Flavored beer question taken from another forum

No. See: TTB Ruling 2015 - 1 Ingredients and Processes Used in the Production of Beer Not Subject to Formula Requirements

But there are some specific labeling requirement - see Attachment 2
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There are flavoring concentrates and syrups that are legally "natural" and, of course, various sugar, grain and malt syrups have been used in the US brewing industry for well over a century, as have hop extracts.

 

As @jesskidden said no, there's nothing stopping a brewery from using syrups, concentrates, or extracts in beer. However, the brewing process, fermentation, packaging, etc. present some unique challenges to brewers who might use those additives.

Some brewers use natural extracts for their infused beers, others use the actual fruit or fruit juices. I have read that Ballast Point, specifically, uses natural extracts and I'm sure they aren't the only ones. Brewing with real fruit can present challenges dealing with skins, pulp, seeds, acidity, extra liquid, cleaning, costs, etc., so there are practical reasons to brew with extracts. Beers made with actual fruit are typically marketed strongly with that point.

If a brewer adds sweeteners or syrups those simple sugars to a batch brewer's yeast readily ferments those simple sugars into alcohol, so the final beer loses much of the sweetness, and gets a higher ABV. Belgian brewers work with the simple sugars though and often add Belgian candi sugar to get their desired high ABV malty styles (e.g. Dubbel, Tripel, Quad).

Lactose is a sugar additive that will not ferment readily by brewer's yeast typically resulting in a sweeter and fuller bodied final beer. Lactose is the key ingredient to the classic milk stout style, giving it a slightly sweet flavor and full, smooth, maybe even silky mouthfeel. Brewers can use lactose in other styles if it suits them.

It is possible to back-sweeten a beer, which is basically adding sugars or syrups post-fermentation. However, I've heard that it's very rare for production brewers to back-sweeten because of the difficulty to maintain consistent quality product/packaging. I have not heard of a commercial example of back-sweetening, but I think some homebrewers dabble with it. (I'm not a homebrewer though)

I must be getting old... what does FO stand for?

 

I'm guessing Bottle Logic's Fundamental Observation. Barrel-aged vanilla imperial stout. All the rage these days.

 

That sounds amazing!

 

I just realized that I miss-typed this and it's too late to edit:

I meant to say this: If a brewer adds sweeteners or syrups those simple sugars will be readily fermented by brewer's yeast into alcohol...

Sorry.

 

I've always understood that many commercial shandies, FMB's and "Honey" beers are sweetened post-fermentation. For instance, AB's "___-a-Rita" line lists "High Fructose Corn Syrup" and MC's Leinenkugel Berry Weisse contains both HFCS and honey.