Experimentation

Hi, I am new brewer. I brewed my first batch and followed the directions laid out and it came out pretty well. It is time I want to start experiementing by adding my own flavors.

At what stage during the brewing process should I add my "experimental ingredient"? Do I want to add it during the boil (if so at what time during the boil) or do I want to add it in the fermentation stage? What is the difference of each option?

what is your experimental ingredient? That would help us deturmine when it would best be added

I have a couple of different ideas. Lets say fruit (like orange or peaches), I have an idea to use tea (leaves and bags).

Best advice to new brewers: Read either Papazian's The Joy of Homebrewing or Palmer's How To Brew. If you're serious about making good beer, it'll pay dividends to do a little research. Also, Google helps with questions like this too.

Often times fruit/tea is best at the end of a boil if you want it to blend in with the beer, or in secondary if you want it to stand out more.

sweed said:

what is your experimental ingredient? That would help us deturmine when it would best be added

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+1. There is a big difference based on the type of additive. Take hops for example. There is a very different effect from adding before the boil vs the beginning of the boil vs the end of the boil vs dry hopping.

Lots of things like spices can be added at different times as well. Fruit generally does better if you add it to secondary.

It seems that you want to keep your ingredient somewhat of a secret. That's fine, but you have to understand the people on this forum will have their hands tied if they can't get any more information. Maybe you can give us a "class" of additive? For example is it a fruit, a spice, vanilla/coffee/chocolate, a vegetable, a flavor extract, hops, secondary yeast, bacteria, etc?

To tell you the truth, at this stage i don't even know what ideas i have. Like i said, I just finished my first batch the other day and am trying to learn more. I'm am just looking around my house and trying to think about what would be a good pairing.

I was having some really good peach tea the other day and was thinking, oh this would make a great beer. Could i just throw in the tea bag into the boil/fermentor?

I used to be worried about someone stealing my idea. But the more I read, I realize its probably been done before. Beer has been made for a long, long time. There probably isn't much that hasn't already been tried.

Just adding my .02...

Adding special ingredients (especially those that have been done very little) are to be taken seriously.
Less really is more in most cases.
A friend of mine added some orange/tangerine peel to the boil of a wheat beer (I think he might have used 1 cup total of semi-dried orange peel) and the result was, I am ashamed to admit, difficult on the palate. We got all 5 gallons down but word spread quickly and he did not have many takers on the "free" beer that he was peddling.
Almost 2 yrs have passed since and I still find myself hesitatant to eat an orange or drink orange juice.
Ingredient experimentation is IMO, best done on small 1 gal batches and tweaked until you get it right, and even then some ingredients are not proportional (1 cup of something in a 1 gal batch makes it taste good, 5 cups in a 5gal batch might not be enough or can be way too much.)

Lets say I was to use honey. When would be a good time to add that to process?

JrinkingBeer said:

Lets say I was to use honey. When would be a good time to add that to process?

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Depends on what flavor profile you want.

It also depends on what KIND of honey you're using.

Generally speaking, honey added at the beginning of a boil will only add slight honey character to a brew, as the aromatics will boil off.

If you want slightly stronger honey flavor, consider adding it about 10 mins before the end of the boil.

Another time honey is commonly added is after the completion of initial fermentation . . . but be sure you pasteurize it first. This can often result in the most "honey" flavor you can get.

Finally, honey can be used as a priming sugar . . . though in the small amounts used, it doesn't add a whole bunch of honey character . . . I would only do this for beers that already have honey character from another source.

when additing fruit, like an orange, can i put the whole orange in there or should i only put the rind?

JrinkingBeer said:

when additing fruit, like an orange, can i put the whole orange in there or should i only put the rind?

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I don't personally add any "experimental" ingredients into my beer, so I cannot answer your specific questions. I'm sure others will chime in on this. I would second the advice from above about buying either (or both) "The Joy of Homebrewing" or "How to Brew." Those books will answer many of your questions.