Fruit Extract

[GilesTH]

I made a raspberry wheat beer for my wife, and I got the fruit in the beer by using extract. I tasted the beer before adding the extract, and it tasted great. But after the extract, an overt olive oil flavor dominated the flavor. My wife can't taste it, and she says I'm crazy (which very well could be true), but if she didn't like it so much, I would've dumped the beer, it's that bad! Now, I used 2.4 fluid oz. for 2.8 gallons of beer (the recipe I scaled called for 4 oz in 5 gallons of beer). But I sanitized it with the priming sugar so I wouldn't risk contaminating the beer. Could the heat from the sanitizing process have created that off-flavor? did I use too much extract? Or is this just one more reason to use fruit puree or make my own extract with raspberries and vodka?

[Ozwald]

Never go by the instructions on the bottle. They don't know what your beer tastes like. If I was making a peach blonde & a peach porter (just for example, of course) the same amount of extract would be overpowering in the blonde & not noticeable at all in the porter. Always add extract to taste. The best way is to take a known measured amount (like 1 fl.oz or 100mL), dial it in to where you think it's perfect, then do a little math to scale up the same ratio. Even if it was a known recipe, your taste buds aren't the same as the person who wrote it, nor will that recipe create the same beer on 2 different systems.

[GilesTH]

Never go by the instructions on the bottle. They don't know what your beer tastes like. If I was making a peach blonde & a peach porter (just for example, of course) the same amount of extract would be overpowering in the blonde & not noticeable at all in the porter. Always add extract to taste. The best way is to take a known measured amount (like 1 fl.oz or 100mL), dial it in to where you think it's perfect, then do a little math to scale up the same ratio. Even if it was a known recipe, your taste buds aren't the same as the person who wrote it, nor will that recipe create the same beer on 2 different systems.

Yeah, I tried to dial it back a little bit for that very reason, but I think I trusted the recipe too much. It came from Northern Brewer, but I should've known better.

[Ozwald]

And that may or may not have been the reason for the off flavor. I've never been big into the extracts - nothing against them, it's just that I only do one recipe like that & I have it dialed in with fresh fruit/herbs. I was more pointing out the likely flaw in your plan for world domination. Live & learn? Nah. Brew it again & learn.

[brewinhard]

You do not need to sanitize those extracts. you should use a sanitary method of transfer however. i am not sure what heating would do to those extracts.

[Ozwald]

i am not sure what heating would do to those extracts.

it makes them warmer

[brewinhard]

i am not sure what heating would do to those extracts.

it makes them warmer

I guess that is probably true!