Extracts and flavourings (the bottled sort)

[Mungri]

Just added 0.1ml to a marks & sparks Summit single hop 500ml bottle the missus got me. I wasn’t keen on it without the extract.
Amazing what such a small amount has done. Nice orange aroma and taste. It was quite bitter without the extract, so it hasn’t been overpowered by the 0.1ml.
I’ve got four of these to get through so I’ll give the lemon one a go next.
Cheers Ade. A nice find.:hat:

 

[AdeDunn]

I've got a vanilla choc stout fermenting at the mo and drew a sample so i could forecast how much vanilla i'd need and settled for 12ml in an 8L batch, I found that to be just right not overpowering nor too weak!

Yeah, my goal was to not actually taste the vanilla, but to use to to smooth out the flavour so to speak, hence the lower dosage. You'd need more obviously to actually taste the vanilla itself. I was testing it to use in a chocolate orange porter, where I'm going to be using it to mellow the flavour from the cacoa nibs, without actually ending up with vanilla flavour.

 

[AdeDunn]

Just added 0.1ml to a marks & sparks Summit single hop 500ml bottle the missus got me. I wasn’t keen on it without the extract.
Amazing what such a small amount has done. Nice orange aroma and taste. It was quite bitter without the extract, so it hasn’t been overpowered by the 0.1ml.
I’ve got four of these to get through so I’ll give the lemon one a go next.
Cheers Ade. A nice find.:hat:

Glad it's working out for you bud, its's definitely good stuff.

 

[soupdragon]

Now if only they did a grapefruit extract aunsure....

Cheers Tom

 

[AdeDunn]

Now if only they did a grapefruit extract aunsure....

Cheers Tom

We bought a zester in Sainsburys, so next time I use real zest it should be a bit easier to do.... It's not easy using a massive cheese grater, in a bowl, on your lap sat in the living room.... The flavour all vanished in the boil and fermentation anyway (oranges), making it kinda pointless...

 

[AdeDunn]

Got another extract on the way to me tomorrow. I've probably paid too much, but not seen this one in Asda. Star Kay White - Pure Chocolate Extract, ordered because apparently I've used the wrong cacoa nibs.... I used raw ones, not roasted, and they don't seem to have given very much of a chocolate flavour at all, even after giving them a good soak in vodka. Chocolate aroma for sure, but no flavour that either my wife or I can detect. I don't want to leave the porter sat on them for 3 weeks, as I used a kveik yeast which doesn't need to be sat around like with a normal yeast, so I went hunting for a good quality extract.

This one is supposed to be one of the best, and at nearly £10 for a bottle it had better be! Apparently it's 45% alcohol, with the rest be chocolate extracts. Reviews say it has a very natural dark chocolate flavour, so fingers crossed! If it's good, it'll be a quick and easy way to add chocolate flavour to dark beers, and combined with the orange extract (which I will be) an easy way to produce chocolate orange flavoured beers. It's also supposed to be very very concentrated, so a bottle should last a long time.

When it gets here tomorrow I'll test it out, let you know how it does. Need to maybe persuade my wife to join me in a walk to our nearby Lidl, grab a couple of bottles of Purple Panther Porter (makes a very good base for testing on when you need a dark beer, as it's a fairly unassuming, but nice, porter.).

 

[AdeDunn]

I've got a vanilla choc stout fermenting at the mo and drew a sample so i could forecast how much vanilla i'd need and settled for 12ml in an 8L batch, I found that to be just right not overpowering nor too weak!

Just did some more testing on this, this time with a 100mls sample of my own porter. Looks like you were right, as I got it to 0.2 mls per 100mls of beer giving me a spot on smoothing effect, without a noticeable vanilla flavour. Scaled up to say a 20 litre batch, that'd be 40mls, which is way more than I was working with before.

 

[AdeDunn]

More for the list tonight, tested together in some Mackesons milk stout. All at once. Yup, you got that right, all at once, all together. What insanity is this? Well, a little experiment, in preparation for a bigger experiment... You see, I'm planning to brew a chocolate mint stout....... Yeah, somebody out there just vomited in a corner I'm sure... lmao

I did consider using peppermint tea bags in the boil, and cacoa nibs in secondary... BUT, first off I drink mint tea, it doesn't really have the right mint flavour for mint chocolate anything, it's a herbal mint. Second off, the chocolate flavour I am getting in my chocolate orange, well it has a tangy sourness to it, which is fine with orange, but not in mint choc type stuff... So, I decided to imitated the commercial brewers, and go with good quality extracts. Like anybody sensible though, I tested them on something somebody else brewed first. That's where the Mackesons comes in. Not going to waste craft beer on this after all....

So, splish of Star Kay White Pure Chocolate Extract # 18 (bought off Amazon, cheaper from lakeland.co.uk), tiniest smear off Nielsen-Massey Peppermint Extract (and I mean TINY, it was moisture on the bottom of the glass) and lastly, but not least, a big slosh of Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Extract (NOM!). Then some Mackesons, gave it a stir, and taste test. Wowser, it was DELCIOUS! Like a milk stout had had a love child with an after dinner mint, the exact flavour I was looking for. The secret is, a teeny tiny amount of the peppermint (unless you like the taste of mouthwash...), a larger amount of the chocolate, and a larger still quantity of the vanilla that brings it all together.

So, for my fellow experimental brewers, there's 3 more good extracts for your extracts draw!

The most expensive was the chocolate, which cost me nearly £10 on Amazon (so try lakeland.co.uk, who seem to be the official seller in the UK). The Vanilla was £5 a bottle in Sainsbury's, and the peppermint was £4 a bottle in Sainsbury's.

As always, try at your own risk, you may hate them, and may hate the results and puke in a corner.... :p

*NB Peppermint NOT spearmint! It really will taste like mouth wash with spearmint in it....

