Adding Zest

[Ian McLoughlin]

Hello all, I added two oranges and about one grapefruit worth of zest soaked in vodka for about 2 days. (5 gallon batch) I’m now wondering if this is too much or if it will overpower the beer. Previously I added about 3 oz of citra 2oz of mosaic and 1 oz of nugget during the boil and dry hopping. I also got a bit of pith but not too much I hope, zester was a piece of ****.
Any thoughts on the final result? I’m one week from bottling.

 

[Leezer]

I’ve added about 5 limes worth of zest to a 2.5gal batch and found it to be a nice accent but not overpowering.

 

[Dgallo]

You’re in a great situation actually. Since you made a tincture you can add as much or as little of it as you’d like.

if I am you, I would by a 4 or 6 pack of a commercial beer that is the same style as your base. I’d get a syringe or scaled ML medicine dropper. Then use some of you tincture in measured amounts in each of the beers to see which amount is the amount of citrus chapter is best for your preference. Once you find that, scale that amount up to 5 gallons and then add that much of your tincture at bottling

 

[Rob2010SS]

It sounds like you already added it to the beer....?

The method that @Dgallo mentioned is the ideal way to do it. You'd be able to narrow in your desired flavor profile pretty easily. However, if you already added it, not sure what you can do at this point other than wait and see how it comes out.

 

[tennesseean_87]

I think it should work well. I've used a LOT more zest than that in kettle soured beers to pack a citrus/sour punch. If you want, you could always add more zest at the flameout of your priming solution.

 

[brewfrog]

Sounds good, if anything you might get a juicy flavor?