Adding liqueur at bottling

[SubjectB]

I would like to add liqueur at bottling to infuse flavor into the beer. Bumping the ABV higher is an added benefit.

Now, I understand liqueurs contain sugar (most have 11g/1 oz.), which should be taken into account to avoid over-carbing, and that the increase in ABV should be within yeast tolerance. Check. Check. No need to discuss it here. I don't keg, so that's out of the question.

My main concern is whether the liqueur would blend with the beer. I'm afraid that the liqueur might just float on top of it in the bottling bucket. The last few bottles might get most of the liqueur and turn into bottle bombs, while the rest might be under-carbed.

Also, I'd rather not add the liqueur in the glass. It ruins the experience.

What has been your experience with adding liqueur at bottling?

 

[nsrooen]

I have used liqueur before at bottling. Of course in my instance it was to a keg. It blended fine - just be careful how much you add or like anything else it may become overpowering. Add a little & taste and so on.

 

[day_trippr]

Folks add all kinds of extracts to their brews (vanilla, coffee, chocolate, orange, etc) which are typically 35-40% alcohol by volume and never have an issue with dissolution. I've certainly never observed separation...

Cheers!

 

[ross_daly]

Here's a quote (of myself) from a mint porter post.

I just did a chocolate mint porter. For the mint flavor I actually used pepp schnapps. I added it at bottling. One thing to watch out for is that it contains a lot of sugar - I didn't use ANY bottling sugar, just schnapps.
Since you may end up with a different type/ size of schnapps here's how I figured it out. I got the calorie count from the manufacturer's website. I calculated what percent of the calories were from alcohol (based on the proof) and the rest has to be (mostly) sugar. Then divide by the kcal/g of sugar to figure out your total weight.
Again, for me the math ended up being almost exactly a 1L bottle in a 5 gal batch.
The next time I do it I may experiment with other mint types. This does have a tiny bit of a schnapps taste to it, but it sure was easy!​

I hope that helps.

 

[ross_daly]

...and to answer your actual question. It blended in just fine. I stirred it as I would have stirred bottling sugar. No more and no less. The bottles were all fairly consistent in strength and carb.

 

[Jaybird]

I used to add liqueurs to some of my beers when packaging. I do keg so it was a little easier to sample and add more if you wanted. I did however have some post fermentation things happen in the keg that I wasn't a big fan of. I am wondering if the sugar in the liqueur wasn't 100% fermentable and maybe adding a sweetness that didn't work for me. I now add these to my kegs and no more post fermentation. Just a thought for you.

Cheers
Jay