Adding flavorings to stouts and porters..

I have tried twice now to enhance extract kits from Midwest.

First I took a Irish stout kit and racked it on 5lbs of fresh cherries for two weeks--at time of bottling the brew had a nice redness to it and cherry flavor was really prominent, bottle conditioned for 4 weeks and brew was pure black in color and no hint of cherry.

Next I took a porter kit and racked onto 3 vanilla beans soaked in vodka. At bottling time vanilla aroma definitely present and flavor was leaning towards overpowering. After 3 wks of bottling condition just tried today and not even a hint of vanilla.

Both beers were still good and I will have no problem drinking them, but looking for hints in making the extra added flavors come thru in future experiments.

Where is my added flavors vanishing to?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

IMO it might bee that you are trying to flavor too heavy a style of beer or you are not using enough, although 5lbs of cherries is a lot. Also, how long are you keeping the beer in secondary before bottling? A lot of flavors will naturally break down over time. For example, dry hopped beers will generally begin to lose the aroma and flavor at about 3 months. A lot of this comes down to your process, when you add the flavor and then when you bottle.

In both incidences they were in the secondary for two weeks. I was worried with the darker styles that additives would get lost but was pretty excited at the flavors at bottling and puzzled at the absence of extra flavoring after carbonation.

Maybe next just add my homemade "extracts" at time of bottling?

The porter was my third kit to date overall. I also brewed an Irish red kit as per instructions as my everyday "light" beer,

ChrisE248 said:

In both incidences they were in the secondary for two weeks. I was worried with the darker styles that additives would get lost but was pretty excited at the flavors at bottling and puzzled at the absence of extra flavoring after carbonation.

Maybe next just add my homemade "extracts" at time of bottling?

The porter was my third kit to date overall. I also brewed an Irish red kit as per instructions as my everyday "light" beer,

Click to expand...

Or add a bit more to secondary, knowing that it will age out over time? Although 3 vanilla beans sounds like a good amount for 5g already...

Maybe next just add my homemade "extracts" at time of bottling?

Click to expand...

I did this with a vanilla Porter. 3 oz vanilla extract (vanilla beans in vodka) worked perfect for 2.5 gals beer. The flavor stayed, I also added coffee to that beer, but got zero coffee flavor, I would need to triple or quadruple the amount I used.