Lavender lemonade light ale, need some touchup help

[Durandal]

Hey all,

It's starting to get warm out, and my mind is on a nice summer refreshing beer. The goal here is something in the session genre, light, bitter with maybe a touch of tart, hoppy, with a strong lavender lemonade character.

Here's the recipe so far:

~1.040 OG
~4.0 ABV
25-27 ibu

7.5 lb Marris Otter at 150°

Boil 60 min

.5oz Cascade 30min
1oz Cascade 50min

Safeale US05 unless someone has a better recommendation

Dry hop:
1 oz Cascade
1 oz fresh lavender flower


I still need some info on how to go about adding lemon for the character I'm looking for. Any thoughts on that or anything else with the recipe?



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[Durandal]

Rev 2 after some more reading on adding the lemon flavor.

Basically, we're adding lemon zest and juice during late boil, plus a little in dry hop. Also reduced the hops in dry hop to let the lemon flavor take more of the spotlight.

Just as a side note, the lemon/lavender flavors are really amazing together.

~1.040 OG
~4.0 ABV
25-27 ibu

7.5 lb Marris Otter

Mash at 150°

Boil 60 min

.5oz Cascade 30min
1oz Cascade 50min
Zest from 2 lemons 50min
strained juice from 2 lemons 55mins


Safeale US05 unless someone has a better recommendation

Dry hop:
.5 oz Cascade
1 oz fresh lavender flower
1 oz lemon zest



STILL really interested in a yeast recommendation. I'd be very happy with something that ferments with some cirtis 'off' flavers, even sour notes would be attractive.

 

[Bryceefisher]

Maybe you could try looking at a Berliner Weisse recipe. Skip the bitter and go for tart. Might go nice with lavender.

 

[daksin]

I would leave out the juice, but go with a ton of lemon zest. Citrus juice fermented is not nice (acidic, vomit-y taste. no bueno).

 

[scarekrow]

Instead of dry hopping with Cascade sub in Citra. That will give you more of a pronounced citrus taste.

 

[Scotty_g]

In my experience, Citra is more melony than citrus when used in the boil. I can't speak to when you dry hop with it.

I made a witbier with fresh lemongrass stalks instead of any citrus peel and it came out really good...1 oz in a 10 gal batch, boiled for 20 minutes. If you want it to have more of a lemonade taste, you may want to try 1 oz in 5 gal. I think the aroma of the lemongrass would work well with the lavender. However, the lemongrass will not give you much tartness.

S05 is a pretty neutral yeast so it won't be a mistake, but perhaps one of the Belgian strains would dry it out more and give you a little extra fruitiness. Mashing low (148-150) will give you a very fermentable wort and that will make the finished beer more dry and tart.

Let us know how it goes - I was just tending to the lavender patch in my garden last night!

 

[broncosmoker]

I would look at subbing out some of the cascade hops for Sorachi if you want a lemon appeal. Maybe a blend with some citra.

 

[Ramitt]

Maybe you could try looking at a Berliner Weisse recipe. Skip the bitter and go for tart. Might go nice with lavender.

I agree, lemonade beer screams berliner weisse to me also.