Star Anise - how to use?

I'll be brewing a strong dark Belgian ale and am considering trying star anise (and maybe some bitter orange peel). I've looked all around for how to use the star anise but got a lot of confusing information as far as quantities and length of boil. I've seen suggestions of teaspoons, fractions of teaspoons, ounces, fractions of ounces, whole stars, multiple stars. And then boil for 30 min or 15 min or 2 min.

I've never even seen star anise. I'm going to take a trip to an Asian food store to see if they have it.

Has anyone used it? If so how did you use it, and how did it turn out? I want to add a subtle anise flavor, something that couldn't necessarily be identified, but that adds some interesting character.

When I've used it, I've gone by Sam from Dogfish's booke "Extreme Brewing".

He suggests .5oz at 20 minutes for a noticeable flavor. It worked well for me.

This weekend, I made a Christmas porter. I used 2 oz. for 10 minutes, and the result smelled pretty strongly of anise. I may have overdone it.

I have used hole star anise, not ground, and can tell you that one seed gives you plenty of the flavor that you want for a 5 gal. batch, with a boil of around 10-15 min. some may disagree but this is a very strong ingredient, and you do not want to over do.

I've not yet used this ingredient in a brew but plan on using it in a belgian in the near future.

I can, however, speak from experience in making Italian cookies with anise. A little goes a long way. I'd say go with .5 oz @ 20 minutes. Unless you really like that flavor then go with more.

that sounds pretty good for some reason?

Mapleroots said:

that sounds pretty good for some reason?

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If you like black licorice then you will love anise. Its very good and not to be confused with anus

Star anise seeds come in pods that look like, well, stars. As others have noted, star anise can easily overwhelm. Darker beers hold up better to large amounts. The higher the proportion of roasted malts, the broader the spectrum of complementary flavors. Anise can also be called sweet, so it is very complementary with Crystal malts.

That's a convoluted way of saying, "It depends."

The exact amount to use will depend on the exact makeup of your grist. I don't like more than one whole star in five US gallons, as a rule of thumb. I've found that to be just enough to give the hint of flavor I'm looking for, except in lighter beers. My Witbier uses two blades broken from one star; any more, the flavor is obvious.

When using spices, I don't like one flavor to stand out, so I go for flavor amounts barely above the flavor threshold. I love it when people say, "What is that flavor? I can't identify it exactly, but it's nummy!"

Cheers,

Bob

NQ3X said:

When using spices, I don't like one flavor to stand out, so I go for flavor amounts barely above the flavor threshold. I love it when people say, "What is that flavor? I can't identify it exactly, but it's nummy!"

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Thanks for the input everyone. Bob, that's exactly the kind of effect I'm looking for. I'll be using a single star in the boil for 15 min or so.