"Dryhopping" a Belgian Wit with Orange Peel Zest

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Stevorino

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I'm thinking about adding a touch of Orange zest aroma to my belgian wit by adding some orange zest directly to the keg and then serving it off the keg.

My plan before getting your feedback is to wash the oranges, zest them, flash the zest in a tablespoon or two of boiling water, and then add it directly to the keg -- hopefully adding orange scent and maybe a touch of flavor directly as the beer is being poured.

Any thoughts or experiences to share?
 
I just finished a Belgian Strong Ale that was pretty much a heavy duty wit with Amarillo hops, and I added both grapefruit and orange peel after primary was done. I was going for a fruity super wit, and I got it (9.5%). I grated all the fruit and soaked it in a little Absolut Mandarin. I had the vodka sitting around, and thought why not. I think I used about 1 orange and 1 grapefruit, and mixed with the hops it's very citrusy. You could probably use more orange than I did.
 
I think whenever you use this type of technique you just need to be careful and test the beer often. You will notice the orange flavor increasing over time. Once it has reached the point where you like the flavor yu can go ahead and keg and start drinking, or let it sit a little longer to absorb some extra flavor. That extra flavor will diminish when you let it age some, and put the flavor back to where you want it to be. I use the same technique with oak chips.

Ed
 
I added the zest of two oranges and did the boiing water technique. Then I added the "liquor" and the zest into the fermenter. I got an underwhelming aroma and flavor of orange, but a good bit of bitter (maybe from the hops, maybe the zest) If I did it again, I would make sure to hop it less and do this maybe a couple of days prior to racking instead of five days.
 
The "citrusy" flavor in a traditional witbier comes from the coriander. The peel used is bitter orange (seville or curacao), and it contributes to bitterness. Sweet orange peel would push it more toward an American wheat/wit hybrid.

That said, if you like that kind of beer then go for it! I'd start off with just a hint and work up if you like it.
 
I am going to make an 11 gal batch of 50/50 wheat beer and put the spices in a cube. Add 5.5 gal boiling wort and cap for future fermenting. The rest will be fermented with out the spices. I like plain ol wheat beer. She likes blue moon. This may even end up being Lime moon. Corriander and lime zest.

Wheat beer yeast for me
American ale for the Lime moon.

This cube thing seems to work for me.

David :)
 
I'd love to see how dry hopping the fruit will turn out. Maybe give some numbers that could be used as baseline for others. I love me some witbier!
 
I currently have a gal of an epemere take I did sitting in the secondary with zest from one lemon. Probably gonna bottle it today even though it was only on the zest for three or four days, but since I used so much, the flavor is already pretty lemony. I agree with those above that it is a good technique, but be sure to taste regularly (tough work I know...)
 
I've got two kegs of this stuff-- So I'm going to do it tomorrow. I'm hesitant to put orange vodka in there cause I don't really care for the taste of orange vodka.

My plan as of now is to boil a very small amount of water, drop in the zest and quickly drop it in the fermenter. I don't want any soaking -- I just want a quick sanitation of the orange peel and maybe a little aroma extraction.

Right now the Wit I have has a very lemony-citrus overtone. I like it, but a little bit of orange aroma would go a very long way.
 
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