Late boil additions

[FreshZ]

When adding orange or lemon zest as a late or post boil addition, I have a couple question. How do you sanitize the zest? Do you put the zest in a bag to remove or does it go into primary with the wort? About how much zest would you use for a 2 gallon American wheat brew?

 

[TTB-J]

If it's a late boil addition, it will be sterilized by the heat in a matter of minutes, so you're good to go. If it's a post boil addition, I would just wash it thoroughly in filtered water with a few shots of an organic fruit/vegetable spray before you add it. I've always just added things directly to the primary, no bags. Not sure about how much zest to use. For a smaller batch, I imagine the zest of one orange would be a good starting point. I tend to shoot for the lower range of what I see other people doing and then work my way up from there to my own taste preferences. The worst thing that can happen is that the orange overpowers everything else - in which case you might as well just be drinking a screwdriver.

 

[akervin]

When adding orange or lemon zest as a late or post boil addition, I have a couple question. How do you sanitize the zest? Do you put the zest in a bag to remove or does it go into primary with the wort? About how much zest would you use for a 2 gallon American wheat brew?

Ive read of someone doing this:
To sanitize, bowl the zest in a 1/2 cup water for 5min (or an amount that will hold the zest if your using a lot) and then place the sanitized lid on the pan while cooling to room temp and you can just dump the whole thing into the fermenter post boil. They say this will also release zest favors in the boiled water and will add zest flavor to the wort.


Disclaimer: I've never tried this. This was something I read about and the person said they had success with this. Someone else may have an opinion on this and may want to chime in.

 

[FreshZ]

If it's a late boil addition, it will be sterilized by the heat in a matter of minutes, so you're good to go. If it's a post boil addition, I would just wash it thoroughly in filtered water with a few shots of an organic fruit/vegetable spray before you add it. I've always just added things directly to the primary, no bags. Not sure about how much zest to use. For a smaller batch, I imagine the zest of one orange would be a good starting point. I tend to shoot for the lower range of what I see other people doing and then work my way up from there to my own taste preferences. The worst thing that can happen is that the orange overpowers everything else - in which case you might as well just be drinking a screwdriver.

Good point about the boil doing my sanitizing for me. I also tend to agree about the amounts. This beer isn't for me, but I still want to be able to drink it in the summer.