Adding orange to secondary.

Hey folks, a friend of mine is thinking about adding orange peel or something similar to his secondary on an American Wheat beer. Anyone have suggestions or anything. He's never done that before and neither had I. Thanks for any advice!


peace
-gw

Taste the beer beforehand to see if the yeast has produced enough citrusy flavors in the beer already. You'll probably get some bitter flavors from the peel. If you're set on it, get the oranges from an organic grocer so you have less pesticides (presumably). I've never done it, but those are my suggestions.

Grate yourself 1 oz of fresh orange peel, avoiding the white part.

Drop the grated orange peel into a pot with about 1.2 cups of water and cover.

Bring to a quick boil for 5 minutes. Covered

Cool and add to the fermenter.

Boiling the orange peel will help to loosen the essential oils and sterilize everything.

Wait about 3-4 days and taste, then repeat if necessary.

One oz of fresh orange peel should give you a nice hint of zest.

That sounds like a mighty fine process there, BierMuncher. I've never added fresh orange zest to beer before, but I've thought about it. Just so that I'm prepared, should I go for it, is 1 oz. about an orange's worth of zest or more or less? Thanks.


TL

I added a 1 oz bottle of pure orange extract to a wit type beer in secondary. The extract is oil from the peel suspended in alcohol. When it hit the beer the oils came out of suspension and coated the top half of the carboy. I let that sit for about a month in the c-c-c-cold garage, then kegged it. That was a couple months ago....

Nice orange flavor with a hint of bitter after taste. I'm letting the keg sit in the garage until late spring. hopefully the slight bitterness will mellow.

TexLaw said:

Just so that I'm prepared, should I go for it, is 1 oz. about an orange's worth of zest or more or less?

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if it's anything like lemon zest (and i don't see why it wouldn't be, besides the increased surface area) an ounce by weight of orange zest should be several oranges' worth. providing you avoid the white part, which is definitely a good idea.

john from dc said:

if it's anything like lemon zest (and i don't see why it wouldn't be, besides the increased surface area) an ounce by weight of orange zest should be several oranges' worth. providing you avoid the white part, which is definitely a good idea.

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Right.

My hunch tells me you'd want to grate several (3-5) oranges and weigh out the zest. Oranges are cheap enough, and you'll probably snack on the fruit anyway.

I just made a recipe from "Extreme Brewing" called Blood orange Hefe.

The recipe called for:
4 averaged size blood oranges (place cubed meat from oranges, and the zest from half of the peels in pot with 1/2gal water. bring to 160 degrees F and turn off heat. Let cool and steep for 20min. Add to the primary when beer is done, ferment for 10 days.)

I'll be kegging it tonight I hope, so we'll se what it tastes like. I had the real beer at the brewpub and it was great!!

it all sounds interesting but won't the oils effect head retention?

One thing I might mention with BierMuncher's method is to make sure you cover the pot when you boil. The compound with the citrusy character (Limonene) has a lower boiling point then water. Typically when you do this extraction (they do it in sophomore organic chemistry labs) you'll use a distiller because the limonene boils off so readily.

Just $0.02.

so you think adding lemon zests for the last 15 minutes of the boil would be less than effective? would it be better to pasteurize (150-160 for 15 minutes) them on their own in a covered pot and then add that water at flame out?

tagz said:

so you think adding lemon zests for the last 15 minutes of the boil would be less than effective? would it be better to pasteurize (150-160 for 15 minutes) them on their own in a covered pot and then add that water at flame out?

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Adding to the wort boil is the preferred method (for me), but he is adding to a secondary.

Is the process similar if you add orange or lemon at boil? Just add 1 oz zest to the last 15 min of the boil?

Also, which do you think is better in an American Wheat (using the NB extract kit), lemon or orange?

Thanks for the help!

-Pete

BierMuncher said:

Right.

My hunch tells me you'd want to grate several (3-5) oranges and weigh out the zest. Oranges are cheap enough, and you'll probably snack on the fruit anyway.

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Oh, absolutely correct on both counts. From time to time, I can buy an 18 pound sack of oranges for $5. Those are some happy times.

I'm working on the 18 pound sack of grapefruit right now, though.


TL

I used a patato peeler and peeled just the orange part NOT the white from 4 oranges & added them to the primiary, seems to me if U boil them U would take all the flavor out of them. Mine came out real nice with just a hint of orange.

TexLaw said:

...I'm working on the 18 pound sack of grapefruit right now, though. TL

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Hmmm....

Given the premium (and shortage) on flavor/aroma hops...me wonders about the prospect of adding grapefruit zest to a pale...

BierMuncher said:

Given the premium (and shortage) on flavor/aroma hops...me wonders about the prospect of adding grapefruit zest to a pale...

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I just might find that out sooner, rather than later. This is some mighty good grapefruit, too.


TL