Adding zest at bottling ?

[jfr1111]

I brewed a witbier using the zest of two large grapefruits. It's pretty subtle: a lot of the aroma and taste seem to have been stripped by fermentation. I know that people who brew spiced beer sometimes add them at bottling so they can control how much they want to add to the final taste.

Can I do that too with zest ? I would try a sample, add a bit of zest to it, calculate how much it would make for the whole batch when I find I'm satisfied with the taste and add it to the priming solution when it is boiling (along with some coriander probably, I regret not adding it form the get go).

 

[bolts]

What about "dry hopping" with some fresh zest until it's where you want it?

 

[jfr1111]

Hadn't thought of that but I'm worried about wild yeast on the fruit if I just throw the zest without at least boiling it. I coudl always use campden, but then it's more work than just making a tincture to correct the taste.

 

[brrman]

Put the zest in a bit of vodka and let it sit for a week or two. then add all of it, vodka and all, to the secondary. That takes care of any wild yeast.

 

[Revvy]

If you add it to the bottle you are going to end up with little pieces of zest floating around in your glass, or getting caught in your drinker's teeth. Plus there is a sanitization issue to deal with.

Plus you may not actually be extracting any of the goodness from it.

There are two options, infuse some vodka with the zest to extract the flavor/aroma compounds then add the vodka at bottling time.

The other option, which I have been playing around with (but haven't tried with citrus, just chilies, and other spices) is to infuse your priming solution with the citrus. Just add some to the boiling of your priming sugar, then strain into your bottling bucket (or make a bouquet garnier, and tie the citrus peel into some cheese cloth, and fish it out before you pour the priming solution into the bucket.

Just make sure you don't get any pith in there, or it will be bitter.

 

[jfr1111]

The other option, which I have been playing around with (but haven't tried with citrus, just chilies, and other spices) is to infuse your priming solution with the citrus. Just add some to the boiling of your priming sugar, then strain into your bottling bucket (or make a bouquet garnier, and tie the citrus peel into some cheese cloth, and fish it out before you pour the priming solution into the bucket.

Just make sure you don't get any pith in there, or it will be bitter.

This is precisely what I'm talking about in my first post. I'll check the flavour/aroma once again at bottling and decide if I care enough to mess with adding more zest or spices. I would basically just strain the water/sugar/zest mixture through a very fine strainer I use for baking purposes (sanitized, of course).

 

[bolts]

You could do a hybrid of the approaches discussed. Soak some zest in vodka to make a potent solution you can then then add in a bit at a time. Jamil talks about using very carefully measured amounts of beer and flavor (precisely measured ml) to get where he wants it -- and then scaling that up to the batch size, or on a per bottle basis.

This seems to give the the option to add as a little or as much as you want from a sanitary solution without committing to the entire priming solution.

I'm curious which way you take and how it works out.

 

[jfr1111]

I will update when I bottle this weekend.

 

[jfr1111]

I boiled the zest from another grapefruit with the priming solution, but didn't add any coriander since the one I bought had that distinctive soapy/ham aroma, instead of the citrus goodness it's supposed to bring. Grocery store spices suck.

I strained the solution in a very fine sieve. No grapefruit made it through. I tasted the solution and there was some citrus character, but not much: I'm not holding my breath for the procedure doing anything really, altough I could be wrong.

 

[Bacchusuga]

Have you tried this beer? I added the zest of two grapefruits with five minutes left in the boil of my porter. This weekend I'm going to bottle and plan on adding the zest of a couple more at bottling and I'm wondering if this is a good idea or if I should transfer to secondary for a while.

 

[Revvy]

I've been playing around with flavoring my priming solution at bottling time for that last bit of mouth hit and aroma when you open the bottle. I've done chilies, citrus peels, and even some spices in the boil and strained out after. I decided to add 1.5 ounces of ginger to my priming sugar boil, in my gingersnap brown ale.

As you can see it has a nice straw color as opposed to the clear you are used to. It smelled amazingly like ginger. Don't forget if you do something that needs straining to sanitize the strainer.

One thing you can do with this is to add some lactose to the boil as well, since it is unfermentable, it should sweeten the flavor somewhat.