Lemon Zest

I am making a clone of Sam Adams Summer Ale tonight and it calls for 2 oz of lemon zest. Anyone have any experience with this? I'm not sure how many lemons I'm going to need for that much zest.

Thankfully the local produce store sells 8 small ones for $1 so I won't be out too much cash no matter how many I need...

My wife the brilliant cook is saying that 2 oz of lemon zest is LOT!! She's guessing 30-50 lemons worth.

When you zest them, you want to avoid getting any of the white part...just the thinnest top layer of skin. That's why it'll take a lot of them I imagine.

wow, that's way more than I expected. I was only going to get 16, but maybe now I'll get more. I'll let you all know how many it took then...

Yeah, that's just an estimate so take it for what it's worth, but it does seem like it'll take a good deal of them since it's just the very outer layer you can use...please do let us know how much it takes. Cheers!

Sounds Interesting, can you post the recipe?

I'll post it tonight when I get home. I can tell you it's a mini-mash kit from Austin Homebrew Supply. Here's the link:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produ...=2153&osCsid=e096bd6eaa922b5fbf7acf36e1400805

I stopped and picked up 10 lemons for $2

I peeled 5 of them with a potato peeler, then used a mini food processor to grind them up. I don't have a kitchen scale so I had to estimate... apparently 2 tablespoons is equal to 1 ounce in this case... or so I hear. Anyway, these 5 medium sized lemons made about 6 tablespoons of zest, which is 3 oz for those of you poor at math

I'm brewing the batch up now, I'll post the recipe once I get another free minute...

Sam Adams Summer Ale (mini-mash)

-1.5 lbs Wheat Malt
-2 lbs 2-Row

Boil for 45 minutes at 155 F in grain bag, remove grains.

-5 1/2 lb Wheat Extract Syrup

Add and return to boil. Reduce heat to control boil. Once the boil is under control, add

Bittering Hops
-1 oz. Hallertau hops

After 45 minutes add
Flavor Hops
-1/2 oz Paradise Seeds
-1/2 oz Spalt hops
-2 oz fresh lemon zest (about 4-5 medium sized lemons)

After 10 more minutes, add
Aroma Hops
- 1/2 oz Spalt hops

After 5 minutes, cool to 80 F, pour into primary and add water to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast, using either Belgian Wit liquid yeast or Safbrew T-58 dry yeast.

Add the airlock then follow the usual routine to bottle or keg. No dry hopping.

Original Specific Gravity should be 1.052
Final Specific Gravity should be 1.012
--------

I'll let you all know how it turns out

ryser2k said:

Sam Adams Summer Ale (mini-mash)

-1.5 lbs Wheat Malt
-2 lbs 2-Row

Boil for 45 minutes at 155 F in grain bag, remove grains.

-5 1/2 lb Wheat Extract Syrup

Add and return to boil. Reduce heat to control boil. Once the boil is under control, add

Bittering Hops
-1 oz. Hallertau hops

After 45 minutes add
Flavor Hops
-1/2 oz Paradise Seeds
-1/2 oz Spalt hops
-2 oz fresh lemon zest (about 4-5 medium sized lemons)

After 10 more minutes, add
Aroma Hops
- 1/2 oz Spalt hops

Cool to 80 F, pour into primary and add water to 5 gallons. Pitch yeast, using either Belgian Wit liquid yeast or Safbrew T-58 dry yeast.

Add the airlock then follow the usual routine to bottle or keg. No dry hopping.

Original Specific Gravity should be 1.052
Final Specific Gravity should be 1.012
--------

I'll let you all know how it turns out

Click to expand...

Can't wait to find out how it turns out, this is one of my favorites!

Thanks for posting the recipe.

When life gives you 4 to 5 medium sized lemons without the zest on them, make lemonade

Lemonade
- 1 cup of lemon juice (4 to 5 medium lemons)
- 4 cups of water
- 2/3 cup of sugar

Mix in pitcher with ice, serve.

Whatever you do, don't take those zested lemons and throw them in your fridge, they will make everything in there taste lemony. I learned that the hard way...

I bottled this beer yesterday, and stole a little taste during the process. It is strong! It's got a bit of a Belgian taste to it, I am guessing from the paradise seeds. Since I'm lazy I didn't take SG or FG readings so I don't know how much alcohol is in there, but if I had to guess by taste, I would say around 6% ABV. I guess that lemon zest added a little extra sugar in there to kick it up a notch. I'm anxious to see how the final product will be, I'll report back when it's all done...

I have tried two bottles of this after 2 weeks of conditioning. It is not bad but it certainly doesn't taste like Sam Adams Summer Ale. It is extra fizzy, which makes me wonder if I actually did use too much lemon zest and extracted extra sugars or something.

From my experience though, homebrew always gets better as it sits in the bottle, so I'm going to wait and try another in a week or two. I'll let you all know....

PS - Now that it has conditioned in the bottle, it does not taste nearly as strong as it did in my last post...

Thanks alot, I'm anxious to see in a few weeks. First impressions are usually off a little.

Hi all:

Being a relative new comer to brewing. What the devil are paradise seeds, some type of Hops?? None of the brewing supply outlets I've used to date have them.

I'd love to try this recipe.

Thanks.

- Scott

no they are actually seeds...
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=474

Ryser2K:

Thanks for the link, I bookmarked for future reference. I plan to try your receipe.

- Scott

I have a lemon-rosemary blonde ale that I use the zest of one large lemon to go in a three gallon batch.
Using a lot of lemons would be too puckery and tart for me.