Tampering with extract kits?

[Krougar]

I'm looking for some newbie advice.

With only a minimally stocked health food store in town in which to shop personally for ingredients, I've decided my first few batches will be the standard extract kits they sell. I want the first few to be decent enjoyable beers that forever kill any desire I might have to purchase that 6 of killians at the store if I can produce a good tasting American Amber out of a cheap Brewer's Best kit.

My question, though, relates to tweaking these extract recipe kits in the near future. I'd like to think that if this first batch comes out tasting as good as the sample before I moved it out of the 1st fermenter that I could add my own flavor to the same type brew later when I'm completely confident in my techniques. Without doing too much shopping around the internet for different types of hops and such, I'd like to experiment first with simple additions of flavors and aromas. For example, how about adding some vanilla flavor to that simple amber ale? Or cinammon to a darker, richer style that might come out tasting good, but a little one-dimensional coming from a kit?

I'm not saying these are great examples, but I'd like to know if it would be worth it to try out additions as such I could pick up at the grocery store (If I make that australian stout, maybe some roasted coffee beans for a kick on that coopers kit that everyone seems to say isn't worth my time). Also, for these kinds of things I wonder what the best methods are. I've read a couple posts and guides around the net where people add extract-type spices or vanilla beans when moving into the 2nd fermenter with varying results.

Any advice regarding -simple- but worthwhile experimenting with kits would help me get the spirit kicking and ready for when I do take the training wheels off the wort kettle and start making more decisions for my own tastes!

Krougar - hoping to soak up knowledge and good beer until my liver calls the cops.

[wortchillergoal]

I would tell you any of your ideas would work. Try what you think you will enjoy. It wasn't a kit, but extract still, i added some Irish Cream extract. It came out very nice and a good number of people have enjoyed it. The thing to becareful of is how much you add, It doesn't take much of some items to alter the final taste of the beer. This is one of the great things about brewing your own. Good luck.

[laneto]

I have added coffee to some of my porters and stouts. I have steeped the ground beans (4 oz) with some malt and I have also brewed coffee and added it to the boil. Spend the money and buy good beans. I used some beans that I thought were quality and the beer came out overly bitter. I then found out my wife went with the cheaper beans. The batch wasn't bad but not as good as I had hoped for.

[Krougar]

Thanks for the first couple notes. If you have any more ideas, help me out with when and how you would include additions to kit recipes. For instance...if I got crazy and wanted to add some oak chips to my beer for some reason, I'd think putting it in the boil would be the best course. The vanilla idea...maybe in with any finishing hops or just steeped in the wort after the boil was done. That kind of thing. I'm open to advice as well as suggestions/discussion on what you think would work well in specific beer types.

[stronk]

Adding oak chips to the boil might give a bit of an extreme smokey flavour. I would add them to the secondary, with the bit of high strength spirit they had been soaking in, and condition it for about a month. That would probably give a subtle whiskey flavour, as if the flavour came from the malt instead of the chips.

If you're going down that route, you should try Innis and Gunn (aged in whiskey casks).

[sylunt1]

Tweak away - that's 1/2 the fun. I have used honey, vanilla beans, coffee, raspberry puree, fruit extracts, corriander, orange peel, etc all with good results. Add them to the secondary as putting them in prior to that can scrub away the flavors during the vigorous fermentation. Go light on the amounts as you don't want to overdo it. Subtlety is key - it makes for more interesting brew. If it is overpowering, you don't need to think about it. If it is subtle then you really have to pay attention and savor it.

Think of it like this: People tend to pay more attention and listen closer to a whisper than a shout.

[YamahaXS]

You should definitely do what ever you want, but I think there is a great amount of learn from experimenting with hop varieties.

My guess is that an ounce of Saaz finishing hops will impart spicy overtones to your beer that you seem to be looking for.

[Sunriver]

DO NOT PUT OAK CHIPS IN THE BOIL

If you boil oak hips you will extract tannins. A very unpleasent taste to have. to extract a oak flavor use one of the following:

1. Soak oak chips in vodka in the freezer. Add vodka to beer before bottling.

2. Place oak chips in secondary fermenter

3. place oak chips in a container with beer. Add beer before bottling.

Other then that do whatever. I recommend adding additional flavors into the secondary.

Some things to add:

Coffee
Oak chips
Fruit
Chile peppers
orange peel
juniper berries
Brewers chocolate
Brewers licorace
Vanilla bean
Fruit liquer
Coffee/italian soda syrup
Maple syrup
Maple sugar
lactose/milk sugar (Makes the beer sweet becasue it is unfermentable)
Any spice from your spice rack
Birch flavor
Spruce needles
ETC.....

[Brownbeard]

The Brewer's Best Amber Cervesa was my first brew. It was very tasty. It comes with steeping grains. Some crystal 40, I believe. It was a great beer, and all my friends drank it down. My personal advice, which is worth little, I would brew one batch regular, then brew it again with your additions to judge the difference.

[tyesai]

I say just do it. I am a relative FNG to this stuff to. I have found kits to be a good thing to tweak. It is just kind of convienient to be able to find the type of beer you want to brew with all the ingredients right there, including a good yeast, and then have fun. I like to order two kits at a time and do them both up the same time and play with one and use the other as a baseline. I have learned alot that way. Be it adding more hops, maybe another can of malt. This next time I am going to do a strawberry wheat beer and use real fruit in one and the extract stuff in another. Just to see.

[jmassey]

I made a great raspberry wheat using frozen raspberries. It makes great beer, and everyone loves it.

Frozen berries are good because the freezing kills any bacteria that may be on it. I really had to ad-lib it because so many recipes called for different amounts of fruit, so I just took an average based on the final batch size (also on how people described the flavor).

You just take the berries, put them into water, and steep them to extract the flavor. Not too hot, because you don't want to release any funny chemicals out of the fruit. Do your wort and add the steeped fruit juice to the wort in the carboy.

[sylunt1]

Careful of the seeds in raspberries... They usually settle out, but can get in the way. My raspberry brew....Chocolate Raspberry Stout.... winner at the 2003 Dixie Cup (beer to get you lei'd category). At 10.2% alcohol - it rocked. I used raspberry puree in the secondary and a touch of rasp extract at bottling.

[stronk]

Frozen berries are good because the freezing kills any bacteria that may be on it.
Um... freezing wouldn't actually do that, it would just make the bacteria dormant and would have very little effect on fungal spores. I think the reason for them being more sterile is that they are irradiated in the packaging process to make them last longer in the freezer (even at freezer temp, bacterial chemicals have an effect).

[YamahaXS]

I agree with stronk.

freezing will help break down the cell walls tho...