Star Anise

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2pugbrews

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I'm getting ready to brew a Belgian Wit. My recipe calls for 2.5 oz of Star Anise. I've run across opinions that this is too strong. The recipe also calls for .75 oz Coriander seed, .10 oz Grapefruit peel (zest?), and .25 oz Orange peel(zest?). The recipe also calls for the coriander to be ground and the Anise to be crushed. Does any of this sound right
 
Yeah, sounds like a typo to me. I've put as little as one star per gallon into a stout & got a very subtle but noticable effect. Don't know what that weight might be but it's way, way less than an ounce. The stuff is pretty strong. I'd agree, .5 max.
 
Can you add Anise Seed to a secondary ferm? Or must it be boiled in the beer?
Would it be a good idea to boil the seeds in a small amount of water before adding to the beer for Secondary ferm?
Also, anyone here had an anise beer before? I think it sounds neat, but I don't want to use it on a whole batch just to find out I don't like it :p
 
Anise is basically a mild licorice flavor, so I'm not sure how it would taste in a Wit. I would say add around .25oz so it doesn't overpower your corriander and orange peel. I've had it in a stout and it was pretty good.

I wouldn't put anise to a secondary. It's like licorice in the aspect that it kills head retention. I would add it to the boil when there's less than 15 minutes left. You will lose aroma by boiling, but the flavor should be good.
 
Gonna say someone misplaced a decimal point there. 2.5oz will have your beer tasting like black licorice. I put 3 stars (less than 1/4 oz) in at 10m boil in the imperial stout I have going now, and the flavor is mild but noticeable.
 
I used 1.5 oz of medicinal herbs (not pot) in a brew, thinking it would taste good like the tea I sometimes brew. That brew is now restricted to being mixed with coca-cola.
 
Geez, that's a lot of anise. I use less than one star in my Wit, usually a blade or two dropped in the last five minutes of the simmer. Hell, when I brewed Wit by the 10bbl batch we used around 3 oz!

Wit needs to be spiced, and it needs to be spiced carefully. Notice the fellows adding 0.25 ounces of star anise to their beers are adding it to Stout. Stout is a bit more complex than Wit before spices are added; Wit can't take as much. Moreover, no one spice should dominate the flavor of Wit - it needs to be a broad spectrum, a blend of spice flavors.

So go easy on the anise. The coriander and peel amounts look all right to me. You may wish to add a bit of paradise seed; the black-pepper and lemon flavors help to pull the different spices together.

Good luck!

Bob
 
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