Any Advice on tinctures?

[amishland]

I am planning on adding some vanilla beans, punkin pie spices, and candied ginger to my pumkin ale post fermentation.

Many folks have mentioned to use a tincture.

From what I have found using a 151 or vodka and letting the spices and adjuncts soak for some unspecified period of time.

I assume I should use as little of the liquor as needed?
Does the tincture make the flavor change much from simply adding to carboy?
Any advice or good experiences?

 

[DarkBrood]

A tincture is a high-concentrated alcohol-based extract. To make a proper tincture, you'll need to find the highest-proof clear alcohol you can..."white lightning" moonshine is ideal, Everclear is a good second, vodka is a poor third. A "tincture" is a medical term for an extremely strong concentrate, so yes, use as little as possible. Also scrape, crush, and cut your ingredients as small as possible to get the maximum surface area. Keep out of light at a cool non-refridgerated temperature for at least a week, preferably a month or more. A tincture would eventually be strained and bottled in a sterile manner.

If that sounds like a bit much for your needs, it is. What most people are referring to is alcohol sanitizing. Ingredients such as herbs and spices added post-fermentation can often carry extra buggers you don't want souring your batch. Soaking overnight in a strong (preferably 120 prof or higher) alcohol will kill pretty much all of them. Alcohols at 80 proof are reasonably effective...below 60 proof, most liquors are more sugars than alcohol. you can boil or campden your spices, but most people choose alcohols as a chance to add flavors as well. I would suggest soaking your ingredients (crushed, in a hop bag) in <1pt. spiced rum in a 1qt. mason jar for a few days, shaking regularly. Add the whole thing to your carboy.

 

[ilikethetrees]

+1 to soaking your ingredients in high proof alcohol.

This is an article on the French Culinary Institute's tech blog regarding a faster way to extract flavors with alcohol: http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/08/11/infusion-profusion-game-changing-fast-%E2%80%98n-cheap-technique/

 

[amishland]

thank you this is the kind of info I was hoping for

 

[audger]

in <1pt. spiced rum

oOoo i like that spiced rum idea for a pumpkin ale. that would seem to compliment the flavors normally in those beers pretty nicely.

 

[brianball]

Thanks everyone for the info -- will be adding a tincture of 151, cinnamon and vanilla bean to my 1st AG recipe (Beer Nog) this week!

 

[paperairplane]

FYI alcohol will pull a lot of cinnamon out. I did a stout with 2 cinnamon sticks an a vanilla bean. I have since Oaked it and aged over 6 months - still grossly cinnamon.


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[mdbrewer1]

FYI alcohol will pull a lot of cinnamon out. I did a stout with 2 cinnamon sticks an a vanilla bean. I have since Oaked it and aged over 6 months - still grossly cinnamon.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I overdid the cinnamon in my pumpkin ale. I did a blend with my Oktoberfest to balance it out a little. Is there any way for you to blend it with another beer or are you just going to ride it out? Maybe one with just vanilla? I would guess that the vanilla taste has faded a bit over the last 6 months and blending it with just a vanilla stout might get you close to what you were originally going for.

 

[paperairplane]

I overdid the cinnamon in my pumpkin ale. I did a blend with my Oktoberfest to balance it out a little. Is there any way for you to blend it with another beer or are you just going to ride it out? Maybe one with just vanilla? I would guess that the vanilla taste has faded a bit over the last 6 months and blending it with just a vanilla stout might get you close to what you were originally going for.

I've had a lot of thoughts - but it's like why blend and end up with more beer I'm not crazy about. I'll probably age it until Xmas and see how it is... it started as a 7.5% milk stout with bourbon vanilla and cinnamon - ended up all cinnamon flavor. Hoping the oak comes forward and blunts the spice over time. Might try a gallon of this to 4 gallons of dry stout see what I get.

 

[mdbrewer1]

I've had a lot of thoughts - but it's like why blend and end up with more beer I'm not crazy about. I'll probably age it until Xmas and see how it is... it started as a 7.5% milk stout with bourbon vanilla and cinnamon - ended up all cinnamon flavor. Hoping the oak comes forward and blunts the spice over time. Might try a gallon of this to 4 gallons of dry stout see what I get.

Sounds like a plan.

The flavor combination sounds intriguing. Is there a commercial beer you've tried like that?

 

[kwadric]

If you over spice your beer, pull a four ounce sample and add drops of vanilla extract to see if you can mute the spice flavor. Vanilla extract is a cooks trick. In small amounts you don't get the vanilla flavor, but it will mellow other strong flavors. Also, it needs to be real vanilla extract not the artificial kind... Which can be pricy.

I did this w a RIS that was way too roasty. It covered up that burnt coffee flavor from too much black patent malt.