When to add zest?

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Cromwell

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I want to brew a beer with a pronounced orange flavor. Most Witbier recipes say to add orange peel late in the boil. The blood orange hefe says to put oranges in the fermenter.

How do you think I can get the best orange flavor - from late in the boil, to adding zest to the secondary?

Thanks in advance!
 
Cromwell said:
I want to brew a beer with a pronounced orange flavor. Most Witbier recipes say to add orange peel late in the boil. The blood orange hefe says to put oranges in the fermenter.

How do you think I can get the best orange flavor - from late in the boil, to adding zest to the secondary?

Thanks in advance!

I've done both and personally have not noticed an appreciable difference but others may have:)
 
I used to add at flameout but I never got a really strong flavor, or really even more than a hint. Now I put the zest in vodka for a week or so then add it to the secondary before you rake your beer, or even at bottling/kegging.
 
I did the zest-in-vodka soak, then dumped the whole mess into the fermenter for a week.
It gave a lot of orange flavor. Unfortunately, the oranges were a bit under ripened, and the orange flavor was a tad bitter.

Using better oranges would have helped.
(I used 6 large oranges for a 12 gallon batch, and I think that was too much.)
 
Well, I zested 4 oranges, soaked them in vodka for 6 days, then dumped it all in the fermenter while lagering. It's good, not bitter (I didn't use pith, only zest). But it's not "orangey". It's just a hint of orange in the aftertaste. I wouldn't even identify it if I wasn't looking for it.

So, how much orange do I need for 5 gallons of Kolsch to make it obviously orange?
 
Perhaps your orange zest needed some help from the hops. Some of them give a citrus taste and the orange zest might accentuate that. I'd like to try that with Amarillo hops but they seem to be unavailable right now.
 
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