Extracts and flavourings (the bottled sort)

[soupdragon]

Tried some of the lemon in a lager last night. It totally wrecked the head on the beer. Will try the orange again as last time I used it, it was in an ipa and didn't affect the head

Cheers. Tom

 

[ITMA]

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.

I definitely will on the next batch. I think blood oranges were mentioned?

I'll try adding some of the Nielsen-Massey to the glass and if it works use it on batch for the second attempt.

 

[soupdragon]

It must be this beer. The orange has knocked the head out too.
Will give the Rob's pressed grapefruit a go tomorrow

Cheers . Tom

 

[soupdragon]

After a few trials I find that 1ml of the old version of the grapefruit per pint is about right for my taste buds. Half of that was barely perceptible

Cheers. Tom

 

[ITMA]

It must be this beer. The orange has knocked the head out too.
Will give the Rob's pressed grapefruit a go tomorrow

Cheers . Tom

I'm noticing the head is disappearing fast with the orange in.

 

[AdeDunn]

All of our glasses get washed in the dishwasher, so no beer keeps a head very long usually. Even my Belgian With has been known to struggle a bit.... lol

Odds are it's down to the nature of what a citrus extract will consist of, as in citrus oil mostly, in a carrier consisting of mostly alcohol and a bit of water.

 

[BeerCat]

Anyone tried Powdered Peanut Butter Powder. It tastes great but i don't think it will dissolve very well in secondary.

 

[phildo79]

I tried peanut butter powder from Holland and Barrett. Not sure if it's exactly the same stuff. But I didn't use it in the secondary, I chucked it in at flame out. The flavour profile was nutty but I wouldn't go as far to say peanut buttery. Over all, a bit disappointed by it.

 

[JonBrew]

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.

Further update on my use of the LorAnn Oils Peanut Butter extract on my IMP Brown ale.

I'm a little disappointed to be honest. I dosed at a slightly higher rate than I had heard recommended and I don't find the peanut butter character all the prominent. I would say it's there in the aroma but it doesn't hit me as obvious peanut butter; it more like a kind of sweet, caramel shortcake, or even like edible cookie dough. In terms of taste, I found very little contribution. Possibly using it in such a rich and strong beer wasn't the best idea. Might have been better used in a lower ABV stout with less caramel character in the beer to confuse anything imparted by the extract.

Having said all that, I would use again but perhaps in combination with PB2 which I believe would give more peanut butter flavour.

 

[JonBrew]

Anyone tried Powdered Peanut Butter Powder. It tastes great but i don't think it will dissolve very well in secondary.

I've heard that it's used quite often by pro brewers to give peanut butter flavour. As mentioned in my post above, I'd be inclined to add it to the boil and the secondary, and in combination with a peanut butter flavour extract such as the LorAnn Oil version or the one the Malt Miller has started selling.

 

[BeerCat]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have tried mixing it in water and i had to give it a good stir to dissolve it. The taste was very nice but not strong so makes me think i would need a lot. Good advice about the peanut flavouring, will get some next order. I have the hazelnut and tried it in a RIS. First impressions were it made it taste a little like a liqueur without much nut flavour. I do like the mango and raspberry, worked well in a wheat

 

[JonBrew]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I have tried mixing it in water and i had to give it a good stir to dissolve it. The taste was very nice but not strong so makes me think i would need a lot. Good advice about the peanut flavouring, will get some next order. I have the hazelnut and tried it in a RIS. First impressions were it made it taste a little like a liqueur without much nut flavour. I do like the mango and raspberry, worked well in a wheat

Sorry, meant to say, I'd heard blitzing the pb2 with water using an electric whisk worked well for dissolving it. You could trying whisking it with some of the wort and then adding back for the last ten minutes of the boil.

 

[phildo79]

Speaking of hazelnut flavour, has anyone had success with a Rogue hazelnut brown nectar clone? The recipe calls for Northwestern Hazelnut extract but I have had no joy finding somewhere that sells it. There are quite a few others on the market but Rogue's John Maier says that Northwestern is stronger than other extracts so if you don't use it, you need to adjust the quantity of the substitute extract. So it's a bit tricky to know which one to go for and how much to use.

 

[BeerCat]

Sorry, meant to say, I'd heard blitzing the pb2 with water using an electric whisk worked well for dissolving it. You could trying whisking it with some of the wort and then adding back for the last ten minutes of the boil.

Beer is already brewed. I wonder if i could prime with some?

 

[JonBrew]

Beer is already brewed. I wonder if i could prime with some?

I wouldn't add more pb2 at bottling but you could definitely add a flavour extract at that stage. I might help bring out the pb2 a bit more.

 

[BeerCat]

I wouldn't add more pb2 at bottling but you could definitely add a flavour extract at that stage. I might help bring out the pb2 a bit more.

Fair enough. As there is none in there i will leave it as it is and use the stuff in a lower ABV stout. I was looking into peanut extracts and found some interesting stuff in the USA but not available here. Glad i didn't try and mix that powder in. :)

@phildo79 Not tried them but other forum members have recommended this company https://www.uncleroys.co.uk/natural-flavours/hazelnut-essence.html They do a super strength

Edit. They also sell peanut butter essence https://www.uncleroys.co.uk/natural-flavours/natural-peanut-butter-essence.html

 

[phildo79]

Cheers BeerCat. I had been on that website before but perhaps before they had the super strength varieties.

 

[AdeDunn]

Just some quick updates.

The chocolate extract and peppermint extract worked a treat in my after dinner mint porter. I ended up with 9.5 litres in my bottling bucket, and I used 23mls vanilla extract, 17 mls chocolate extract and 1.3mls peppermint extract (a little goes a very very very long way!). It's spot on.

Also, planning to brew a Bakewell tart porter next, using Cherry Lowicz syrup (probably in the boil), then this stuff at bottling:-



It's the real deal again, made of water, ethanol and bitter almond oil. Bought from Amazon for £12.87 for 200mls (2x 100mls bottles).

 

[Simonh82]

Interesting that you didn't get on with the plum flavour you tried early on. I brewed a plum porter and used this essence which I found gave a really good plum flavour. They do a huge range or extracts and essences but I've not tried many. The lemon and orange are nice by nowhere near as potent as the plum. When I ordered quite a while ago, they had an annoying minimum order for web orders but the quality of the product was good.

 

[AdeDunn]

You can sometimes get the Ungle Roys stuff on Amazon, the plum is usually out of stock though... lol

The plum I tried though, well it tasted nothing like plum, more like bubble gum/fruit chewing gum flavour. I suspect it was one of those ones aimed at vaping though based on propylene glycol, I avoid any with that as a base now.

You can't go wrong with the Nielson-Massey for orange bud, it's VERY potent. They do lemon too, but to be honest I'm weary in case I end up with washing up liquid flavour. Lemon juice is VERY intensely flavoured at the end of the day, unlike orange juice... lol

I still have a jar of Damson jam I want to try brewing with, along with a packet of star anise.... Undecided though whether to use it in a porter though, or to try for something more like "Cranston Poacher/Poachers Choice" with it. If it was just my choice, it'd be a porter every time. For me it's a style of beer that stands up to experimentation as well as say a Saison in the warmer months does.

I'll definitely have to try the Uncle Roys though. I really would like to get a good plum porter done. Especially now that Titanic isn't as nice as it once was... I think they've changed the flavouring they use, as the plum flavour has started to taste really artificial of late, so now you can tell that it's just pale malt, black malt and plum flavouring going in there (oh, and hops obviously... lol).