Flavor Addition

[mulleram]

I'm going to be brewing an ale today with elderflowers. I'm starting with a German light ale recipe and adding the elderflowers at the end. I'm just not sure if I should add them at flameout or 5 minutes before.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[aiptasia]

You'll get the elderflower aroma but probably do better on the flavor if you add some at 20 minutes.

 

[Calder]

Why not add them to the secondary. In the boil and during primary fermentation, a lot of the aromatics will be driven off.

Either steep in some vodka, or pour boiling water over them, and add everything to the secondary.

 

[Hawkeye11]

I'm going to be brewing an ale today with elderflowers. I'm starting with a German light ale recipe and adding the elderflowers at the end. I'm just not sure if I should add them at flameout or 5 minutes before.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Did you brew this? If so how did it turn out? I brewed an Elderflower Kolsch today and added 2Oz dried Elderflowers at 5 minutes before flameout.

 

[mulleram]

I did. The boil was only 30 minutes, so I added 10oz at 15 minutes and 10oz at 25 minutes. When I transferred to the fermenter, I didn't filter the flowers out, so they sat with the beer for 4 weeks in fermenting. I tasted the beer after 5 weeks in the bottle, and it is delicious. I'm considering making this my house brew. The only thing I would do differently is possibly dry hopping some more of the flowers to have the flavor come through a little more.

As it is, its awesome though.

 

[Hawkeye11]

So you used 20 ounces total? Where these whole flowers or the dried? I used just 2 oz of the Brewers Best dried Elderflowers. I tasted my hydro sample and the Elderflower flavor was strong. Hopefully I used the right amount.

 

[mulleram]

I'm sorry, it was only 2 ounces. There should have been decimal points in there. And those are the exact same flowers that I used.