Flavoring Additions With Priming Sugar?

[TheGreatHambino]

I've been brewing off and on for 4 years. Recently, I experienced a happy accident.

I brewed a pale ale. When it came time to bottle, I sampled the beer and was very disappointed with the flavor. I wouldn't describe the flavor as an "off flavor", more that it was bland. I'd been drinking a few "beverages" so was feeling a bit more courageous than normal. Rather than bottling the beer and accepting its bland flavor, I decided that I was going to make some flavoring additions with the priming sugar.

I had smoked a few jalapeneos (creating chipotles!) the day before for something else, but decided to throw a few of them in with the priming sugar as I brought it to a boil.

The results were outstanding. What I got was a smoky, lightly spicy pale ale. By far, this was the best beer I've made.

That said, I'm scared to do it again. I've never heard of anyone making flavoring additions at bottling time, and there must be a good reason for that. I just want to make sure I'm not risking all of the bottles blowing up in my basement with the addition of sugar in the chiles on top of the priming sugar (as I suspect might be the case).

Anybody else heard of making flavoring additions with the priming sugar? Risking anything by doing so?

Thanks!

 

[erikpete18]

I'd say it turned out alright, at least for now! Not sure about the sugar content of jalepenos, but with only a couple at most I'd think it would just turn out a little overcarbed, which for a spicy/smoky beer might not be too bad.

As far as additions, I've seen plenty of recipes floating around in which people suggest adding things at bottling, so I think you're safe. So long as they are non-fermentable (or used in the place of priming sugar), you shouldn't run into any problems. I've heard of people adding fruit-flavored syrups or soaking various and sundry items (spices, peppers, etc) in alcohol to extract some of the flavors and adding them at bottling. Adding after fermentation will keep some of the lighter flavors from being driven off, similar to dry-hopping.

The only thing I've heard mentioned as far as adding at bottling is to know how much to add. Sounds like you managed to nail it on the first try! If you decide to "experiment" in the future, might be worth a shot trying with a small sample first and then scaling up to the whole batch once you get it where you like it. I've heard some horror stories of batches turning in to 5 gallons of cooking beer!

 

[Revvy]

Anybody else heard of making flavoring additions with the priming sugar? Risking anything by doing so?

Thanks!

Yeah I've written quite a lot about it over the last couple years on here. Here's one of my posts.

I've done chilies, citrus peels, and even some spices in the boil and strained out after. I decided to add 1.5 ounces of ginger to my priming sugar boil.

As you can see it has a nice straw color as opposed to the clear you are used to. It smelled amazingly like ginger.

I've also done it with dried chilli peppers for my chocolate mole porter. And done citrus peels with various beers such as using orange peels in my wits.

You could do it with any dry spice, such as cloves, coriander, star anise for a licorice beer, cinnamon and even a vanilla beer. You can do with this is to add some lactose to the boil as well, since it is unfermentable, it should sweeten the flavor somewhat.

It's fun, enjoy!!!!

 

[Revvy]

I also provide on priming with alternative primers including fruit juice (including the link to the podcast,) and other sugars in my bottling stickey- Scroll to the lower half of this post.

It will show you how to figure out how much you need based on any nutritional info you can find.

 

[jgerard]

I've been brewing off and on for 4 years. Recently, I experienced a happy accident.

I brewed a pale ale. When it came time to bottle, I sampled the beer and was very disappointed with the flavor. I wouldn't describe the flavor as an "off flavor", more that it was bland. I'd been drinking a few "beverages" so was feeling a bit more courageous than normal. Rather than bottling the beer and accepting its bland flavor, I decided that I was going to make some flavoring additions with the priming sugar.

I had smoked a few jalapeneos (creating chipotles!) the day before for something else, but decided to throw a few of them in with the priming sugar as I brought it to a boil.

The results were outstanding. What I got was a smoky, lightly spicy pale ale. By far, this was the best beer I've made.

That said, I'm scared to do it again. I've never heard of anyone making flavoring additions at bottling time, and there must be a good reason for that. I just want to make sure I'm not risking all of the bottles blowing up in my basement with the addition of sugar in the chiles on top of the priming sugar (as I suspect might be the case).

Anybody else heard of making flavoring additions with the priming sugar? Risking anything by doing so?

Thanks!

I've made a jalapeno beer once, I add sugar directly to bottles instead of batch priming so I put 2 spoonfuls of some pepper tea I made from boiling the sliced up peppers when I added sugar.

I did this to change up a mr beer blonde ale recipe to use it up, it was great!

Be careful adding pepper slices to the bottle directly, I did it to a few and it was HOT!

 

[TheGreatHambino]

Awesome! Thanks everyone.

I suppose I should do a better search on the forums before I post a new thread. Glad to have the responses all the same.