Fruit flavor extract diminished after bottling

[mucci2k]

I made an American Cherry Wheat beer for the wife and while bottling started adding cherry extract, 3oz. After it carbed and was chilled the cherry flavor has almost vanished and the Sorachi Ace hop flavor and aroma are coming through, not complaining about that nice subtle hint of lemon.

I was wondering if anyone else has had that happen with a diminishing extract flavor after bottling?

 

[scottballz]

did you happen to taste a little while bottling? if so, was the cherry flavor present then?

 

[mucci2k]

yep, tasted a little lighter than a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat.

SWMBO loves that sludge syrup called beer.

 

[scottballz]

HMMMMM! the only thing I can think of is maybe the extract had a good amount of fermentable sugar in it and the suspended yeast ate it up along with your priming sugar. one of the drawbacks from bottling is you don't have the option of killing off the suspended yeast and back sweetening. I'm surprised that all of the flavor is gone though, there should be at least some tartness left behind I would think.

 

[mucci2k]

very little cherry flavor. I'm stumped because a buddy of mine used the whole 4oz bottle of blue berry extract and it was over powering.

 

[ACbrewer]

very little cherry flavor. I'm stumped because a buddy of mine used the whole 4oz bottle of blue berry extract and it was over powering.

There are a bunch of things in play here. - and probably none of them directly help

each 4 oz bottle of extract probably has the same relative flavor if the same type, but relative to a different type (ie blueberry v cherry) it may be more or less strong.

Every person has differing levels of sensitivity to flavors.

Different flavors are more easily sensed than others. - a non flavor example, but the amount of aspertain needed to sweenten verses the amount of sugar is very different, orders of magnitude different. Like the aspertain (equal sweetener) is measured in ppm and the sugar is measured in ppt (thousand).

Different flavors evaporate and are testable at different temperatures. - this is why hops at room temp taste grassy but after a boil taste bitter, you've boiled off the grassy flavor.

So most likely the Blueberry extract has a flavor that is sensible at a lower temp(ie lower evap temp), with a lower threshold, and you could be more sensitive to it.

Anyhow in the case of your cherry. I suggest that once it was chilled, the Cherry flavoring doesn't evaporate in the mouth as quickly and get into the nasal smell/taste way as easily.

There is also a timing thing on production meaning I find that if I put flavors in the primary, they tend to get vented with the ferment.