madcapstudios

Recipes 

I'm gonna start doing my warm weather beers and want to do a Belgian White for SWMBO - with zest of orange, lemon and lime.

I've found the prepackaged orange zest in my homebrew supply catalogs. Any thoughts on using dried zest from LBHS vs what you might find in the grocery store baking section vs zesting up real fruit yourself? With zest from real fruit, is there a risk of astringent flavors (like when a lime sits overnight in a glass of water? Yes, I've drank gin and tonic leavings upon waking up).

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Fave recipes as well!

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discgolfin

Recipes 

I go with real fruit..the zest of an orange..tangerine..just keep the white out and it will give it much more aroma than dryed zest..

J

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jmulligan

Recipes 

+1 for fresh fruit zest. BierMuncher's belgian wit uses like 3-4 ounces of fresh orange zest per 5 gallons (in the boil, last 10 minutes), and it added a nice citrus flavor.

flyangler18

Recipes 

I suppose it's a question of whether you want to get fresh citrus notes in the Witbier or brew things traditionally?

I've always used the dried bitter orange peel in my Witbier and that is the flavor that I expect when I sample wits. YMMV.

Wild Duk

Recipes 

So how many oranges does it take to get 3-4 oz. of zest?

Edcculus

Recipes 

This goes along with something I've been wondering. Why would anyone buy spices from a LHBS? Orange peel, corriander etc. They are in crappy skechy packaging. They look old. I would never use any of the spices I have seen in any LHBS in any cooking application. Why brewing.

In this case, fresh is probably fine. In other cases, source good quality spices.

Chris300s

Recipes 

A couple of the books recommend to use LHBS spices because they'll be fresher than the grocery store. I haven't really found that to be the case, i.e. not very fresh at LHBS either.
I've been using fresh peeled orange and tangerine zest in my last couple of Wits and it worked out perfectly. I used the peel from 1 tangerine or 1/2 orange and it seems about right. I just got cracked corriander from the local brewery. Talk about fresh! Very bright fruity aroma, by comparison the grocery store Corriander had almost no smell even after cracking.
One suggestion, go easy on the corriander, 1/4-1/2 oz. for 5-gallons.

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jmulligan

Recipes 

IIRC, I zested like 7 or 8 oranges and only came up with 5-6 ounces of zest, so you'd probably need at least 3, preferably 4 oranges.

Edcculus

Recipes 

Yea, grocery stores are pretty much crap for getting fresh spices too. No matter what, you are always better off buying whole spices and grinding your own.

Bob

Recipes 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

When I sample Witbier, I expect bitter Curacao orange peel and coriander. Any lack of either is a ding, any additions to them a possible bonus.

See, this whole debate stems from a misunderstanding: that the orange is there to provide orange flavor only. The orange in Wit isn't entirely a flavor thing - it's also balancing bitterness! The best Wits have relatively low IBU from hops, because the hops bitterness combines with the orange bitterness to balance the sweetness. Using another approximation of flavors and bitterness - i.e., fresh zest and more hops - just doesn't taste 'right' to my palate. It tastes like an approximation.

Like Jason wrote, though, YMMV. The above is my opinion.

Bob

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