Liquorice Help - solid liquorice juice.

[matth]

I fancy brewing a liquorice porter and i have bought "100% liquorice juice" which is a black solid brittle stick of liquorice. I was wondering if anyone knows how to use this or should i just get a piece of root. I assume it dissolves but i have no idea how potent the flavour will be. I love liquorice, so full on liquorice for me is good.

just wondering if i should disolve in water and add to word post boil or break in to chunks and add at the start of the boil to disolve.

Any help much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Loetz]

Crack open a bottle of beer, throw some in, wait a while and see what happens?
I'm curious!

 

[Touchstone]

I brewed a Porter with chocolate malt & that tasted of liquorice which I didn't like very much.

 

[matth]

Cheers, I'm brewing it now. Going to go with 15 grams in the last few minutes. I only brew 13 litre batches so I'll see what happens. I have discovered that some people actually call this brewers liquorice or Italian liquorice. Incidently I am brewing it with chocolate malt and a tad of chrystal.

Slightly worried that it will Ne overpowering from what I have read, although in the posts the brewers haven't said whether they were actually going for a pronounced liquorice flavour, I guess I'll just see what happens.

Any other thoughts much appreciated as I've got 50 mins of the boil left.

Cheers

 

[matth]

It's an extract brew, here's the recipe for anyone who is interested;

12-13 litre brew
20g crystal
100g chocolate malt
1.5kg dme
100g wheat dme
A few desert spoons treacle at end of boil

10g target 60mins
7g EKG 30 mins
7g EKG 15 mins

15g liquorice juice 10 mins
1 star anise (1.2g) 5 mins

Should come out 25 IBU ish

As you can tell I'm not too precise but there you go.

 

[lukehgriffiths]

I have star anise in my christmas brew will see if that gives an aniseed licorice type taste.

 

[matth]

Now in fv, just a little note, after 10 mins liquorice had not fully dissolved - so if it works must remember next time to crush it.

 

[rickthebrew]

I have some liquorice powder - thought about doing a stout with this and your post has jogged my memory so thanks!! The powder is very strong and sweet but would make an interesting brew, would be great to hear how yours works out. Maybe a liquorice RIS as an idea also ?

 

[matth]

That sounds good - whats a RIS imperial stout? I was also thinking about doing a liquorice bock when the temperature drops. I'll give an update when I try it - hopefully around Christmas as I want to see how it ages.

 

[Loetz]

whats a RIS?

http://pintwell.com/pintblog/2011/mar/22/russian-imperial-stout-history/

 

[matth]

I just thought i'd update on this, have left it for a little while and it appears to be improving with age.
Come out at about 7.2% and pretty damn tasty and not too heavy - probably not one for the purists, but then again i'm not a purist (i just want to brew stuff i like) although i think next time i'll up the liquorice to a full stick for my batch size and maybe add a little more star anise.


Cheers