This year at the Great American Beer Festival one of the beers I had stood out, it was a “breakfast ale”, actually a brown ale with vanilla, cinnamon, and maple, and very low hops (15 IBU if i remember correctly). It was excellent. None of the flavors were overpowering, but all were noticeable. I am working on a version of this of my own and would like to know the best way to add those flavors. I assume vanilla bean would be the way to go, but how many? and when? For cinnamon, would you use sticks? Again, how many and when? For maple would you use syrup? I have tried this before with less than stellar results. Is there a better way to get maple without using an enormous amount of maple syrup?
Sorry, I posted this before I saw another question about maple…
I’ve mentioned elsewhere that most of the “cinnamon” sold in the US is actually the related cassia bark. This comes in sticks that are thick and hard, tightly curled and reddish all the way through. Its flavor is hot, and often harsh (think red hot candies.) What you probably want is true cinnamon, which is papery, loosely curled, and light brown/ tan in color, even lighter on the inside; it has the sweet, mild, complex cinnamon flavor you want, and is often found in Indian and Latin American groceries. One of its components is linalool, so it plays well with hops! Also at an Indian grocery you’ll find fenugreek seed, which tastes so much more like maple than maple itself does, it is actually used to flavor pancake syrup.
Vanilla
Vanilla is a very easy flavoring to add. I recommend using a good quality bean, such as the beans from Madagascar. I would also recommend soaking them in vodka for a couple days to kill off any bacteria before adding them to your brew. I also recommend adding to the secondary. Three beans go a long way.
Cinnamon
It sounds like Robert has educated both of us on this subject. His answer easily explains why I have had very different results using cinnamon sticks. And I agree with him, sticks are the best approach. I have used them both in the boil and in the secondary. I think there is more cinnamon flavor added in the secondary. I recently added 1-1/2 oz. to a 5 gallon batch with very favorable results. Note: the nice cinnamon flavor seems to diminish slightly as the beer matures. So if the cinnamon is strong at first, give it a week to mellow out.
Maple
Unfortunately, you will never get maple flavoring from maple syrup. (There was another post/thread yesterday on this subject). I would be willing to bet the beer you enjoyed used maple flavoring and not real maple. You can get maple flavoring from Amazon. But check the other post for more information. Also BYO had a great article a couple years ago on this subject along with good recommendations on how to add maple flavor to your beer.
I too make a tincture of Everclear and vanilla beans. Slice the vanilla beans lengthwise and then into strips about a half inch long. Soak them in vodka or Everclear, just enough to completely cover the bean slices, for an hour or so, or up to a day as KellerBrauer does (the alcohol will kill any bacteria pretty quickly) and add the whole tincture to the beer (I do it in the secondary and just did it a couple days ago with my Peppermint Pattie milk stour) and you are good to go. I would leave the beans in contact with the beer for at least five days.
Cinnamon and Maple the same and use Rob’s post for cinnamon (thanks Rob, I didn’t know there was a huge difference)
