How to use orange peel?

Ok, I'm planning on brewing up a Belgian Wit on Thursday, and trying to get the ducks in a row ahead of time. My question is how to prepare the flavorings.

Do I "zest" the orange peel, or simply peel the orange and drop in the boil (at flameout?)

Also, I'm going to use coriander, so do I use a spice/pepper grinder to grind this coarse, or crush it, or what?

Not an expert, but I ordered my orange peel dried from NB. As for the corriander I put it in a bag and crushed it witha rolling pin. Not into a flour but it crushed pretty easily and reletively fine

You will want to use the orange zest, and for coriander i have a mortar and pestle that i use for campden tablets to crush the seeds and dump them in at 2-5 minutes usually

There is a difference between sweet and bitter orange peel. Most wit recipes I have seen call for bitter orange peel. To get bitter witha fresh orange, you will need to zest your orange fairly deep in order to get some of the white pith. Alternatively, you could buy some bitter orange peel from an LHBS. 0.5 ounce, which is probably all you'll need, should be less than $1.

Homercidal said:

Ok, I'm planning on brewing up a Belgian Wit on Thursday, and trying to get the ducks in a row ahead of time. My question is how to prepare the flavorings.

Do I "zest" the orange peel, or simply peel the orange and drop in the boil (at flameout?)

Also, I'm going to use coriander, so do I use a spice/pepper grinder to grind this coarse, or crush it, or what?

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Use the zest and add it between 5 mins and flameout.

For my coriander, I put it in a ziploc and crush them with a rolling pin. Enough to crack the seeds open, but not enough to pulverize them into a black-pepper-like consistency.

I always have preferred the fresh orange zest.

For what it's worth, Here's a quote from July/Aug 2007 BYO mag, Style profile (Witbier) by Jamil Zainasheff:

"The best way to add citrus character is with fresh citrus. The Petrified bits of orange peel often used bay be authentic, but fresh zest has a much brighter character. Select tangerines or oranges with a nice bold, fresh, aroma...Use a citrus zester to peel the very surface of the skin and avoid digging deep into the white pith as it si bitter and lacks citrus character. Measure the zest by weight, targeting about 1 to 2 ounces in a 5 gallon batch."

His recipe is in that article, as well. (calls for 1.5 oz of zest and .4 oz of crushed coriander.)

As for the coriander, he says, "I gently crush the coriander with the back of a heavy spoon to expose the inside of the seeds, which gives it a fairly strong, spicy character versus whole seeds. The level of coriander is probably the area most brewers overshoot, resulting in a really peppery beer. The desired result is a gentle background spicing not an overwhelming one. If you have fairly fresh coriander, start with .4 oz per 5 gallon batch during the last 5 min of boil."

I hope this isn't too long for you! I just happened to have that BYO issue in front of me, as I am working on a Wit recipe now for my next brew. That is a really good article and highly suggested!

Good luck w/ your brew!

You guys rock! I already bought the coriander, and am ready to crush it on brew day. I forewent the dried peel at the brew store, and bought several oranges and lemons at the store instead.

I'll zest them up during the boil and have some really fresh stuff in there.

Can't wait to make this!

Sounds great! I was contemplating the same thing, and you all saved me from creating this same thread.

Thanks!!

Nearly 4 years later and this thread helped me out so much. I appreciate it guys!

FYI I brewed a wit last weekend and still use the fresh zest. But I found that using a vegetable peeler is even easier than using the grater. The outer peel comes off in small strips with pretty much no pith.

Do it like the pros do:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00151WA06/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I add the peel and pith to my boil with 20 left (basically a chopped orange), then zest at the end. I was even thinking of adding it to a dry hop as well.

Do you keep the orange peel in the wort throghout primary fermentation and throw it out when siphoning into a carboy? Or did you use a funnel and throw the orange peel away after the boil?

I filter it out, but now I dry-"hop" it in a secondary as well

sleepystevenson said:

His recipe is in that article, as well. (calls for 1.5 oz of zest and .4 oz of crushed coriander.)

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Just what I was looking for... and all in one post!

vengazor said:

Do you keep the orange peel in the wort throghout primary fermentation and throw it out when siphoning into a carboy? Or did you use a funnel and throw the orange peel away after the boil?

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I personally strain it out before chilling...zested peel is fantatic, its will act as a filter in a strainer and grab more break material and hop particles IMO...if you are concerned that the taste will diminish or that it is not enough, dry hop with it as well (in a hop bag obviously)

I brewed my version of an "American Wit" with a .5 oz of coriander, and a .5 oz each of bitter, sweet (peel), and fresh navel orange zest.

