Flavorings in the bottle?

So here's my dilemma. I'm just getting my brother interested in homebrewing. The batch we have in the primary right now is my version of a weissbeer (it's half wheat extract and half pale extract with a bavarian wheat smack pack). The issue is, he really wants to try and make a cherry wheat. I hate the stuff and would prefer something more akin to a heffeweissen.

So...we've got a little 2 ounce bottle of cherry flavoring which it said should be enough to do a whole 5 gallon batch.

My question is, can we just add some cherry to the bottles and do half with cherry and half without? How much should I add to the bottles? Any other ideas?

Since this is your first batch, and it is nearly finished..Why don't you consider looking for an actual cherry wheat recipe, that the hops and extract bill is balanced to account for the cherry flavoring...That way it will tell you how much cherry extract you should add for the recipe.

Leave this, your inaugural batch alone, and get another fermentor (or bottle this batch and use the fermentor) and brew up an actual cherry wheat. Sometimes just adding ingredients Willy Nilly can end up with a nasty tasting batch.

You'll then also end up starting up a decent sized pipeline.

I have a friend that does it in the bottle but it sems like a pain. He puts a little bit in the bottle with water and keeps tasting it till he gets it the way he wants it. I would bottle up half the beer, then add it to the bottling bucket and make sure you keep stirring bucket for uniform taste and carbonation. Also the extract bottles suck for flavoring, next time get some puree and add it the secondary.

Ben

Oh it's not my inaugural batch. Just my first wheat. I've done 4 batches before this one. I'm still on extracts though. Haven't tried any all grain yet. Even so...probably not a bad idea to just do a whole batch that way. I've got 2 fermenters so maybe we'll brew a cherry wheat up next.

Even so, I think I'm going to try a few bottles with varying amounts of cherry flavoring just to see what happens. At most, I'll only ruin a few bottles right?

If you do you might as well do it with some measure of organizatioon so you'll know what works next time..like using a measured eye dropper, and add 2 drops to one, 4 to another, yadda yadda yadda...Maybe do a couple 6 packs like that and lable it.

Your info may help others later on.