Advice on a Blue Moon extract clone

Brewing a Midwest Belgian Wit kit with some additions to get a Blue Moon Clone for Memorial day. Alot of recipes I've seen online call for orange zest, specifically from Valencia Oranges, added to the boil. Is zesting as simple as grating the rind? Since its going in the boil, no need sanitize, right.

Some recipes also call for the addition of honey. Is honey a necessary ingrediant to get the proper "Blue Moon"? I've read that it tends to dry out the beer and can extend fermentation times.

Any other advice is welcome.

Yeah, if you use fresh orange zest, just grate or cut the rind, being careful only to get the orange part. You don't want the white part(pith) as it tastes nasty.

You can do this with any orange that has a fragrant skin. I made a witbier with blood orange zest that was awesome. And no honey should be necessary, Blue Moon is just a commerical Belgian White Ale (Witbier) and it should only need Orange Zest and Coriander, along with the appropriate yeast and wheat extract to achieve the style.

I make a blue moon clone all the time.. go to walmart and buy McCormicks Valencia orange peel.. 1/2 ounce with 5 minutes left in the boil. It is easy and no worries about getting the pith in the mix.....also .17 ounces of ground coriander at about 15 minutes left gives a nice flavor also....there numbers are for a 5 gallon batch. Also a nuetral yeast. S-05 or notty. This is per WAYNE1 on here who brewed blue moon commercially.

The kit for this beer from Midwest includes 8 oz of Carapils for steeping. I steeped for 30-40 mins at 160 or so and noticed no change in the color or aroma of the wort. Seemed like a waste of time, did I miss something? Do Carapils need to be mashed?

You missed it. Carapils is a dextrine malt and it adds body and head retention without color or flavor. It does not need to be mashed.

Thanks, appreciate the info. I was afraid I had screwed up and picked up a partial mash kit by accident.