American Wheat Beer Zest Bomb - Citrus Wheat Pale Ale

Nice! It typically stays just a bit cloudy. I find it takes a little longer than most beers in the bottle, the hops need to settle down a bit I think.

I zested a wheat using 3 minneola and 3 navel, with citra and cascade hops. Boiled zest for 5 min. The orange aroma was nice and strong through the airlock during fermentation, but faded at bottling after 2 weeks. Maybe adding zest at whirlpool would keep zest aroma in beer?? Maybe oils from zest are too volatile?

What about dry hopping some additional zest?

Not sure if sanitation would be an issue. Maybe boil is the only option or scrub then sanitize before zesting.
Comments?

el_horno said:

What about dry hopping some additional zest?

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That should work great as long as you sanitize it. I had a friend just throw zest right into the fermenter and he got a really odd infection that ruined the beer. Another friend soaked some zest in vodka for a few days and threw it all in, that turned out great. If I were to do it, that would be my method. There's always going to be wild yeast and bacteria on fruit.

bovineblitz said:

That should work great as long as you sanitize it. I had a friend just throw zest right into the fermenter and he got a really odd infection that ruined the beer. Another friend soaked some zest in vodka for a few days and threw it all in, that turned out great. If I were to do it, that would be my method. There's always going to be wild yeast and bacteria on fruit.

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Good idea, and that way you don't lose the aroma, it transfers with the vodka

So I brewed a slight variation of this (Glacier and Tettnang instead of Sorachi and Palisade) and I think it turned out excellent. Definitely a great citrus taste and smell. Perfect amount of bitterness too. I would actually consider it one of the best beers I've brewed in my rather limited (15 or so) experience.

However, my wife (who loves everything I make) said it was just ok. And one of my buddies who is a craft beer enthusiast and very honest with his opinions, said he wasn't overly impressed. He's been a fan of my recent pale ale and IPA though so I know it's not that my beers just suck.

Has anyone had similar reactions from friends and family? Maybe some people think the citrus is too overwhelming? Grapefruit is definitely the prominent fruit in mine and maybe some people just can't handle it...

Anyways, just thought I'd vent a little.

Is anyone having head retention problems with this?
My carb is good but settles to absolutely no head retention at all.

I had no problem with fermentation and glass ware is fine.

Could any of these be culprits:
90min boil
Iodophor as bottle sanitizer prior to fillup
More late hop than bittering hop.

dachbach said:

Has anyone had similar reactions from friends and family? Maybe some people think the citrus is too overwhelming? Grapefruit is definitely the prominent fruit in mine and maybe some people just can't handle it...

Anyways, just thought I'd vent a little.

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As I posted earlier, I actually lost aroma and citrus flavor, but everyone thought is was very drinkable. I usually brew hop-bombs, so they probably just enjoyed it being "light"...which they are used to.

Now if I can nail the head retention.

I don't usually get great head retention, it's usually just a bit around the rim after the initial head from the pour dies down. It's not terrible but it's less than most beers I make. Maybe more protein would help, a little oats or carapils or something to complement the wheat. What we want out of the zest is actually the oils, so maybe they kill the head a bit.

Most people who have tried my versions seem to like them a lot. The type of fruit you use can make a pretty big difference, I like it best when it's heavy on the more robust flavored oranges and tangerines. As far as people not liking it, you could hand me the best brown ale in the world and I won't really like it all that much, just not my style.

I think your right about the oils. It never really dawned on me that the zests contained oils until you mentioned it....duh!

I think I will throw in a handful of Carapils next time and try the vodka soaked zest in fermenter.
The Citra and Cascade combo made a great beer so Im sticking with those hops.

bovineblitz said:

I just wanted to point out that this recipe is essentially written assuming you will be bottling. A friend made it and treated it like he does his IPAs and it was a little bit rough coming out that soon. It tastes to me like the bitterness is too high. I generally find it to be ready after 5 weeks in the bottle and still at peak (possibly even better) around 8-9 weeks.

I thought I'd add this note in case keggers want to make it, you may want to reduce the bitterness a bit or simply sit on it a little longer than you normally do. Has anyone on here kegged it, and if so what was your experience?

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A note on this, the kegged version did indeed get much better once the bitterness chilled out a bit. It just needs a bit of time.

Additionally, my version using Brett B Trois was absolutely unbelievable when it was relatively young but then became very strange after about 7 weeks, a little piney and just not as pleasant. It's still pretty good but nothing to write home about like the current state of the S-05 half. Time might do it some good, we'll see what the brett brings to the table in the next couple months.

Recipe changed recently bovineblitz?

jakenbacon said:

Recipe changed recently bovineblitz?

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Nope, just a little edit to note that I usually add the zest at flameout now. It's marked with an edit in the OP, the recipe is still the same. It probably doesn't really matter to be honest.

Wow, I must have been really toasted when I brewed this last. Thank you sir for the fine recipe!

I've found that the batch I brewed has "average" head retention, for what it's worth.

I really like the beer, but found that it has a fairly narrow temperature range that it's great at. Fresh out of the 'fridge, I get almost no fruit zest flavor at all - mostly just some bitterness from the hops. If I let it warm up in a glass for about 10-15 mins, I find that it has a lot more fruit flavor and is a much more interesting beer. Much warmer and the alcohol starts to take over (partially because my batch was a bit stronger than intended, I'd imagine).

I stumbled upon this recipe while trying to find something citrus wheat/pale ale and it sound fantastic, I have one question about this recipe.
I could not find CITRA hops so I ordered some Falconers Flight that is to have some Citra in it or Citra like qualities.

Has anyone swapped Falconers flight for Citra?

