Hazelnut Butterscotch Porter: Suggestions?

[OppR2nist]

I just made an almond porter. The base porter recipe I used was pretty solid, but I haven't had the finished beer yet (it's bottle-conditioning as of right now). A friend suggested a hazelnut butterscotch porter, which sounds amazing, and I can use the same base recipe with different extracts in secondary.

My question is this: how should I go about adding the additional flavors? I'm thinking extracts are the way to go, but it's the amounts I'm struggling with. I put 3tsp in the almond porter. I now leave it in the community's hands.

 

[feinbera]

For extracts/infusions in general: try it out on bottling day, adding a little as you go and tasting, then adding more, etc. Do this before you add the priming sugar, so the extra sweetness (which will ferment out as your beer carbs) doesn't throw you off. If you're feeling particularly sanitation-concious, pull a small sample of known volume, add with an eye dropper, and multiply up.

For hazelnut in particular: I'll admit, it's hearsay, but a brewing buddy tells me to be very careful, because just a little bit of extract goes a long way. He also tells me that beer that tastes like Nutella is great for cottonmouth. :fro:

 

[masscarriers]

While butterscotch is generally viewed as a flaw in beer (diacetyl), that looks not so bad in that porter! You can obtain that by either underpitching or through poor aeration in beer. A short time in the fermenter will also prevent the yeast from cleaning it for too long. However you won't have full control of the process itself, and other flaws may appear as well.

I remember somewhere else on the board they were discussing the recipe of Butterbeer, from Harry Potter, which is viewed by many as displaying a butterscotch flavor. One way to achieve this would be to prime with Butterscotch liquor, although I don't know how many would be enough without overpowering the beer.

If I decide to try my version of it someday, I had the whacky idea of priming with commercial Rootbeer (like from A&W).