There was a thread where a guy just threw whole citrus in the pot near the end of the boil. IIRC, he just fished them out at flameout for later eating. I believe the idea was that the wort would only come into contact with the zest, plus he'd save himself some zesting and filtering. He said it worked great.

sleepystevenson said:

I always have preferred the fresh orange zest.

His recipe is in that article, as well. (calls for 1.5 oz of zest and .4 oz of crushed coriander.)

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I just brewed an American Wheat with this as a guideline and must say the orange peel after a couple of days fermenting is very extreme, I'm starting to wish I'd used about half of that.

Does anyone know if this is normal for the beginning of a ferment or if this may fade with time?

I guess not all oranges are equal in any case, I chose them by scratching the skin a tiny bit and finding ones with the most intense aroma, I'm sure it will be fine anyway however the flavour ends up!

Edit: Ignore above, beer turned out great!

Anyone ever make a tincture to extract oils and flavor from citrus zest then add to secondary and let sit a few days or add at bottling?

Thanks! this thread was just what I needed!

If I want a prominent citrus flavor, I just tear up a tangerine or lemon and toss in the whole peel. You can also squeeze some juice out. Ive also done this in the fermentor too.

But for a background flavor accent, Ive just used dried peel

I've only used fresh, but I really like the way it comes out. I don't really pick up any orange aroma from most wits.

m00ps said:

If I want a prominent citrus flavor, I just tear up a tangerine or lemon and toss in the whole peel. You can also squeeze some juice out. Ive also done this in the fermentor too.

But for a background flavor accent, Ive just used dried peel

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I'm actually going to do a spice tea that I will add to the bottling bucket. Beer is already brewed. Similar to the "Holly" beer recipe that's No. 44 in the HBT top 100 list. I'm also trying to decide if I can get some cranberry in there too.

I've been told (by a VERY experienced and high ranking judge) that Indian coriander is the best to use. Using "regular" coriander gives a celery like off flavor.

Gonna try using fresh zest for a wit I'm making this weekened. Great posts!

This is the thread that won't die, haha.
I have read this and several others on the subject, and they are all helpful. It's funny, whenever I google a brewing question I always end up back here

Personnaly, I peel the zest, put it in a small glass of neutral alcohol (the one I use for fruit liquor) with the juice and I add everything at the end of secondary fermentation, a week before bottling. The result is more fruity and more aromatic.

Pinchart said:

Personnaly, I peel the zest, put it in a small glass of neutral alcohol (the one I use for fruit liquor) with the juice and I add everything at the end of secondary fermentation, a week before bottling. The result is more fruity and more aromatic.

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Awesome, great idea!

I haven't used orange, but I've used grapefruit in one of my brews. I just used the zest and juice from a grapefruit and added them at flameout. Turned out to be one of my better IPA's I assume this could work with oranges as well.

tntpilsner said:

Awesome, great idea!

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Thank you. I did it with lime. The result was very fresh. Like a shandy. Ideal for this warm weather.

I like to use fresh zest strips. I put them in a hop bag with some glass marbles soaked in starsan. I then tie unwaxed dental floss under the knot and tie it to the handle of my secondary. With the weights, the zest is fully submerged and max beer contact

I'll second the tincture method. I've been doing that for years with lemon zest in a lemon-coriander American wheat beer.
I zest one large lemon and put it in about 4 oz of vodka for a week. Then I add it at the end of primary fermentation. It lends a bright, fresh citrus taste.

Gonna do a witbier this weekend.. replying so I can find this easier. Think I'll do the zest. Does a cheese grater work? I have the type with 4 sides and all different grating options.

Almost a year after the last post and this is still helping. Answer every question I haf for my wit. Thank you all!

metaltim said:

Gonna do a witbier this weekend.. replying so I can find this easier. Think I'll do the zest. Does a cheese grater work? I have the type with 4 sides and all different grating options.

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Some people use really fine zesting graters or microplane zesters to avoid grating into the pith. Your cheese grater probably has an option that works. Personally I just use a potato peeler and don't dig too hard into the pith. I am not paranoid about getting pith in but it doesn't have the oil content you want so I try to avoid it to get max weight of the peel. I add peel at whirlpool so it is easier to filter out a few larger pieces of peel than tiny zest.

After making several white IPAs, I found the method that works best for me is skin an orange with a vegetable peeler not trying too hard to avoid the albedo (what some of you call the pith) and whirlpooling it. The coriander is ground up in my cheep-o coffee grinder and added 5 minutes to the end of the boil.

Going to try adding some orange zest in an IPA tonight. I'll go with Jamil's suggestion quoted above of 1 - 2 ounces, and think I'll throw it in flameout. I've got about four hours for someone to suggest I do otherwise or deal with it differently LOL.