Using Liquid Honey

[ChiN8]

Alright ya'll looking for a little n00b help here.

I'm bout to order my ingredients for an American Orange Wheat, and was wondering... would using Orange Blossom Honey benefit this brew and add quite a bit of orange flavor? cause I want a fairly strong orange taste in this brew.

If this would help... how would I use it? During the boil or is honey used in the primary.

 

[Pezman1]

I would try 1 oz of sweet orange peel for the most orange flavor/aroma. I did this for my wife's honey wheat, and it came out well. I believe I added it with 15 minutes left in the boil.

The amount of orange blossom honey to get the same flavor would probably boost your gravity beyond want you want.
Pez.

 

[Nickme23]

You probably wouldn't get any orange flavor from the honey, just a boost to gravity, although the honey would probably make it a little smoother.

If you want citrus flavor then add Coriander seed to the brew. Orange peel for bitterness.

.5 oz for a 5 gal batch would prob be pretty good up to 1 oz if you want a lot of orange flavor. Crush the seeds with a mortar and pestle or put em in a glass and crush them with the handle of a butter knife, something blunt like that. Add the coriander to the last 5 mins of the boil or as the wort is coming off the boil.

 

[Pezman1]

You probably wouldn't get any orange flavor from the honey, just a boost to gravity, although the honey would probably make it a little smoother.

If you want citrus flavor then add Coriander seed to the brew. Orange peel for bitterness.

.5 oz for a 5 gal batch would prob be pretty good up to 1 oz if you want a lot of orange flavor. Crush the seeds with a mortar and pestle or put em in a glass and crush them with the handle of a butter knife, something blunt like that. Add the coriander to the last 5 mins of the boil or as the wort is coming off the boil.

I disagree. BITTER orange does add some bitterness, but SWEET orange peel does not, at least not in my brew. - NOTE- I am talking of dried sweet orange peel.

To my tastes, coriander adds some citrus notes, but mostly a spicy, belgian blonde aspect to a beer, not specifically an orange flavor.

Pez.

EDIT - I might just try sweet orange peel AND some coriander in the next batch of wheat beer for SWMBO

 

[Nickme23]

I like Pezman's suggestion, I thought we were talking about the curaco bitter orange peel, not like regular old oranges from wallyworld. Yeah man, put em both in there, but I'd cut back on the coriander seed a little if you're adding regular eating orange peel.

 

[ChshreCat]

I'd just use the zest of the orange rather than the whole peel, if you're doing fresh. The zest has the orange aroma and flavor, then white part of the peel has the bitter.

And the various flavors you get from different varieties of honey are pretty subtle. They can come through beautifully in something like a mead, but something as busy flavor-wise as a beer... not so much.

 

[ChiN8]

Thanks for all the help;
I was ordering my ingredients like I said on Austin HB and it just said "Orange Blossom Honey Adds Sweet Orange Flavor" which is what I was looking for, but this doesn't sound like that's the case.

If I wanted to add Orange zest to my secondary fermentor... how much should I be looking at?

 

[skx]

taste the honey... It will have a slight orangey-ness. whatever flavors the honey has by itself is what it will add to the final product. But milder. That would give you a feel for how much orange flavor the honey can give.

 

[Pezman1]

I have never used fresh orange peel or zest. I've only used the packaged dried sweet orange peel from Northern Brewer, Midwest, and others - so I can't help you there.

Orange blossom honey WILL impart some orange flavor to the beer if added at the very end of the boil, but like the others said, it will be subtle, and I got the impression you wanted a stronger flavor.

The one ounce of dried sweet orange peel I use lends a definite citus/orange flavor and character to the beer, but if you want "ORANGE" flavor, you might have to try more.
Pez.

 

[McFugga]

I like Pezman's suggestion, I thought we were talking about the curaco bitter orange peel, not like regular old oranges from wallyworld. Yeah man, put em both in there, but I'd cut back on the coriander seed a little if you're adding regular eating orange peel.

I just brewed something similar and I used 1 and 1/2 peeled oranges and a little bit of zest from the peels along with some coriander for the last 10 minutes of boil. The orange flavor comes through nicely, but it has a very citric like burn to it, and I blame it on the amount of coriander I used, I don't think I added enough oranges or peel for a 5 gallon batch to bring it to the point is now. I have done an orange mead batches with a lot more oranges and orange peels added to it an did not have this problem. Luckily though the citric burn is dieing down with age, but if I try something like this again, I am going to try less coriander, if any.