Flavor Concentrates

[Pflanz]

Another newbie question. Are there any caveats in adding some intense flavoring concentrate to a batch of pure mead? I am referring to the small containers that are mixed with water and sugar and yeast and are used to pretty much make a fermented soda pop.

My thoughts are to use it straight from the bottle, not diluted or with sugar added. My guess would e to addsome to taste right befoe bottling. A small bottle is supposedly good for 5 gallons of drink. I am not looking to overwhelm the Mead but to add a little more than a hint of the flavor.

Any thoughts.

 

[TopherM]

With flavor extracts, there's a fine line between subtle and too much. They all taste very artificial compared to real fruit if you use just a tinge too much. A couple hints:

1) NEVER use "brewing" flavor extracts. They suck. For about the same price, the organic flavor extracts they sell at most whole foods type stores are much better quality. For most of those, about two cap fulls is plenty for 5 gallons, just to give you a starting point of reference.

2) To figure out exactly how much you want to add to 5 gallons, pour yourself a cup or pint or whatever of your mead, get a decent medical dropper from the drug store that is graduated in milliliters, and experiment with how many mls get you where you want to be, then scale it up to your full batch.

Good luck!

 

[IslandLizard]

+1^

2a) After your cup and dropper gauge, only add HALF of what you deem necessary to get there. And better yet, let someone else taste it at half your dosage before you add. Palate fatigue sets in almost instantly with flavoring.

The soda flavorings work because they are in a very sweet medium, which triggers our palate to accept them. In a beer or non-sweet mead they stand out as artificial, quickly.