juice instead of honey?

[bobeer]

I just brewed a big 1.080 IPA over the weekend. This is my 2nd time brewing this beer and I usually add about 1 lb on honey 48 hours into fermentation. I was thinking about using clementine juice instead of honey. I'm going to dh with the peels, and hops, so I'm wondering if adding the juice instead would give me any clementine flavor or if it will just ferment out?

I was planning on boiling the juice after I squeezed it to pasteurize it as well as to concentrate it a little bit. Would I just be better off using the honey and just dh with the peels? Or would I gain the flavor/nose I'm looking for by adding in the juice instead of the honey?

I've never used fruit or peels in my beer before so any other advice, or tips, I should know would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[flars]

Here is part of an article that may answer your question. Or cause a lot more study.
http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/04/11/brewing-fruit-beers-at-home-part-2-of-2/

 

[Captain Damage]

Citrus juices don't ferment well. If you've ever tasted orange juice that's gone bad - or even just smelled it - that's what you can expect to be adding to your beer. Smells and tastes literally like garbage! Dry hopping with the peels is almost what you want to do. But rather than whole peels, use only the zest. That's the outer colored part of the peel, without the bitter white pith. I put the zest in a hop bag and in a jar with enough vodka to cover and let it sit for a couple of days. Then I add the bag of zest and the steeping vodka to the beer 1 week prior to bottling.

 

[bobeer]

Citrus juices don't ferment well. If you've ever tasted orange juice that's gone bad - or even just smelled it - that's what you can expect to be adding to your beer. Smells and tastes literally like garbage! Dry hopping with the peels is almost what you want to do. But rather than whole peels, use only the zest. That's the outer colored part of the peel, without the bitter white pith. I put the zest in a hop bag and in a jar with enough vodka to cover and let it sit for a couple of days. Then I add the bag of zest and the steeping vodka to the beer 1 week prior to bottling.

I cannot stand vodka. haha. How much would it affect the beer taste by adding vodka to it? This is only a 3 gallon batch of beer so I would assume I wouldn't be using a lot of vodka. Would it be the same to just put the zest in when I dry hop?

 

[Captain Damage]

You're only adding about 2 ounces of vodka. I steep in a very small jar, like a jelly jar. I've made a lime flavored beer a number of times, but I've done it with oranges as well. I've never noticed a "vodka flavor." I use the zest from 4 limes - that's about the same mass as the zest of 4-6 clemetines. The purpose of putting it in the hop bag first is to sanitize the hop bag with the vodka, while you're sanitizing and extracting flavor from the zest. If you really want to minimize the vodka used you could steep the zest without the bag and sanitize it separately, or just skip the bag altogether. You could also use a spirit you find less objectionable, such as rum, or one with more character that might complement the flavors well - e.g., using bourbon to extract vanilla is classic.

 

[Calder]

You probably want to sanitize the zest. Adding to alcohol will do that. Also the higher alcohol will improve flavor extraction, rather than just adding straight to the beer. A couple of ozs of any alcohol (rum, vodka, brandy, burbon, etc) will not be noticed in 3 gallons.

 

[Captain Damage]

You probably want to sanitize the zest.

Remember that fruit is covered in wild yeast and bacteria, so I'd say sanitizing it is essential.

 

[barleypopmaker]

I brew a wit with fresh orange zest and do the vodka soak as well. You cannot taste it, unless you were to add a lot. Remember, you diluting it in 3 gallons of beer. You are usually adding about 2 shots worth of vodka in a 5 gallon batch. Thats about the same amount as 2 mixed drinks in a rocks glass, but using 5 gallons of soda for all 5 gallons. That's how diluted it is. You are only using the alcohol to extract the oils. The oils from the zest are more readily soluble in alcohol than they are water so you get much better extraction of flavors and aromas from the zest. So even if you don't like Vodka, I promise you that you will not even know it's there. If you are concerned about flavor, don't buy the cheapest stuff you can. I buy Tito's Handmade vodka, it's about $18 for a 750ml at my liquor store. That stuff is very very good. I would NOT use citrus juice. It's way too acidic and when it ferements, it smells pretty bad and tastes a bit like bile to me. But it's up to you if you want to experiment with it. But be warned, my wife made a batch of Kombucha with citrus after I gave her the same advice she decided that Kombucha and beer are different so she tried it, she ended up dumping the whole batch.

 

[Captain Damage]

In Radical Brewing, Randy Mosher specifically says to use "The cheapest rotgut vodka you can find" for steeping flavor extracts. With respect to Mr Mosher, this is terrible advice that quite baffles me. We mill our grain only hours before brewing, insist on the freshest malt extracts, keep our hops in the freezer in light-blocking nitrogen-purged bags, agonize over water chemistry and yeast quality. Use decent vodka (and no, it's not all the same). Your beer is worth it. I understand that if you don't like vodka in general, you're not likely to want to get the premium top-shelf stuff, but get something in the middle.

 

[barleypopmaker]

I wholeheartedly agree. I think advice comes from the fact you use so little, but the general thought that vodka doesn't have flavor is hogwash. I am by far not a martini drinker but I had some friends take me to a martini bar....where I ordered beer. Yeah, I was that guy. The good news is they did have New Glarus in bottles, so I was OK. But for some reason the owner took interest in teaching me the finer points of vodka and lined up a variety ranging from cheap to fairly expensive and some infused vodkas, as well as one private bottle he generally didn't serve at the bar.I have to say, when we hit the mid to top shelf stuff, the flavor was quite nice and you could easily drink it straight. I do remember the cheap stuff tasted hot and ever so slightly like nail polish, better for mixers to mask the taste he pointed out. Granted, I was fairly drunk at the end of the night and couldn't tell you most of what we were drinking today, it was a big eye opener for a guy whose only experience was with the $4 a bottle vodka. One of the mid-range vodkas stood out, I do remember that one. It was Hangar One.

Sean Paxton once stated a similar sentiment about cooking with beer. Every ingredient that goes into your dish matters, even the beer. Cooking with bud light doesn't cut it when you are seeking the best cuts of meat you can, the freshest ingredients, and using fresh herbs and spices.

The bottom line, if you want a top quality product, you need to use top quality ingredients all the way though.