Raspberry extract vs. Torani Syrup

[Anipaaday]

So, SWMBO has asked me to bottle some of my Porter as a Raspberry Porter. Right now my porter is at 3 weeks in the FV and I hope to bottle in the next couple weeks. I would like to add the flavor at bottling. The two options I have come up with are:

1: Use Raspberry Torani Syrup in place of the priming sugar.(i have on hand)

2: use Raspberry Extract from LHBS. ($$)

I still want to bottle some of the porter without any additional flavoring as this is the first time I brewed this recipe.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[david_42]

My preference is for fruit puree. Lacking that, I use da Vinci syrups. Torani would work just as well.

 

[TopherM]

I've used the Brewer's Best raspberry extract in a Raspberry Wheat before, and it wasn't very good. The instructions called for 3 oz/5 gallons, which is what I added, and it was WAY too strong and artificial tasting after about 3-4 weeks in bottles. I eventually tossed about a case and a half in a closet and forgot about them for a few months, and the extract flavor did meld and mellow into a good beer, but I wouldn't recommend using that extract unless you keep it under 1 oz/5 gallons.

 

[VonRunkel]

IMHO fresh fruit is the way to go. I have heard you can get an "artificial" flavor with extracts if you too much, and I lack the patience to let a case sit in the closet for a few months.
But if you want to use syrup or extract (I would tend toward the syrup, not sure why, but it sounds more suitable...) you could buy a sixer of porter and experiment with amount per bottle and then scale it up. I would be conservative with it though.

 

[Calder]

Give the syrup a try. I just looked it up and it says it has 23 grams of sugar per ounce. This would mean 1 oz of the syrup is just about equal to 1 ounce of priming sugar, so it is pretty easy to replace one for the other.

 

[usfmikeb]

Something to keep in mind is that it takes a decent amount of fruit flavoring to be able to taste it in a dark beer, as it has to overcome the roast flavors in order to be detectable.