What's the best way to add flavoring?

I purchased a Wheat Beer kit the other day. I am planning on brewing it up this coming Sunday (as my equipment is currently in use with a Heavy Ale). I was told that I could add flavoring to it, so I am thinking about making it Vanilla. Is there a special "Beer Flavoring" I need to use, or will Vanilla Extract work? Also, when should I add it?

I wouldn't add vanilla to a wheat beer personally. You may want to add some dried orange peel, or if you have a zester, some fresh orange peel.

Ya, someone I work with mentioned Orange too. Now, I assume that the orange peel would settle to the bottom and not be bottled, correct? Also, would I add the peel while its in my fermenter or after I transfer it to my secondary?

Coriander and orange peel is a classic in wheat beers. I've also heard chamomile is really good.

If you do use vanilla, I'd rack it onto vanilla beans. They're not hard to find, and I think they taste better than extract.

Judd said:

If you do use vanilla, I'd rack it onto vanilla beans. They're not hard to find, and I think they taste better than extract.

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What do you mean by "rack it onto vanilla beans"? Do you mean adding the beans to my secondary? I don't finish into a keg, I use bottles, so the flavoring would have to be added before bottling.

I may divide my batch and just make one case of orange, and one case of vanilla.

You normally dont secondary a wheat beer since they are cloudy anyway it doesnt really serve any purpose.

Taken from the homebrew wiki:
Racking is the term brewers use to describe transferring wort or beer from one vessel to another. Racking is typically done through the use of a siphon.
There are several common pieces of racking equipment: the racking cane and the auto-siphon.

Judd said:

If you do use vanilla, I'd rack it onto vanilla beans.

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How mans lbs of vanilla beans would be necessary to add a subtle vanilla flavor to a 5 gallon batch?

If you want to use any sort of flavor extract, start with small samples and work up. Get yourself a few samples of equal volume (around 4-6 oz) and add different amounts of the flavor extract. That should give you an idea as to how much you want to add.

I don't have a clue about how many vanilla beans you would need for a five gallon batch, but I bet you need very few (maybe even less than one). I do recall someone saying that the little vanilla seeds are hard to keep out of the finished beer, if that bothers you.


TL

Clemson: This will be my first wheat, so you're saying that once fermentation is finished, it's ready for bottling?

Tex: I could probably get some sort of fine mesh baggie and put the bean(s) in there. That should let the flavor come thru and keep the seeds at bay.

So if I do decide to do this (I may just not flavor this batch). I will probably rack my 5 gallons into two 2.5 gallons secondaries for about a week before bottling (providing that my assumption about Clemson's statement above is true). That way I can try two different flavors, orange and vanilla.

You can secondary if you want but its not necessary for a wheat beer. The Primary purpose of a secondary is clearing and a wheat beer isn't supposed to be clear. I am going to secondary part of a wit for about a week to add some flavors but You can just ferment and bottle a wheat if you want to.

For you number of beans question there are a lot of threads about vanilla I have seen just a couple beans 2-3 used for 5 gal batches.

Also where did you purchase your kit from? A lot of kits come with some orange peel in them so you might not really have to do an orange flavoring unless you are trying to get it really strong.

I got it from my HBS. It's the Muntons Connoisseurs Range Wheat Beer. I opened the top and all it had in it was the yeast and directions (which actually do say to rack it to a secondary... hmmm).

So, for my Orange, how much should I add to my 2.5 gallon batch?

The wit sitting on my table has 1/2oz of bitter orange peel.

As for your directions I dont know why they say to secondary it my kit from Austin doesnt. From my readings most people do about 7-10 days or so in the primary and bottle. You can go from brewing to drinking a wheat beer in like 3-4 weeks.