Hey All. I am somewhat new to homebrewing. I have done 2 brews using ingredient kits and they both turned out quite well. Now, I want to brew from scratch and get a little creative. I found an amber ale recipe online and it seems pretty basic; just grain, malt, and hops. I bought some apple flavoring drops at my LHBS and I was told to grab an ounce of beer before bottling and slowly add drops until I like the taste, then scale up to 12oz from there. I was planning on bottling a few beers using these and then I thought I would try other things like cinnamon, vanilla, and combinations of all of those. So, my question is, how much cinnamon or vanilla do you use in a 12oz beer? Or should I use the same idea of adding bit by bit until taste?
Adding Spices and Flavoring
- Thread starter rsnider
- Start date
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One of my favorite ways to add herbs and flavoring to beers is by making a potion - you would soak the cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans in a small amount of vodka for a few weeks, then add the resulting potion to your bottling bucket in whatever amount seems right to your taste buds.
I recently did this with juniper berries and lemon peels, this is a method that works well for me.
I recently did this with juniper berries and lemon peels, this is a method that works well for me.
Yes, just add it into your bottling bucket. As for amounts, use enough vodka to extract the flavors from your source (cinnamon sticks, cloves, what have you). As for the spice amounts, less is better to start out with. You can always add more, but you can't take it out.
lancers7x
Member
I am assuming that the little bit of vodka diluted into a 5 gallon batch does not impart any odd flavors?
I am thinking of adding some fresh lemon zest to my next Hefe. Could you give a ballpark starting amount for the batch? I was thinking the zest of 3 lemons to start and I think I will try your vodka tip and throw the whole deal into the secondary for a week or two with the beer.
