Liquorice flavours

[marshbrewer]

I've been drinking a fair few commercial ales recently that had a nice liquorice taste to them, a few dunkels, Belgian brun's, the odd Imperial stout.

Can anyone suggest what malt, or combination of malts, would give me this sort of flavour in an extract brew?

(also posted in JBK, apologies if you've already seen it there)

 

[robsan77]

priming with a little black treacle will do the job. Or you could add some dates to the fermentor.

 

[luckyeddie]

Very low quantities of aniseed can taste a bit liquoricey. My guess though, especially with dunkels, is that it might be Special B

 

[Vindiv8]

black treacle did the trick for me in a Coopers stout, before I went over to the dark side.

 

[ncmcdonald]

I made a Weizenbock a few months back and added about 10% Dark Muscavdo which has a nice rummy and liquorice flavour to it.

I believe Old Peculiar uses brown sugar and this can have a fair liquorice character to it.

 

[marshbrewer]

My guess though, especially with dunkels, is that it might be Special B

Forgive my ignorance, but what is Special B? As for the suggestions, thanks for those. I had a peek at the ingredients lists on the empty bottles, and they just list barley, hops and water, so I'm guessing it must come from the grains, unless the yeasts contribute these flavours?

 

[luckyeddie]

My guess though, especially with dunkels, is that it might be Special B

Forgive my ignorance, but what is Special B? As for the suggestions, thanks for those. I had a peek at the ingredients lists on the empty bottles, and they just list barley, hops and water, so I'm guessing it must come from the grains, unless the yeasts contribute these flavours?

Special B is a Belgian crystal malt, dark (for a crystal malt), caramelly, raisiny and very, very sweet. In my mind it's an essential malt to use when brewing a Belgian Dubbel, but it's also used with the German 'Dunkel' - a very dark wheat beer. It's the speciality malt I seem to be using an awful lot of at the moment.

Note to self - order more. A lot more.

Yeasts do indeed contribute an enormous amount to the flavour of many beers. I can only really comment on my own specialist (ish) area, that of Belgian Abbey and Trappist beers, but in those, the choice of yeast is everything (within reason).

 

[Aleman]

Black malt can give liquorice flavours . . . I used a lot in my 2008 RIS . . .but then I knew it was going to age for 2 years or more . . . it needed it!

 

[Good Ed]

GW has a recipe for Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby, which is Pale and Crystal Malt with Fuggles and Goldings, I used a Thames Valley 2 yeast. It has a nice fruity liquorice taste, (quite a lot of liquorice when it was young).

 

[screamlead]

I have a Liquorice plant growing in a pot here in Turkey just over a year old now and just got some shoots popping up from new seeds planted a couple of months ago. I also have burdock growing too and intend to use both roots in my brewing for both wine and beers.
Been looking for sarsparrila seeds too but no luck so far.

 

[luckyeddie]

Mmmmmm.

As a kid out in Malaya (before it became Malaysia in 1963) my pops of choice were sarsaparilla and dandelion and burdock.

I can only imagine just how wonderful alcoholic versions of both would taste.