up for the challenge, perform an internet search and you’ll have multiple references on the procedure. The third and final option is to use fresh peanuts. I’d start with ones already shelled to simplify your life. If they’re unroasted, pop them in the oven at 350 °F (177 °C) for 15–20 min. on parchment paper. This will not only intensify the flavors but also give you the opportunity to rest the nuts on paper towels, which will absorb the excess oil that leached out.
Whichever method you choose, aim to add the nut component near the end of primary fermentation. This will prevent CO2 from scrubbing away the delicate, complex flavors of the peanut, which will be extracted even further with the bit of alcohol that’s already been produced. Also, it will give the yeast a chance to use and/or sequester some of the residual oil present in your nut addition. Pull a sample of your nearly complete beer and doctor this smaller portion to determine how much you need to add to the main batch. Sometimes less is more while at other times more truly is more; it’ll all depend on your peanut source.
At the end of your experimental, resilient brewing, you should be rewarded with a sweet stout with a biscuit malt backbone, rich, dark chocolate flvors, subtle sweetness that stops short of being cloying, all with an undercurrent of peanuts that ties everything together. Cheers!
Reference
1 J. Agric. Food Chem. 2006, 54 (13), 4705-4714.
Junkyard Brewing Co.’s Peanut Butter Bandit clone
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.070 FG = 1.017
IBU = 23 SRM = 42 ABV = 6.9%
Ingredients
10 lbs. (4.54 kg) Maris Otter pale ale malt
2 lbs. (0.91 kg) dark Munich malt (20 °L)
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) crystal malt (120 °L)
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) pale chocolate malt
0.50 lb. (0.23 kg) chocolate malt
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) roasted barley malt (300 °L)
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) to 0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) peanut component
6.5 AAU Magnum hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 13% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Mill the grains, then mix with 4.7 gallons (17.7 L) of 169 °F (76 °C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 154 °F (68 °C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes.
Vorlauf until your runnings are clear then sparge the grains with 4.5 gallons (17 L) of water and top up as necessary to obtain 6.5 gallons (25 L) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, adding hops at the beginning of the boil. Add kettle fining if needed at 10 minutes left.
After the boil and whirlpool, rapidly chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, which is 66 °F (19 °C) for this beer. Pitch yeast.
Maintain fermentation temperature of 66 °F (19 °C), for ten days or until the completion of primary fermentation, whichever is later. Now, add your peanut butter source, utilizing one (or more) of the three options outlined in the column. Then, reduce temperature to 32 °F (0 °C), and bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Junkyard Brewing Co.’s Peanut Butter Bandit clone
(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.070 FG = 1.018
IBU = 23 SRM = 41 ABV = 7.0%
Ingredients
6 lbs (2.72 kg) light dried malt extract
0.5 lbs (0.23 kg) Munich liquid malt extract
1.5 lbs. (0.68 kg) crystal malt (120 °L)
0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) pale chocolate malt
0.50 lb. (0.23 kg) chocolate malt
0.25 lb. (0.11 kg) roasted barley malt (300 °L)
0.25 lb (0.11 kg) to 0.75 lb. (0.34 kg) peanut component
6.5 AAU Magnum hops (60 min.) (0.5 oz./14 g at 13% alpha acids)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast or White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Safale US-05 yeast
3⁄4 cup corn sugar (if priming)
Step by Step
Mill the specialty grains and then steep them for 30 minutes in ~154 °F (68 °C) of 5.0 gallons (18.9 L) of water. Remove the grains and drain. Add the malt extract, while stirring, to ensure complete dissolution. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add kettle fining if needed at 10 minutes left in the boil.
After the boil and a 5 minute whirlpool, rapidly chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, which is 66 °F (19 °C) for this beer. Pitch yeast.
Maintain fermentation temperature of 66 °F (19 °C), for ten days or until the completion of primary fermentation, whichever is later. Now, add your peanut butter source. Then, reduce temperature to 32 °F (0 °C), and bottle or keg the beer and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes.
Tips for Success:
In order to make the closest beer to Junkyard’s Peanut Butter Bandit, Dan Juhnke recommends focusing on three aspects. The first is for the all-grain brewers. Junkyard tries to hit a mash pH of 5.3, which leads to a kettle pH of 5.0 and a final beer pH of 4.3–4.5. Anything lower than those numbers results in a thin, acrid beer. Your water profile will more than likely vary from theirs but look to add baking soda (NaHCO3) in the mash to counteract the acidity from the roasted grains. The second tip is oxygenation. Use pure oxygen and a sanitized diffuser stone on a low flow rate for up to 1 minute prior to pitching your yeast. Finally, here comes the peanut butter. Dan recommends to “try out as many different products as you can, even try combining things. Always mix things in a test sample before adding them to your batch. 70% of products out there will ruin
your beer.”
