La Petite Orange - Northern Brewer

[jonaken]

I have done more than 8 batches so far but I had a brew that came up a little short recently. I brewed a northern brewer kit, la petite orange, and followed instructions precisely. Only difference was the kit didn't include coriander or the orange peel as it states in a small paragraph before you start.
Well. The pre-yeast OG came up really short. The instructions had a target of 1.056 and mine came up to 1.036 with a FG of 1.006.

It doesn't taste all that great either. A little bitter. No real flavor.

 

[pkrath84]

The kit doesnt actually include those items. It does tell you that you can add those adjuncts for a la petite orange, "blanche" but it's optional.

I made this recipe and it was quite tasty. Enough so much that I bottled 200 for my wedding. I did include the zest as well as the coriander. There's no orange otherwise because those two ingredients produce the flavor. People loved it so much they were stealing bottles sitting unattended.

Sorry yours didnt come out as expected. I highly suggest brewing it again with orange and coriander though. When you use the coriander, crush the seeds open and when you use the orange zest, zest fresh organic oranges after spraying them with starsan. Leave the white behind and take only the zest - it will create a bitter off flavor.

 

[FlyDoctor]

Was this an extract kit? If so, its really hard to miss the OG that much. Much of the variability in OG comes from mashing and extraction efficiency. It would be more likely that the extract wasn't mixed in thoroughly when you took the OG. DOn't worry about that. The only other possibility would be if you forgot to add some of the extract, or a bunch remained stuck in the bottle/bag.

 

[pkrath84]

^What he said. With my NB kits, I typically dip the bottles into the wort to fill them with hot water, put the lid back on and shake (quickly but gently to avoid an exploding bottle of hot wort) and then pour everything in.

 

[jonaken]

The kit doesnt actually include those items. It does tell you that you can add those adjuncts for a la petite orange, "blanche" but it's optional.

I made this recipe and it was quite tasty. Enough so much that I bottled 200 for my wedding. I did include the zest as well as the coriander. There's no orange otherwise because those two ingredients produce the flavor. People loved it so much they were stealing bottles sitting unattended.

Sorry yours didnt come out as expected. I highly suggest brewing it again with orange and coriander though. When you use the coriander, crush the seeds open and when you use the orange zest, zest fresh organic oranges after spraying them with starsan. Leave the white behind and take only the zest - it will create a bitter off flavor.

Yeah I didn't really look at the recipe prior to starting on the boil, otherwise I would have just bought some a head of time. I really think mine would of turned out pretty good and I was really disappointed when I tried it. I really think that I am going to try it again because I'm sure it would taste way better with those ingredients. I am trying to break into all grain brewing now and I think that I will get a few easy batches under my belt before I try an all grain version of this one.

Thanks