Adding Flavors

Hi,

I am just starting to brew (buying a kit in a couple days) and I am curious how and when you add flavorings to the premade ingredient kits. I see some people mention things like 0.5 Oz Bitter Orange Peel. When is this added and what do you actually do with it? Can you ever use actual fruit or things like apple cider to uniquely flavor beer? Thanks for the help.

-Kevin

Welcome to HBT Kevin!

You can add flavorings but when you add it may depend on what it is. Fruit is usually added to secondary for a couple weeks. The sugars in fruit and cider will start fermentation back up so it takes a couple weeks of sitting before it's ready.

It's best to post recipe and details of what you are adding to get detailed information.

Yeah, Nurmey's right. Give us a recipe and someone will be able to help you out with some more detailed info. We wouldn't want to tell you how to add raisins if you are brewing a Hefe Weizen, know what I mean.

Welcome to HBT.

As pointed out fruit generally is added to the secondary or to the primary when not using a secondary. Bitter orange peel I believe is sometimes added to witbier (often alone with coriander) and sometimes I've seen recipes where it is added with 30+ minutes left in the boil and other times it is added with just a couple minutes left in the boil or both. As mentioned...it all depends on the recipe.

All the recipes I've had with the tiny bottles of liquid extract like Hazelnut and so forth you add it to the bottling bucket with the corn sugar solution JUST before bottling.

On this same note, I've got a coffee milk stout in the primary right now. When it comes bottling time, I'm going to bottle half of it as is, then I was thinking of adding a few drops of vanilla extract to the remaining half. Can any of you advise on how much extract to add? I'm sort of experimenting, but I don't want to overpower anything. Just a few drops should be enough, right?

I really recommend starting out by learning to make good beer. Get a few successful batches behind you before you start trying funky things with your beer. That way if something goes wrong you will have the experience to know whether it is your process or the extra flavorings.
And ofcourse ask questions about your ideas on the forums. Good chance someone may have tried something similar and can give you some ideas what worked and perhaps didn't work.

Welcome to HBT.

Craig