Flavorings

Has anyone used the fruit flavorings made by LD Carlson?

I am making a standard hefeweizen for my next batch and I was thinking of adding some cherry flavoring to it.

My understanding is that it is fruit extract. So it should taste like the real fruit. Hopefully it won't give the beer an "extract" taste.

If you have used this before, when did you add it to the beer? Primary or bottling bucket?

I am going to use LD Carlson raspberry extract for the first time next week. I plan on kegging 3/4 without extract (plain hefe) and bottling the rest with. From what I'm told, the stuff is really strong, so I intend to add a tiny bit at a time till I like the taste. Hope that helps a little, I guess we'll both find out soon enough.

I believe those are the flavorings that I've used. They are strong, but to me they do taste like the intended fruit. I've used a 4 oz. bottle in a 5 gallon batch for the strawberry blond, and it's fairly strong, but not over-powering. But I used peach flavoring on another batch, and it wasn't as strong. I've heard of other people using half a bottle.

What's a "standard hefe weizen"?

I've made lots (30+ batches, probably more) of German-style Hefe Weizen (see my sig and you'll see I have 4 kegged and 1 fermenting right now), but I've NEVER made a "standard".

As for the fruit flavorings...to me, they taste soapy.

Not one to give up easily, I've tried them all...and...soapy...it doesn't matter the flavoring...soapy, I'll even say "fruity, but soapy", but that won't change my opinion of them.

If you're ask me, I'll tell you to save your money and forget about it or use REAL fruit.
Sorry, but that's all I can offer you.

Oh, and welcome to the funderful world of fermentation!

So if I decide to try it for myself to see if I like it, if it is too strong or if I get a "soapy" taste...

When do you think I should add it to the beer?? In the fermentor or bottling bucket?

Just prior to bottling........

I'll also recommend you AWAY FROM the LME. Your brew is also going to be too dark for the style unless you do a late addition.

If you've ever been to Germany and/or had a real HW then you are going to find out the LME will be too dark for the style...just trying to help.

I did a couple of fruit flavorings in a 4 oz bottle in last summer. I did one cherry wheat, and one raspberry wheat. In both instances I added the flavoring in the boil at the last 15 minutes. I was pleased because the flavor was subtle. The Sam Adams cherry wheat is all cherry up front with a beer backer in my opinion. Too strong flavor for me. I also did one where i added the whole 4 ozs at the beginning. It still had nice flavor, but even more subtle.

I just used a peach extract on an american cream ale in which i also added 2 lbs of honey during the boil. It tasted great the night that i was bottling but I haven't tried since. The whole apartment smelt like peach pie. It was awesome.
The advise i got about using the extract was that one bottle will add a subtle note while two bottles will flavor it. I added the extract at bottling but i gues you could boil with it.