Strawberry extract - when to add

[mscott987]

I am doing a strawberry ale within the next couple of days and I am using a extract. Just curious if anyone has recommendations of when to add the extract. Thanks.

 

[Drunkensatyr]

Add half to one quarter of what you think you want to add in the bottling bucket or keg. Taste it then add more if you want.

 

[mscott987]

Do you always wait and put it in just before bottling? Is it a bad idea to add during fermentation or during secondary?

 

[Judd]

Extract goes in with the priming sugar to preserve the flavours, basically. Although I have in the past added blueberry extract right to the glass I was drinking out of, and it tasted fine.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Do you always wait and put it in just before bottling? Is it a bad idea to add during fermentation or during secondary?

It's not a bad idea, but you'll get much more flavor out of it if it's added at bottling/kegging.

 

[the_bird]

If you add it during primary, most of the aromatics will get carried out along with the CO2 that's being produced and outgassed. If you're using extract, there's no need to add to secondary (although you could, it wouldn't hurt). Most people add at bottling because they want to add it to taste, that's easier to do when you're all set to bottle.

If you add real fruit, do so to the secondary fermenter, never in the boil, never in the primary.

Strawberry's a pretty subtle flavor, so you can PROBABLY get away with adding a decent amount of extract - just be careful, as lots of the extracts have an artificial, medicinal flavor to them. In general, extracts are best used to add some aromatic properties to the beer, not for a real noticable flavor, per se (that's usually best achieved with real fruit / fruit purees).

 

[kinison_fan]

...If you add real fruit, do so to the secondary fermenter, never in the boil, never in the primary...

I wouldn't say never in the primary.
Of all the fruit-added beers that I have made (5 or so batches), I've only used real fruit in the primary. Then racked off to secondary for clearing.

Someone recently responded to one of my posts that they did the opposite-added to secondary. Based on their suggestion, I'll probably try that sometime.

But I would say both methods are effective, and just to mix it up you could probably add it to the primary and skip the secondary-just rack off the fruit for bottling/kegging.