Orange zest in the keg

I've been thinking of tossing in around an ounce of fresh orange zest to my wit that's carbonating in a keg right now (of course, I'll use a hop bag). Anyone try this before with good results? Should I expect to get mostly aroma, or flavor as well. When brewing the wit, I tossed in about an ounce at the end of my boil- when I sampled at 2 weeks, the orange flavor was pretty awesome.

oooFishy said:

I've been thinking of tossing in around an ounce of fresh orange zest to my wit that's carbonating in a keg right now (of course, I'll use a hop bag). Anyone try this before with good results? Should I expect to get mostly aroma, or flavor as well. When brewing the wit, I tossed in about an ounce at the end of my boil- when I sampled at 2 weeks, the orange flavor was pretty awesome.

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I've wet hopped with fresh zest before.

I'd suggest you take your zest and bring it to nearly a boil in 1 cup of water. It will do two things:

1) sanitize the zest.
2) release a lot of the flavor.

Then pour the liquid through your strainer bag into the keg...then tie off the bag and drop her in.

You'll probably want some way to suspend the bag about 1/4 of the way off the bottom. Some SS bolts in the bag and then a 20" length of string tied to the interior post of the relief valve works well.

Do you get a lot of flavor from "wet hopping" or mainly aroma, like you would if dry hopping. Seems like you'd get both, but I've never tried before.

It may seem crazy, but it looks like this beer's goin down at only 2 weeks. It could probably use another week or two for it to mellow out a tad, but fermentation went really well and it tastes pretty damn good.

Do you have a problem with head retention after you do this? It seems to me that the oils in the orange zest would nuke your beers head retention......

Jilaman said:

Do you have a problem with head retention after you do this? It seems to me that the oils in the orange zest would nuke your beers head retention......

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No problem. The massive amounts of flaked wheat (at least in my recipes) far outweighs the minuscule trace of oils for an ounce or two of orange zest.

oooFishy said:

Do you get a lot of flavor from "wet hopping" or mainly aroma, like you would if dry hopping. Seems like you'd get both, but I've never tried before.

It may seem crazy, but it looks like this beer's goin down at only 2 weeks. It could probably use another week or two for it to mellow out a tad, but fermentation went really well and it tastes pretty damn good.

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I get flavor and aroma. Though I consider the two closely intertwined. It's not unusual for a wit t be drinkable inside of three-four weeks. Wits are intended to be "fresh" beers. A little conditioning time gives the coriander time to soften a bit.