belgian wit

[roggae]

i brewed a belgian wit recently. i used a clone recipe for the Avery Brewery's white rascal.' i had planned on adding orange peels to the secondary, but have read all over the forums that i might want to simply go straight to bottle with this beer. i have always put my beers into a secondary, but i am not married to the idea. any thoughts?



p.s. i am using the WLP380 hefe IV yeast

 

[olllllo]

It's really a personal choice.

No right or wrong way IMO.

 

[Torchiest]

Well, secondary is for both clearing and bulk conditioning, so there's nothing wrong with the idea. If you want to add orange peels, you should go for it; it definitely won't hurt anything.

 

[roggae]

Well, secondary is for both clearing and bulk conditioning, so there's nothing wrong with the idea. If you want to add orange peels, you should go for it; it definitely won't hurt anything.

thanks for the info. what is the suggested method of 'dry hopping' with orange peels? how are they prepared?

thanks

 

[Torchiest]

Now that is the part where I'm not 100% certain of the best strategy. Last week I pasteurized 2.5lbs of frozen raspberries by heating them with about a pint of water to ~170ºF for about ten minutes, then added them to the secondary and racked my wit on top of them. I added orange peel at the very end of the boil during the initial brewing. Never thought to dry hop with orange peel.

I would imagine that using orange peels in the secondary would be a bit more delicate, since you're not using as much and heating them with the method I used might cook off all the flavor and aroma, whereas with the huge amount of raspberries I had that wasn't as much of a concern. However, since you're not going to go full boil, you might be okay. Keeping it covered might help retain more flavor and aroma as well.

I'm thinking you might be able to dry them in an oven at ~200ºF for ten minutes, but that might not be a good idea; I'm not sure. It would certainly dry them out, and that could either be better or worse then cooking them in liquid for flavor and aroma retention. The main concern is sanitizing them before adding them. If they don't give you a ton of flavor, it's no big loss, and it certainly wouldn't ruin the beer.

Still, I hope someone else with experience trying that has something to say.

 

[skeeordye11]

Just shooting from the hip here, but how about steaming them for 10 minutes or so. That should kill the bad stuff and not dry them out. Anyone with more knowledge have any input on this method?

 

[olllllo]

No rinse sanitizer on the rind and hope that the citric acid kills everything?

 

[mysterio]

I wouldn't bother personally. I don't think you'll get much impact dry-orange peeling.

 

[olllllo]

Oh, I think it's worth it and within the style.

 

[the_bird]

I though you were supposed to add the orange peel in the last few minutes of the boil? I thought the citrus oils needed to isomerize.

 

[roggae]

I though you were supposed to add the orange peel in the last few minutes of the boil? I thought the citrus oils needed to isomerize.

i did add the orange peel and hops in the last ten. i enjoy late additions...i added very little orange peel as all i had around was 'bitter' orange peel. this beer is menat to be as low IBU's as possible. i really wanted to keep it less bitter than my usual beers. SWMBO usually likes the beers, but always seems to mutter they're too hoppy...so this is a non-hoppy/non-bitter beer. to compensate for the low late addition 'bitter' orange peel i was hoping to dry peel for aroma and maybe a little flavor. thanks for all the hepl folks...