Also do you have any recommendations on how much zest I would need for a 10 gallon batch.
Thanks!

wadeo said:

I stumbled upon this recipe while trying to find something citrus wheat/pale ale and it sound fantastic, I have one question about this recipe.
I could not find CITRA hops so I ordered some Falconers Flight that is to have some Citra in it or Citra like qualities.

Has anyone swapped Falconers flight for Citra?

Also do you have any recommendations on how much zest I would need for a 10 gallon batch.
Thanks!

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A friend at a local brewery who dislikes Citra was just complaining to me that his Falconer's Flight IPA tastes too much like Citra, so I think that it's a pretty solid substitute.

For 10gal I used 8 minneola tangerines, 8 blood oranges, 4 limes, 4 lemons, 6 honey tangerines, and two grapefruit - 32 pieces total, heavy on the orange-type fruits. Somewhere in that ballpark will be good.

Any updates using different hops varieties?

How many ounces of zest are we talking about with these zest bomb beers?

I usually happy with 2 ounces of dried orange peel.

SAMPLER said:

Any updates using different hops varieties?

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I used some simcoe instead of sorachi ace, because its what I had, and this turned out to be a really elegant beer. The color is awesome and it has a strong zesty aroma, with a slight spice to it in the pallet. I think this is a great grain bill and hops will be easy to play around with. Good luck

Any thoughts with Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo and Citra? I have these on hand and I'm liking to try this recipe tomorrow.

Ah man didn't notice the activity from the 20th.

Weight wise, I'm not sure. I do know that the dried zest you usually buy has pith on it whereas using a microplane zester only gets the good stuff. I'll weigh it out next time if I remember, but it'll be wet weight of course.

The three C's and Amarillos sounds like it'll work. It'll be different but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

SAMPLER said:

Any thoughts with Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo and Citra? I have these on hand and I'm liking to try this recipe tomorrow.

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I brewed a Citra/Cascade that was amazing.
Only zested with orange/ tangerine.

Great recipe Bovineblitz! A friend of mine made this and it was probably the best homebrew I've ever had.

Brewed another batch with Coriander addition at 5 min.
1oz Williamette at 60min, 1oz Cascade at 15min and flame out.

I'm going to zest up some orange, tangerine, grapefruit and try the vodka infusion 3 days before bottling.
I justed didn't get the citrus "punch" adding it at flameout last time.

Ill have to try this. Never used Sorachi Ace. Looking for a light summer sit-in-the-pool beer. Sick of hefes, and a good old fashioned hop forward hoppy wheat pale with zest sounds great.

What fruit profiles would you recommend. Citra gives good mango and grapefruit (as I drink my zombie dust clone) and I read that Sorachi ace is very lemony. I was thinking using some lime peel, orange peel, ruby red, lemon peel to accent the citra bomb on this one.

got given some oats buck-shee-will attempt this....hic...l8tr mebbe...!!!

How long did it take, approximately, to ferment in the primary? How long did you leave this in a secondary?


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This is my second time home brewing so still a newbie

and was wondering how long u guys let this ferment in the primary before re-racking?
also wondering if anybody had different results adding the vodka soaked zest to the secondary as opposed to 5 min boil ?
thanks!

Usually I treat it like an IPA and only let it ferment for about 2-3 weeks before bottling. I don't think I've ever transferred to secondary, just dry-hopped right in primary.

GetSudz said:

Brewed another batch with Coriander addition at 5 min.
1oz Williamette at 60min, 1oz Cascade at 15min and flame out.

I'm going to zest up some orange, tangerine, grapefruit and try the vodka infusion 3 days before bottling.
I justed didn't get the citrus "punch" adding it at flameout last time.

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I think a big part of the punch is using a totally absurd amount of citrus. A friend of mine did it with a more "normal" amount and his came out like that too.

The vodka infusion might work out great, any results on that?

mcole158 said:

How long did it take, approximately, to ferment in the primary? How long did you leave this in a secondary?


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

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Have you decided how long you will ferment in primary/secondary for? im reading online that u can do 2 weeks in primary and 2 weeks in secondary

oh snap. Thanks for replying. I put the wort into a plastic pail with a blow off hose, the lid isn't airtight though.. don't know if that factor matters for dry hopping before bottling

brewista_may said:

oh snap. Thanks for replying. I put the wort into a plastic pail with a blow off hose, the lid isn't airtight though.. don't know if that factor matters for dry hopping before bottling

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Nah that shouldn't matter. I'd just plan to bottle at 2-4 weeks.

Result after 10 days, couldn't resist ! Had to try it. So far it's the best brew I've made.. Definitely going to brew this one again

Did a barrel batch of this at a local brewery last summer, it went over very well! Wound up being a bit more lemony in character than expected, but I suppose variation in fruit is normal. The amount of fruit that went into it was utterly ridiculous... 20 minneola oranges, 18 blood oranges, 10 limes, 15 honey tangerines, 15 lemons, 3 grapefruits! It took forever to zest it all.

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/30884/114203/

Since I can't edit my original post... in the latest couple of batches of this, I subbed out 2/3 of the Sorachi, as I find it to really thicken mouthfeel in an almost diacetyl-like manner. I used Mandarina Bavaria the last time, the subtle tangerine seems to complement the beer nicely!

Edit: I would like to rehost the images in my previous posts as the links don't always work... anyone know how to get editing access for old posts?

Made this today, 15 gallon batch, 9 navels, 9 blood oranges, 9 tangerines, 9 Minneolas, 6 limes, 2 grapefruits...1.5 hours of zesting.

Broke it into three 5 gallon batches with 3 different yeasts: WL California Ale, WL Saison, and Wyeast Denny's Favorite.

Will report back.

bovineblitz said:

I used Mandarina Bavaria the last time, the subtle tangerine seems to complement the beer nicely!

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Where in the world do you find Mandarina Bavaria?!