Adding Orange to Imperial Blonde Ale

[bjbancroft]

I accidentally posted this in the "Introductions" forum at first. Whoops!

Hello, I got a kit for Christmas and I brewed my first batch yesterday (it's an Imperial Blonde Ale). I noticed that a lot of people add orange zest in during the boil, but it's already too late for that, so I'm wondering if it would work if I put some orange slices in during the secondary fermentation. I want it to be more than just a subtle hint of orange, but not necessarily taste like orange juice or anything. My questions are: #1. Will it work? #2. If so, how many pounds of oranges should I use (for a 5 gallon batch)? #3 How should I sanitize the oranges? Will soaking them in vodka do? And if so, how long should I let them soak?

Thanks for your help. Cheers! :rockin:

 

[tackett]

Your adding a lot of unknown amounts of sugar with the oranges....

I vote to dry hop with the zest. But I think it would take a lot to accomplish what your looking for. But I dunno I'm new at this too.

 

[b-boy]

I'd agree - secondary with orange zest. If it's not what you were hoping for you can always keep some orange slices handy and squeeze a little juice into the beer when you serve it.

 

[bjbancroft]

Roger that. About how much orange zest should I add?

 

[WVBeerBaron]

i have used slices of citrus fruit (several pounds) in the secondary for a few weeks on a wit beer and i have also added zest to the secondary for another wit (blue moon clone). The citrus fruit slices in the secondary did nothing to the flavor, made no contribution. The zest in the secondary adds a great aroma of citrus to the beer but little flavor. It's hard to get orange flavors to come through more than just a hint and the best way to add is during the last few minutes of the boil ( not an option at this point for you). I am wondering myself about adding some OJ to the finished beer before bottling/kegging. I think this would restart fermentation and overcarb bottles but in a keg it's no big deal. Honestly the best way to add orange flavor at this point is to dry hop with zest (a few ounces of zest, no white pith!!) and add a slice of orange to your glass.

 

[brewkinger]

I found this thread only because I had the same question on my mind this evening.
I feel like a cleared a NOOB hurdle by searching the forum and finding my answer (and a couple of other new learned items.)
Thanks to the OP and to HBT in general!!!

My Centennial Blonde Ale had 1oz of sweet peel (40min) that the LHBS guy told me was my option to get the most flavor of orange into the beer.

OG: 1.042
FG: 1.005 (2 wks)

Hopped with Centennial, Cascade and Northern Brewer

I tasted the sample and it has a very slight taste and aroma of orange. I am hoping that the taste will come a little closer to the forefront after it spends a couple of weeks in a bottle and cleans up.