 

[ITMA]

Nielsen-Massey Orange Extract - This stuff is amazing! A really delicious and zesty, very natrual, orange flavour. Would be fantastic in an orange infuse pale ale or IPA (eg. a clockwork orange clone). Again, I used about 0.1mls in 1 pint (in a porter once again), but this was a bit too strong, so I would say 2-3mls in 23 litres would be enough, more than this and it'll be less infused, more of full on orange flavour... lol My wife loved it at that strength though....

Fantastic tip off, I've got some of this now and used it to pep up a rather dull what-should-have-been IPA. I aimed for 0.1ml in the pint but didn't have a very accurate syringe so I'm not sure how close I was.

My taste buds are shot to pieces, but I think I could have handled a bit more. Also tried alongside the same amount of the pink grapefruit extract which I got for my Elvis Juice clone - again, definitely worked but the dose needs a tweak.

Love that Orange Extract, thanks!

 

[BeerCat]

The new flavourings MM sell are interesting. Was using the mango straight into the glass with a wheat. The raspberry is not bad either.

 

[Mungri]

Fantastic tip off, I've got some of this now and used it to pep up a rather dull what-should-have-been IPA. I aimed for 0.1ml in the pint but didn't have a very accurate syringe so I'm not sure how close I was.

My taste buds are shot to pieces, but I think I could have handled a bit more. Also tried alongside the same amount of the pink grapefruit extract which I got for my Elvis Juice clone - again, definitely worked but the dose needs a tweak.

Love that Orange Extract, thanks!

Hi
Where did you get the pink grapefruit extract from? Been looking for that.

 

[ITMA]

Hi
Where did you get the pink grapefruit extract from? Been looking for that.

Hi, MaltMiller. Annoying of course for the p and p if you don't have other stuff to order.

They heavily imply its what brewdog use in Elvis juice .

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product-category/ingredients/flavourings-herbs-spices/

 

[Mungri]

Hi, MaltMiller. Annoying of course for the p and p if you don't have other stuff to order.

They heavily imply its what brewdog use in Elvis juice .

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product-category/ingredients/flavourings-herbs-spices/

Nice one. Thanks very much.

 

[AdeDunn]

It probably is, as it's a poorly kept secret that the commercial brewers use extracts. It's the best way to add a stable and lasting flavour to beer. The hard part is finding an actual extract, rather than an artificial flavouring, as a lot of the garbage sold is nasty chemical flavouring stuff that tastes like fruity bubblegum stuff. They may use zest, cacoa etc during the brewing process so they can say they have, but a lot then use an extract as well to "fix" the flavour in there. Titanic are a famous example, their plum porter gets it's flavour from natural plum extract added at bottling time.

I've failed horribly for example finding a plum one. It's widely available in the US it seems, but here they're all plum flavouring rather than extract. It might be ok for making vaping juice stuff, but it tastes revolting in beer! lol Odds are it's something you can only get in bulk, like the pink grapefruit extract (if you try to find grapefruit extract from anywhere but malt miller, it's grapefruit seed extract, which isn't the same thing).

It doesn't make things easy for those of us who like to brew on the more experimental flavours side does it?

 

[BeerCat]

Hi, MaltMiller. Annoying of course for the p and p if you don't have other stuff to order.

They heavily imply its what brewdog use in Elvis juice .

https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product-category/ingredients/flavourings-herbs-spices/

What do you think of it? I have some but as yet it's untested. I found the previous grapefruit very disappointing. Added an intense bitterness without any flavour. I ruined 8 beers by dosing with the recommended starting point.
i guess I should find a syringe and try dosing a Lager.

 

[soupdragon]

@BeerCat

When did you add the old version of the grapefruit extract? I've got some myself but not had the opportunity to use it. Would you say that using less would be a good idea?

Cheers. Tom

 

[ITMA]

What do you think of it? I have some but as yet it's untested. I found the previous grapefruit very disappointing. Added an intense bitterness without any flavour. I ruined 8 beers by dosing with the recommended starting point.
i guess I should find a syringe and try dosing a Lager.

Not sure yet. A drop in a pint tasted good to my very jaded tastebuds; I'm probably not a good judge but I liked it. I'm waiting to dose up a full batch of Elvis Juice.

 

[JonBrew]

I've recently acquired a tiny dram (3.7ml) bottle of super strong peanut butter flavouring from LorAnn Oils. Planning on adding it to a split batch of Imperial Brown ale very shortly so will update with my results once I've tasted the finished beer.

Update on this.

I bottled my beer the other day and added the extract. I used about 1.5ml in 6.5L of Imperial Brown. My initial impressions from tasting at this stage was that it added good peanut butter aroma but not much that I could pick out flavour-wise. I'll update again when I open the first bottle in 1-2 weeks time. I also plan to try dosing an oatmeal stout I have in the glass the next time I crack a bottle to test that combination.

 

[BeerCat]

@BeerCat

When did you add the old version of the grapefruit extract? I've got some myself but not had the opportunity to use it. Would you say that using less would be a good idea?

Cheers. Tom

I added 1ml per liter as instructions at bottling. I would suggest you try some in a lager first to try and decide if it adds any bitterness. I am still not sure. I added it to an already bitter IPA and it sent it over the edge.
I dosed a beer (lager) up tonight with a lot and my Mrs liked it but was not too my taste.
I think if you put it in another bottle you could add it straight to the glass. Thats what i do with the other ones and suits me as i am still not sure if i prefer them with the extracts or not.

 

[AdeDunn]

Have you tried combining it with some orange zest? A lot of what I've been reading would suggest that actual Elvis juice has orange zest in there as well as grapefruit. I'm more of a Clockwork Tangerine fan myself though to be honest.