Question About Fruit Extract Flavoring

[JMM1980]

I brewed an American Cream Ale kit and after fermentation was complete, I racked it onto one (3lb, 1oz) can of Vintners Blueberry Puree. I'm looking for a pretty strong blueberry flavor, but according to what I'm reading, I have a feeling that one can of this wasn't enough.

I have a 4oz bottle of Blueberry extract. If I were to add, say, half of that bottle, would it have a negative affect on the flavor that the puree adds?

I guess to be simple, I'm asking, can these be used together without causing any "off" flavors?

 

[MikeWazowski]

Last summer I did a blackberry wheat beer using fruit puree. I fermented in primary for a week, then racked onto the puree in secondary. Let it sit on the fruit puree for two weeks before bottling. Taste tested the beer prior to bottling to find that the blackberry flavor was very subtle, less than what I was looking for. So, I added a 1/2 bottle of blackberry flavoring (2 ounces) before bottling. Left the beer to bottle condition for four weeks before sampling. The finished product had a very pronounced and flowery aroma with a strong blackberry flavor. It was a little too flowery smelling for me, but my wife certainly enjoyed it, so points were made there. I think that one ounce would have been plenty for my taste. Sometimes less is more.

 

[Cyclman]

I think using fruit plus some flavoring you can get away with, getting a fresh flavor. To me pure flavoring just tastes fake, and somehow stale.

 

[RM-MN]

I brewed an American Cream Ale kit and after fermentation was complete, I racked it onto one (3lb, 1oz) can of Vintners Blueberry Puree. I'm looking for a pretty strong blueberry flavor, but according to what I'm reading, I have a feeling that one can of this wasn't enough.

I have a 4oz bottle of Blueberry extract. If I were to add, say, half of that bottle, would it have a negative affect on the flavor that the puree adds?

I guess to be simple, I'm asking, can these be used together without causing any "off" flavors?

This will depend a lot on the extract used and your palate. Blueberry is a difficult flavor to duplicate in your beer as adding puree or whole berries will likely get you the acid without a lot of flavor. Using extract can get you more flavor without the acidic taste but there are differences in the extract that can make or break your beer. The extract I used gave me a very artificial flavor but others have used extract produced by another company and liked their flavors. Your half bottle could go either way, improving the beer or making the flavor seem quite artificial. This beer will tell you if your extract is a good one or not. You'll have a better idea for the next beer.