Advice for next all extract brew

[NadoHawk]

So I am going to brew my second batch of Mr Beer....the wit. Since I got my feet wet on the first (the Canadian Draft), I want to step it up.

A couple months ago when my first batch was still in the fermenter, I bought dried orange peel and coriander from the hombrew mart by the University of San Diego.

I was wondering how much I should use to get subtle tones in my beer while being noticeable and giving a little kick, would not overpower the beer.

Also being the first added ingredients, so helpful tips would be appreciated for adding them to the brew....I was thinking of using cheesecloth and twine to bag the ingredients....would a simple boil be enough to properly sanitize it? I don't want to actually use my sanitizer for that step.

 

[ACarver]

I made the Wheat Mr Beer a few months ago. For the 2 gal batch I added around 1 orange zest from a fresh orange, and about 1/2 oz (tablespoon) of crushed coriander. It tasted alright. The citrus flavor was pretty good, but the beer stayed a little sweet I though (I think that has to do with the yeast Mr Beer provides).

 

[sidepart]

If the ingredients are going in during your boil, I would say to just add them around the 5-10 minute mark to extract the flavors. I haven't really tried this yet but from reading, it sounds like this would work similar to hops. 5-10 minutes prior to flameout is kind of the flavoring window. The longer you boil, the more intense of a flavor I guess. The boil should be enough to sanitize them at this point. Probably don't need a bag for them if you use a strainer over your bucket when pouring into the fermenter.

Maybe another thing you could do is boil the zest and corriander in about 2 cups of water. Boil it for about 10-20 minutes (guessing) and then remove the stuff. Boil down to about a cup. Taste it and see if it makes a good flavor extract. Use a sanitized spoon like device to transfer the desired amount to your bottling bucket at bottling time. I'd imagine this would give more control, but the flavor may be different because of the process.