Lemon Zest Anyone?

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Grimsawyer

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I plan on brewing a big Honey Hef and using lemon zest. I don't want there to be a lemon flavor, just a suttle hint of lemon. To Taste the beer and say this is good, what's that, I think I taste lemon, but I'm not sure, is my intent. In my 5.5 gallon batch I am using 7 lbs of wheat extract and 3 lbs of honey(going to heat 1 gallon of water to 150 dump the 3 lbs in and just keep the temp steady for 15 min, and add to fermenter with wort, want to try and keep some honey taste... good luck, right?) 2oz of Hallertau hops (bittering) and .5 oz Mt Hood hops at 15 min 10 min and 2 min also going to dry hop .5 oz. For my hint of lemon to almost be noticable how much zest should I use. One average lemon's worth (average size, as average as Fred Meyer's can get anyhow), half a lemon's zest. 2, 3? Or will the flavor be gone after the 6 months to a year it takes for this big Hefe to age? Will my finishing hops completely obliterate the chance of any lemon kinda showing through? What do you guys think :) oh, also going to prime with 5.5 oz (net wt.) of honey. LOL! every honey beer I've ever tasted the honey flavor never shines through. The guy at my LHBS suggested not boiling the honey and priming with it and maybe honey will be tasted. *crosses fingers* Going to use clover honey. Anyhow, I'm interested in what all of your opinions are on this lemon thing. Hope to hear from some people who have played with it. :)
 
g'yer,
Have not as such used lemon yet, but have used orange and lime
orange in wheat beer, 4 slivers for full 60 min boil, IMHO abit over the top in finished beer to..ooo much orange flavour. Next batch tried the same amount but added at 15min again IMHO just right.
With lime, have a kafir lime tree used 5 leaves as above, this was bitter.. bitter.. even after 2 months although much better did produce involuntary head shakes
still got 20 long necks in shed, opening one like anticipating a visit to the dentist.
Moral if there is one, citrus in any form is a strong adjunct . I'am sure someone on here will have a better line of advice to give
 
I made a summer wheat recently and used the zest of one lemon added during the last five minutes of the boil. It tastes just right, no overt twang just a hint of lemon.
 
I can't comment on the zest but I used the juice from 6 lemons squeezed into the secondary that produced just a hint of lemon flavor in a hefe. My recipe did not involve honey, however.
 
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