Lemon Peel question

[cweston]

I brewed an APA, adding the zest of one lemon with both the flavor and aroma hop additions.

I tasted it at racking, and the lemon was very faint, so I "dry hopped" with the zest of two additional lemons (along with the actual dry-hops) in the secondary for about 8 days.

I tasted the first bottle last night (after 2 weeks of conditioning). The beer tastes great but the lemon has a certain harsh and bitter edge to it. I probably should have left well enough alone and not added more lemon peel in the secondary.

I've never used lemon peel like this before--can I expect this lemon flavor to mellow over time? I'm guessing yes, since most steeped flavors in beer (spices, dry hops, etc) do mellow.

 

[Reverend JC]

My knowlegde comes from cooking on this question and not brewing, but i think it may mellow over time just as vanilla will when put in a beer, during the conditioning.

I am not sure it was the adding of the zest of two lemons at the "dry hopped" time. When cooking, i know that if you were to make a "Lemon Garlic Shrimp" recipe you will add the zest of you citrus fruit towards the end of the cook not at the begining when you add the garlic as it will impart more bitterness than it will the citrus flavor you were going for. So, do i think the bitterness was from the added lemon zest? my guess, and again never brewed with lemon zest, would be that it was from adding it in the begining during the boil.

 

[Yooper]

My thought is that when you added the lemon zest, that some of the white pith came along. I use zest in cooking, and it's a pain to get just the zest, with no white/yellow pith. All of the bitterness comes from the pith. In my mead, I've used orange peel that had some white left on and it was bitter for a while. However, it DID mellow with time. I'm guessing it'll mellow, too. Next time (if there is a next time!), maybe use just the peel, no white "stuff" that you get when you peel the lemon.

Lorena

 

[Axegod]

..mental note: do not pith in beer.