Bottle additions

[jump_xiii]

When bottling straight from the primary ready for bottle conditioning, is it possible to make additions? Apart from priming sugar.

I was thinking of slicing a chilli and adding a little to a few bottles of stout that I will be bottling next weekend?

Is it worth an experiment? Or a recipe for a pop and a mess?

 

[woodstone]

Of course!

Additions to bottles are a great way to experiment...why waste a full 5g batch or half-batch if it turns out awful?

Add molasses or honey or other sugar in place of priming sugars....steep items like spices or fruits in vodka to make a concentrate and add different volumes to different bottles, etc.

You can produce 48+ bottles of different beers from one batch!

Just log your experiments, volumes, and bottles...SUCKS making a winner and not being able to reproduce it!!!!

You need to be careful if you add anything with sugars IN ADDITION TO priming sugar or you'll increase carbination and then potentially have bottle bombs!

Best of luck and happy experimenting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jump_xiii]

Thanks woodstone

I am going to use 2 different priming sugars, so I might try some chilli too in some. Is there anything to avoid? Other than sugary things?

Should I steep the chilli in vodka and just add the vodka to the bottle? Or both? Or is the vodka for sanitising the chilli?

 

[woodstone]

I'd just toss the chili in..cut a slice down the side so the brew has access to the veins and seeds...becareful...taste, taste, taste...the longer you leave the chili in, the hotter the beer will become...check this from a few years ago (I posted)...I just made a similar brew a few months ago...phenominal!!!!!!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/any-chili-flavoring-experience-out-there-13271/

...for the vodka...I was refering to making an infusion...vodka or some other relatively tasteless white alcohol will draw out color and flavor from most spices and other items (a cold steep if you will)...then you can add the vodka flavored infusion to your bottles without the spices or other items clogging things up. I've not done this but if you Google "infusions" or even search on this forum, you'll find a lot of info.

Can't wait to hear how this turns out!

 

[jump_xiii]

So woodstone, you seem to be the HBT resident chilli expert! Thanks for the link.

So I'll be priming half my bottles with regular sugar and the other half with "dark molasses sugar" which is an unrefined moist dark brown sugar. Maybe about 6 or so of each I'll put a few slices of chilli right in the bottle and taste periodically.

I promise to report back...

 

[jump_xiii]

Little update-

Bottling day was a bit of a nightmare so no chilli additions to this batch. Also only got the molasses sugar into 6 bottles because it was trickier to deal with than I thought.

But I bought another bucket to make a bottling bucket with and next time I will batch prime...

 

[jump_xiii]

Tasting came and went- I did side by side taste of 1 bottle primed with regular sugar and 1 bottle primed with molasses sugar and... nothing.

Both tasted exactly the same. I think the fact that this stout already has a very treacle like taste to it meant that the little addition of the molasses sugar to prime was lost, but hey- it was worth a try and you don't learn anything without trying things out, maybe on another style of beer it would make a difference.

 

[woodstone]

You tried, you experimented, and you learned...exactly what this hobby is about! Yep a bit of molasses sugar in a stout is probably not going to get you any appreciable taste difference vs. priming sugar. Better off with a nice pale ale or light lager...perhaps experiment with a Cali Common with varying amounts of vanilla extract at bottling...Vanilla Steam's are GREAT!

Again, best of luck!!!