Tonka beans

[mbarn]

Has anyone got experience brewing with tonka beans?
I had a Lervig 3 bean stout at a beer festival in Leeds, and it was outstanding!

I’m eager to try tonka beans, but no idea whether I should add them to the mash, boil, or fermentation.
I understand they are toxic in large amounts.

Thanks


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[richard080561]

In the interests of bumping the post in the hope you get an answer, I have to say that I have no idea what a Tonka bean is or how you would use it, or any other bean when brewing beer

[oldbloke]

All I know is that Nigella Lawson uses them in her trifle recipe! It was on Australian Masterchef today!

[Jim]

Well that's a new one on me! 3 bean stout eh?

[mbarn]

The tonka beans add a vanilla and spice type flavour to the beer, as well as amazing aroma, which is why tonka is in some high end perfumes, and a lot of higher end dessert.

I’d like to experiment with tonka, vanilla, and cocao in a porter or stout.

The Lervig stout had a taste of vanilla, spice, chocolate, malts, then a big alcohol hit, reminiscent of a spirit.


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[Thorbz]

I made a Left Hand Milk Stout clone, and dosed half the batch with a tonka bean tincture I'd made using vodka. I don't have a record of how much I used, although I think I just used the same rate as the guy from Kilned Brewing, so I maybe used 7 or 8 beans in 11.5 L. The taste was pretty dominant, and it certainly stuck around. I'd probably use less next time, which isn't to say it wasn't a good beer.

[mbarn]

I made a Left Hand Milk Stout clone, and dosed half the batch with a tonka bean tincture I'd made using vodka. I don't have a record of how much I used, although I think I just used the same rate as the guy from Kilned Brewing, so I maybe used 7 or 8 beans in 11.5 L. The taste was pretty dominant, and it certainly stuck around. I'd probably use less next time, which isn't to say it wasn't a good beer.

Thanks for the info. Rates I’ve seen online from one brewer show 80g per 1000 litres, so it’s definitely something to use sparingly.


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[john luc]

This beer is getting some traction among some of my homebrewer friends and so the search is on to start a brew clone of it. http://lervig.no/en/brew/3-bean-stout/ is a starting point but it lacks information. If anyone has any idea's on a more detailed recipe,don't be shy

[mbarn]

John Luc - that’s the one I had. It’s outstanding. I don’t use that word often, but it was the best beer I’ve ever had.


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[john luc]

http://kilnedbrewing.blogspot.com/2015/ ... stout.html His beer is a 1052 SG so much lower than Lervig and he used 15 beans crushed and soaked in spirit

[mbarn]

I’m going to give it a go. I just bottled a porter today, and have a citra blonde to bottle in a few weeks, but once I have some bottles spare, I’ll be making it.


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[mbarn]

I’ve brewed a couple of beers with Tonka beans now.

First beer I soaked 2 beans in vodka and then grated them. 1 in the boil 1 in the FV. Didn’t really work.

Second beer I soaked 4 in vodka and grated them in the FV. It was overpowering for some time.

Third beer I soaked and grated 2 in to the FV, and used some cacao. The beer was really bitter because of the excessive use of cacao but the tonka was almost perfect level.