I was thinking of adding some citrus to the fermenter after the 7th day. My thought was to add zest or whole peels to small pot of boiling water for maybe 5 minutes then cool and add to fermenter and let sit for a week. Any suggestions?
I have never done that but I just whipped up a recipe called Orange Weizen a few weeks ago and served it on Superbowl. It was a big hit. I added 1 oz sweet orange peel to the boil. Anyhow, it wasn't overpowering but you did get a hint of the citrus at the end.
I was thinking of doing this soon too! Randy Mosher has some advice on this in Radical Brewing. He says not to use the dried orange peel you get at LHBSs and Asian markets since it includes the bitter pith. Rather use the zest only of a bitter/sour/Seville orange (same fruit, dfferent names depending on where you get them). He says the zest of one orange per 5 gallons is good.
I've used both fresh grated orange peel and the dried sweet orange peel you can get at a LHBS, in two different hefeweizens; both of them turned out great. For the first beer, I added the zest to primary after fermentation was complete; for the second, I added the dried orange peel after the boil and left it in primary for 8 weeks.
hi..
I am thinking to leave my beer for 2 weeks in the fermenter and after that bottling it.
Will be problem add the zest from the begining of the fermentation?
I just brewed one where I added the zest of one orange, one lemon, and one lime at 3 minutes left in the boil. when I transferred to the keg it was good, if a bit overpowering. SWMBO loved it, but the true test will be when it's chilled and carbed in the kegorater. Next time I probably won't use so much zest.
I want to do the same but with lemon, would I do it the same way? Sorry to sound dumb but can you make your own lemon zest from a fresh lemon? When and how should I add it?