Boring beer needs some excitment

[yewtah-brewha]

I am working on a plane jane lite malt extract, that the local brew store set me up with. He wanted me to add hops for the full boil. ferment and drink, but I want to add something to the secondary fermentaion process to spice it up a little bit. I was thinking orange peel or coriander, how would I do this?

 

[dmob29]

Adding orange peel and coriander to secondary may not give a lot of flavor or aroma as it would like adding it to then end of your boil. If you go that way, you can just throw in the orange peel if it is from the brew shop, or if its from an actual orange, I suggest lightly washing it to remove any wax and crap then slice it up and toss it in.
The coriander would need to be crushed, then you can toss that in too. I use a mortar when I use coriander.

Instead of those, my personal preference would be to add some oak chips/cubes if your shop has em.

 

[billl]

About 99% of the beer in the US is "just" hops, grain, water and yeast.

 

[Haputanlas]

If you want to get really wacky, you could make it a little bit tart with some lactic acid. You could even add both lactic acid and a fruit as was mentioned earlier.

 

[dcarter]

Jalapeno~!

 

[JohnnyO]

Why not just add some citrus zest at the end of your boil? That should give it a kick.

 

[Cathedral]

Jalapeno~!

Jalapeno.

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Its already boiled and 3 days into fermentation. too late for end of boil add-ons. Ill prob, just leave it as bill said.

 

[logan3825]

If you are going to use orange I would just use the zest. Not the white part. Throw it in at flameout.

A lot of people do not secondary even if they are adding something extra to the fermentation.

Edit: If you really want you could boil the zest in a small amount of water. It shouldn't change the body of the beer much if you use only a cup or two of water.

You could also dry hop it. If this is one of your first brews I would just leave it.

 

[histo320]

Edit: If you really want you could boil the zest in a small amount of water. It shouldn't change the body of the beer much if you use only a cup or two of water.

I somewhat used this method in an Honey IPA I made. I boiled the honey then added it to the secondary. It didn't add much but it did make a somewhat bland beer a bit better.

 

[cluckk]

It really depends on the style of the base beer. Some do well with fruit or oak, other's not so much. Some do well with chili peppers, others get overpowered by them. What is the style?

 

[logan3825]

I believe honey almost completely ferments. It would dry a beer out but not much else.

Edit:

What is the style?

Actually what is the whole recipe? You will generally get better help if you post complete recipes.