Adding artificial flavour to stout

[phildo79]

So I have a keg of oatmeal stout. I also have a few small bottles of artificial flavours (Capella brand, off eBay). I wasn't sure about dilution rates or which one would taste the nicest so I did not add any flavour when I kegged. I did, however, have enough left over for one bottle. Popped it tonight and opened the peanut butter flavouring. Added a drop to about a half pint, tasted nothing. Kept adding drops and tasting until I reached 6 drops.

There was a certain peanut taste going on but it was really artificial and not that nice. I was hoping to pour myself a few glasses, add in a few drops of each flavour, see what I liked best, do the math...s, make the beer again and add the right amount during racking. Do I need to add this stuff when racking to fully appreciate it after conditioning? Or is what I have done a sound enough practice but I have just chosen the wrong sort of flavouring?

 

[Dutto]

If you check out the Recipes section above you will find dozens of "Peanut Stout" recipes - just type "Peanut" into the search.

Enjoy!

 

[phildo79]

It isn't necessarily a peanut stout that I am after, rather a pastry stout. Was just wondering if my way about going at working out dilution rates is sound or not.

 

[Dutto]

The only time I have added flavouring was to try and turn some undrinkable Barley Wine into a "Mars Bar Brew" by:

• Diluting the wine with cooled boiled water.
• Adding Caramel Flavouring.
• Adding carbonation sugar and sticking it into a Brew Fridge at 22*C for 2 weeks.
• Conditioning it for a couple of months.

The jury is still out on how successful this has been, but after a couple of months it tasted better than the original; but it may still finish up down the drain!

Your method of adding the flavouring after fermentation and before bottling sounds okay, but please remember that to drink many of the cheap lagers we had to add lemonade or lime after it had been poured into the glass; which may be another way to go.

 

[phildo79]

That's what I did. I added the flavour after I poured.

 

[JonBrew]

I fairly recently added some PB flavour extract to a big brown ale I brewed. The brand was LorAnn Oils - it came in a 3.6 ml dram sized bottle (tiny).

I didn't have a lot to go on in terms of dosage rates but had read a few folk recommending one of these dram sized bottles per 19 litres of beer. I was working with a split batch and adding a bottling. After I added a proportionate amount I tasted before I bottled and couldn't get any of the PB flavour/aroma so I added a bit more.

For the first couple of months I felt like I could hardly taste any peanut butter, just an overall sweet impression from the flavouring (which I likened to cookie dough). However, now, four months after bottling, this batch is tasting really good and the PB flavour and aroma is much more noticeable, balanced and melds nicely with the base beer.

Long story short, I think that (at least for some) these flavour extracts take time to meld and harmonise with the beer and don't instantly change the flavour to the desired profile.

 

[phildo79]

Ah fer fook sake! It’s been a long time since I was patient enough to wait 4 months on a beer. I just don’t have it in me anymore. Back to the drawing board, me thinks.

 

[JonBrew]

That was certainly my experience albeit only based on one use of this particular flavour extract and it was a different brand to the one you have. Your results might differ.

I don't think I'll be making another PB flavoured beer again in the near future but, if or when I do, I'd be inclined to add some PB2 to the boil and use a flavour extract at bottling for maximum PB flavour.