racking a wheat in secondary on top of oranges??

Can this be done. I want more orange flavor out of my wheat beer. I added orange zest in the last 5mn and 1mn boil. I want probably a little bit more pronounced orange aroma and flavor. So my question for anyone with experience in this. Can I cut up two oranges into small chunks and rack on top of them in a secondary?

 

Of course you can. A lot of people in here rack to secondary on top of some sort of fruit. The alcohol present will usually help bring the flavors out.

 

Is there any worry of infection though? Would you think it would be best to freeze them first then thaw them out then rack on top afterwards??

 

What is your est ABV on the beer?

 

well started with 1.060 just checked today and its around 1.020 so a lil over 5% right now.

 

Soak them overnight in vodka. Dump them in the secondary 24hrs later (without dumping the vodka in, obviously)

 

ahh okay sounds good. But why soak in vodka will that help sanatize the oranges?

 

brewguy - i'm curious how this turns out for you. please keep us posted. i also tried adding some zest and had a fair amount of aroma but very little taste on my first attempt.

 

Have you seen the Blood Orange Hefe thread?
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/blood-orange-hefeweizen-98579/

 

A number of authors (Mosher, Daniels) have said that whole oranges or orange juice doesn't ferment well. They recommend using the zest only from said oranges. If you're putting it in secondary, you should soak the zests in vodka oveninght and rack on to the zests and teh vodka.

 

I have a clementine cream ale I make every year. I realize it's not a hefe however, it is essentially what you're trying to do. My recipe is 3# halved and just a little crushed for 10 gal. Works just fine, but I think it needs more flavor. I have always wanted to try orange blossom water. Freezing is a good idea though, the slow freeze privaded by the home freezer makes larger sharp ice crystals in the product cutting up cell walls. (it looses a lot of juice) By the way, I love the star trek/ klingon reference captain damage.

 

+1 to checking out the Blood Orange Hefe. I've made that a few times and everyone loves it.

 

yeah I have seen that blood orange hefe thread...pretty good. I didnt rack onto oranges..the beer i made came out just fine without adding more orange to it. i added zest during flameout not to strong of an orange flavor but tastes good.

 

You can also get orange extract to cook with. It's pretty much just an alcohol-based extract that's strongly orange-flavored. Much easier to work with, much less to brag about, so it's a trade-off.