How do I accomplish this... SWMBO insists on it... Help

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MediaMikes

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I just ordered an extract cream ale that will arive this week and get brewed this weekend. My girlfriend asked me if I could induce orange into it. I told her that I know it is possible to add fruit to a beer during the brewing process, but wasn't sure how to do it (this is my first time brewing). Does anybody here know how I would be able to get an orange flavor into my beer so that I can make her happy? I found where you can do rasberries and stuff like that but not oranges. what is the best way to do it?:mug:
 
The safest bet is to get an orange extract flavouring from your LHBS. Once your beer is into the bottling bucket, you add it slowly until you're happy with the flavour.

For your first batch however I might still think about doing it as per the kit directions. You will have enough to worry about without over-complicating things. :mug:
 
I did it a little different with a weizen I just didi. I took and orange and harvested all of the orange zest I could get off of it, and put into the water you put in your primary before I added the wort and mixed it up. The water starts to turn orange really quickly, then I let it ferment all the way out in the primary and it was fantastic.

At least this way it only costs you an orange instead of going to the brew store and buying the extract.

going into the brew store is like taking a woman to linen's and things. You ain't gettin out of there for less than $150. especially if you are new.
 
+1 on what brad said...

Tell swmbo that you love her too much to inflect a bad beer on her, and you want to work on your brewing process on a straghtforward kit recip, before embarking on trying something on your own...

Also...There are plenty of threads on the topic of working with fruit...Just use the search forum featur...I'm pretty sure there are at least 2 currently active in the last couple of days...One of them is about using citrus.
 
i'd go with the orange zest. use a cheese shredder to scrape off the orange part of the peel. don't get down to the white because it will be bitter. you could then put it into a little pot with some pre-boiled water and steep it at 160 for 5-10 minutes to pasteurize (orange peel is pretty acidic and probably would not host bacteria but steeping will reduce that risk - boiling with cast out too much aroma). then throw the orange zest and water into the primary with your cooled wort.

i'd be afraid that any mistake with the extract would end up overpowering your brew with orange flavor. with the zest from a few oranges you should get a nice light orange flavor.
 
I appologize for double posting, I did search or a little bit but didn't find anything. Guess I need to be a little more persistent.

Thanks everyone for the extremely quick answers. I may try the orange zest approach, I don't think that would be too difficult. I think I may do a heffe next as we both love those types of beers and I may infuse it with lemon.

Then, I will brew a stout for me that is strictly by the book. She won't drink the dark beers so I can leave it alone and not experiment.:tank:
 
Brew the kit "normally".

Serve hers with a slice of orange. She can adjust the amount of orange flavor on her own, and you get a beer you'll still like and a baseline for your other brews.

Orange-infused cream ale sounds pretty gross to me, and I wouldn't chance making 5 gallons of it...especially on my first batch.
 
Bike N Brew said:
Brew the kit "normally".

Serve hers with a slice of orange. She can adjust the amount of orange flavor on her own, and you get a beer you'll still like and a baseline for your other brews.

You cant go wrong with that advice. Tell her she needs to help you with research. This will ensure at least 2 batches.
 
I could be wrong, but some varieties of hop add a very strong citrusy taste and aroma? Anyone care to chime in? This would avoid the need to add extra ingredients and reduce your worry about infection.
 
I told her last night that we could just add orange slices afterward if she wanted to. I told her I needed to get a few batches under my belt before I started adding extra ingredients. She was cool with it. Don't get me wrong, she was never demanding about anything, just suggested it would be nice if I could. I told her down the road we would brew a wheat beer and put orange in it.
 
as for the citrus taste, you may want to go with some cascade hops, also if she likes the orange flavor, the bitter orange peel adds that nicely, but you can also sneak in some coriander seeds to really pull out the flavors of the cascade hops and the bitter orange peel.
 
I have added a pound of lemon during the last 10 minutes of boil in my Belgian Wheat. I cut them into quarters and put them in a muslin bag then just drop them in. As i stir I make sure I squish them with the spoon. so far so good. I get a hint of lemon with every drink. I don't see why oranges would be any different.
 
I agree with adding just the zest. I'm thinking that's what she's getting after, the smell more so than the OJ flavor. I added some lemon zest to a hefeweizen I did and it added a nice crispness to offset the banana and clove flavors from the yeast, turned out great. All I did was soak a couple lemons in sanitizer along with my grater and a dish for a minute and grated the lemon skin until I started getting into the white part, then dumped it all right into the primary after fermentation was complete. It ended up great except the oil from the zest killed head retention a bit, but not a big deal.
 
thanks for all the suggestions guys, I will definitely look into the muslin bag idea as she actually wants the orange / lemon flavor in the beer. But, like I said, this beer is going to be done by the book. Wish me luck, my brew day is going to be this saturday i believe.
 
in fact, I had a 6 pack of one a couple of months ago, that led me to do a cream ale with orange peel. I used the orange peel from the brew store and added it to the last 5-10 minutes of the boil.

Unfortunately, the orange essence is so light it is almost negligible. I'd try one of the other suggestions.
 
so, it seems like this is all taken care of but i thought i'd throw one more idea in, for a future batch perhaps.

if she likes fruity stuff and you don't, you could always add an orange liqueur to some of the batch at bottling time. either to the bottling bucket (after you've filled up a couple twelvers of normal beer) or to some of the bottles themselves.

as far as amounts, i'd recommend experimenting ahead of time. try with individual bottles, see how much she likes and scale up. then everybody's happy.

edit: ONE IMPORTANT NOTE: liqueurs have sugar in them, which could affect priming or in extreme cases could create exploding bottles. probably better to use steeped orange zest instead of liqueur. also this entire suggestion was completely stolen from radical brewing by randy mosher, which has an entire chapter on fruit in beer.
 
Tell her if she buys the kit, you'll add anything she wants to it as per her schedule.

Be prepared to duck any flying objects that ensue :)
 
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