Citrus hops and best way to attain lemon flavor

I am making a recipe using some leftover malts and a few Hops I have leftover from other batches. Have been airtight and refrigerated for no more than a month, some only about a week. I have leftover hallertauer and a little cascade leftover. It will be a wheat beer, about 3/5 Wheat Malt and 2/5 Gold Light malt. For a yellowish wheat beer.

I planned to use Hallertauer at 60 for bittering and cascade at 0 or 5? What's best for aroma? I currently plan on using Amarillo as well at 45 and 15 to total the bitterness at 35.2. Any other suggestions on hops or how bitter make it, I want to make a very citrusy wheat that quenches your thirst for when it gets warm.

Whats best way to use lemon in recipe? Right now I figured zest from one lemon and juice from lemon in at 5 mins like I've done in recipes with orange zest/juice. Will this affect how much hops I should add for bittering? Will the lemon increase or decrease the IBU?

I've seen some beers have a yellow head on top. How is this done?

Zest has oil in it. Wonder if that will affect the beer's head. Sorachi ace is famous for having a lemon flavor, though I find it to be more of a dill flavor. Citra might be a good option. Amarillo (or any other hop) won't give you a lemon flavor if added at 45 min, just bitter. Late addition Amarillo will provide more of an orange flavor (a delicious, delicious orange flavor).

I've done a number of recipe's with Citra Hops. I don't really feel like it's a "lemon" taste but more citrus like a grapefruit. I will say that if you use WYeast 1056 American Ale for your yeast, add the Citra late in the boil, say 20 minutes and flame out then ferment the beer on the cooler side, say 65* or slightly less it will really bring out the citrus flavors from both the hops and the yeast.

What I'd probably do would be to use one bittering hop at 60 and just mix Citra and Amarillo near the end then dry hop with a bit more Amarillo. The dry hopping might sort of blend the Citra grapefruit flavor with the Amarillo for more of a mellow floral citrus flavor. I'm positive that cooler ferment temps and late Citra additions in the boil will give you that really citrusy flavor, just not sure it's the "Lemon" flavor you want.

Try using Sorachi Ace hops. They have a very lemon like flavor to them.

Ok thanks. So right now I have this.

OG 1.049 Final 1.014

53 % wheat DME
35 % gold light DME
about 5% Cara-Pils
and 5% Crystal 10

Hallertaur for bittering at 60 minutes
Amarrillo Gold at 30 15 and 0 minutes
and Cascade at 5 minutes

Total IBU 30.8
SRM 6.4
Using Bry-97 West Coast Ale Yeast.

Any suggestions? This will be my first built from scratch my own recipe.

I just got done doing a lemon lime heffewiesen and used .5 ounce of lemons zest at 5 minutes. It smells very strong of lemon in the fermentor. We will see how it turns out. One week in primary and then add a jug of limeade when racking off to secondary. I am interested to see how this fares. Used .25 ounce halertauer at 60 mins then .5 at 20 mins and .25 at 7 mins. This is a recipe that someone posted on the forum. Looking forward to kegging it and tasting this great smelling beer. Should be about 6% ABV, so will pack a bit of a punch. Got a pic o the raspberry wheat in the carboy which is ready this weekend and the lemon heffe in the fermentor.

Add the zest of a couple of lemons after fermentation has stopped, sort of like dry hopping. I do it in the primary, but you can do it in secondary if you want. Soak the zest in a little vodka for a couple of days and add the zest and the vodka to your beer. Give it ~5 days before bottling.

Captain Damage said:

Add the zest of a couple of lemons after fermentation has stopped, sort of like dry hopping. I do it in the primary, but you can do it in secondary if you want. Soak the zest in a little vodka for a couple of days and add the zest and the vodka to your beer. Give it ~5 days before bottling.

Click to expand...

I think I've decided to brew it with no lemon zest or juice, just a variation of citrusy hops. If it comes out good I will rebrew with lemon or orange zest

try crystal hops from fresh hops they are very grapefruity