Customizing beer kits

[IdiotSlayer]

I know some people who buy a wheat beer home kit and then add stuff to make it a raspberry beer or something like that. If I'm brewing from a beer kit, at what stage would I add ingredients to customize the flavour?

 

[brewski08]

depends what you want to add. you can ingredients like hops, honey, orange peel, etc. to the boil. most people add fruit, puree, and fruit extract to their secondary.

 

[NorthRiverS]

I have added espresso, licorice, root beer, raspberry, blueberry, coconut, and vanilla to some of my beers. Most of these are in the form of extracts. I also added them at bottling. I have had some great results.

NRS

 

[IdiotSlayer]

Say I'm doing a secondary of about 23 litres, how much of the ingredient would you put in? Like how much extract or honey or something so that it's not overpowering but still noticeable?

 

[solbes]

I've done a wheat with cranberry extract, and a different wheat with canned raspberries. I thought the extract was good, but I appreciated the real thing a little more.

To 23L, I would add two 15 oz cans of Oregon whole fruit (raspberries, blackberries, peaches, etc). It would be noticeable but somewhat in the background. Three cans is in your face a little more (what I did). Next time it'll be 2 cans. The nice thing about canned is its already sanitized. You just give it a 3 second zip in a sanitized blender to break it up a little. Oregon sells 3 lb cans of puree too, its just a little more expensive.

 

[IdiotSlayer]

I like the idea of a cranberry wheat. Would you say to just add a couple cans of cranberry to the secondary fermenter and that should add some flavour?