Orange Blossom Beer

[brewshki]

Something like the attached pictures.

 

[brewshki]

I am going to start with the More Beer Blonde Ale recipe.

9 lbs 2-row
.5lbs Crystal 15L

1 oz. Willamette at 60
5 oz. Orange Blossom water at bottling

mash at about for 150 for 60 minutes. (I have only done 2 all-grain batches, so I am still trying to figure out how to get to each temp, not choosing which temp I want and aiming there)

Yeast: WLP 001 Cal Ale with a starter.

Thinking about fermenting lower than I normally do which is at 68. so I am thinking 66 wish maybe lower. I would like it to be very clean.

this is based on a 5 gallon recipe. the first few batches will probably be scaled to 4 gallons so I can split it into mr beer fermenters. one will be the exact thing above and maybe I will do something fun like dry hop the other, but I really have no idea yet.

Thoughts?

 

[DoD_Ales]

Looks nice and simple. Willamette is a good American substitute for German tettnang (noble) hop. 8oz crystal is ok, I would probably add a little flaked barley or carapils for head retention. Your hopping is very light, but should appeal to BMC drinkers at a wedding. Keep the fermentation cool, low 60's ambient, for a lower ester product. With perfect sanitation and good cold crashing before serving you should have a nice clear clean tasting beer allowing the orange blossom aroma to be noticeable. Good luck.

 

[brewshki]

Is there a way to add orange flavor post boil? I know I can do it in the boil with orange peel, but can I add zest, peel, or whole fruit to the secondary to get the fruit flavor? I'd rather avoid the actual fruit due to worries about sanitation and lack of consistency.

 

[DoD_Ales]

You can use a micro plane zester to remove the zest from some oranges into a 1/2 cup of vodka. Let that sit for a few days and then strain and add at bottling. I do not know about quantities. Essentially you are making your own orange extract.

You might want to test this by making some extract and adding a little bit at a time to some bud light to see if it's what you want. I tested some tangerines this way once and found it to be a little bitter, so did not use it.

 

[KyleWolf]

You can also dry-hop with orange-peel. Just a touch of water, boil, and add. Or DoD_Ales is right and you can make an orange extract. Or you can buy it at good spice story (Penzy's has a pretty good one).

 

[brewshki]

Is orange extract a legitimate ingredient to use? None of the brewing supply stores have it so I had a feeling it was frowned upon

 

[DoD_Ales]

Brew stores also don't sell peanut butter or oysters, but .... You get the idea. There are no rules, only questionable decisions.

 

[KyleWolf]

Story of my life

 

[brewshki]

I tried looking for this answer here and on youtube, but with no luck, so please forgive me for not finding it.

I recently bought a home brew draft system and have some questions about sanitizing everything. I got the run down of taking everything off and sanitizing those pieces and the inside of the keg, but I am a little unsure about draft lines.

My instinct is that they obviously need to be cleaned and sanitized. Any objection here? Any tips on how to do it properly? My sister is getting married in June, and our plan now is to have a 4-tap draft wall. We are thinking about buying more than the 4 kegs and doing multiple kegs of a few flavors and one of some others. When I put the first kegs on, I have no questions about sanitizing everything. What I am curious about is if we finish a keg and I want to put another one on. Do the dispensing lines need to be cleaned and sanitized between switching out the old keg and putting the new one on?

(yes, i posted this elsewhere, but I also wanted it here to chronicle the entire process.)

 

[slym2none]

Want orange flavour without using oranges? Amarillo hops. The ones I used in my last batch of brew were intensely citrusy with mostly orange coming through in the flavour.

 

[brewshki]

Want orange flavour without using oranges? Amarillo hops. The ones I used in my last batch of brew were intensely citrusy with mostly orange coming through in the flavour.

Interesting. I will definitely give it a try. Thanks! What was the quantity you used?

 

[slym2none]

I make 2.5 gallon batches, so adjust accordingly. I used 1 oz of Amarillo & 1 oz of Cascade, but if (when!) I repeat this, I will use 2 ozs of Amarillo.



I hear that Mandarina Bavaria does well with orangey-citrus flavours in the dry-hop, but have no experience with them, myself.

 

[brewshki]

so i recently got some kegs and it is going to make the turnaround on these experimental batches way easier. in terms of adding orange extract, would it make any difference in adding it to the keg or the glass? if I can simply add it to my glass after it is kegged and carbed, I can figure out how much to add way easier and i also dont have to waste a half batch if it is just bad or not what i am looking for.

 

[brewshki]

Brewed the first attempt of this beer this last Friday. It was a very smooth brew day. My only issue was that I overshot my OG. The recipe consistent of the 9.5 lbs previously mentioned. My MoreBeer recipe sheet had an expected of efficiency of 70% and that the OG should be around 1.044-1.048. My OG came in at about 1.053. This is only my third all-grain batch, so i am still getting familiar with the system. I was aiming for a mash temp of about 150 F, but it was a little higher at about 153 F. The fermentation took about 36 hours to get going (no starter) at 18 C and it was blowing through the airlock. I changed out the airlock, cleaned it up and put on a blow off tube last night which was almost exactly 48 hours after i pitched (I was out of town and had to wait to fix it). It was still bubbling out, so I am pretty sure I caught it in time and am not worried about contamination. The plan is to keg this beer (first time ever kegging!) in about two weeks and add 1 oz of orange blossom water per gallon of finished beer.

 

[brewshki]

This is going to be harder than I thought. I kegged the beer and finally tried it this morning. I knew it wouldn't be carbonated enough. My new chest freezer froze all of the beer so I had to try and let it thaw. Tried it this morning when it sounds about half frozen and it was awful. I couldn't have more than half a sip. I'm hoping the gnarly taste is because it's frozen. The smell was not a lot like orange blossoms and was closer to soap to me. Any suggestions? Pretty unhappy about it right now and trying to get over it so my rye pale ale doesn't have any screw ups as I brew it today.