orange zest?

[Hoochin'Fool]

I wanted to try adding a little orange zest to a beer at bottling time. I figure I'll hand-wash the oranges, then spritz them with star-san and allow to dry, before zesting them.
Should that be reasonably clean enough to add straight to the bottling bucket? My other option I suppose is to make a vodka tincture, but with only 2 days before planned bottling, that might not be enough time...

 

[D.B.Moody]

I think it would be good enough, but I'm sort of casual about some stuff.
Another option: Make a tea by boiling the peel in water. I've done this to add lemon zest to gingermead. Idon't see why it wouldn't work for oranges.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Never even thought about making a tea / boiling the peel. I'm gonna give that a shot, thanks!

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

So my taste experiment was disappointing... The base beer itself is a mild-mannered 6.2% abv Amber Ale (2-row, c60, munich), bittered to 33 ibus with Cascade hops @60, @10, and @0, then dry-hopped 2 days before bottling. It's got just a hint of orange/citrus that the wife and I love, but I was hoping that some orange zest might nudge it over the top into something amazing.

So anyways, I cut an orange into quarters, and separated the peel.

Zested one quarter. Added just a touch of fresh zest to a 2 oz pour of the beer. Verdict: Aroma was pretty amazing, but the beer tasted better without it.

Next, I boiled the other 3 quarters of the peel in about 2 cups of water and cooled. Zested one of these quarters, was surprised that it still seemed to have most of it's oil. Dunno about any sort of "tea", the water just tasted a little bitter. Like first test, I added just a touch of boiled-peel fresh zest to a 2 oz pour, taste was a little muted versus the first sample. Like the first, the beer was better without the zest.

Lastly, I added a half milliliter of orange liqueur (Grand Marnier) to another 2 oz pour of beer, took a sip, then added in another half milliliter. And I think this is the way to go -- definitely more sanitary, and taste was really nice AND there was a nice aroma boost. But 1 ml per 2 oz beer would be 6 oz per liqueur per 3 gallons beer! Probably cheaper to just increase the amount of Cascades used in the dry-hop...

 

[hotbeer]

A lot of my first beers I wanted a grapefruit taste. I use to add one grapefruit per gallon.... the entire thing minus the pith on the inside just under the skin. None of those 3 or 4 brews had a good grapefruit taste.

The beer I've made that had the best grapefruit taste didn't have grapefruit in it. Just Cascade hops. Quite a bit at 0 min. No dry hopping.

You might try Amarillo hops. I think it leans a little more to the orange side than Cascade. Stuff in a bunch at flame out. Unless you are really intended to have a NEIPA or some other beer that really needs to be dry hopped. I'm sort of thinking you might be hiding the orange notes with the dry hopping. But I've not experimented with that to really know.

Mandarina Bavaria is another hop that comes up on a google search for having orange notes. And there are other suggestions to for orange flavor and notes that come up in a google search.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

A lot of my first beers I wanted a grapefruit taste. I use to add one grapefruit per gallon.... the entire thing minus the pith on the inside just under the skin. None of those 3 or 4 brews had a good grapefruit taste.

The beer I've made that had the best grapefruit taste didn't have grapefruit in it. Just Cascade hops. Quite a bit at 0 min. No dry hopping.

You might try Amarillo hops. I think it leans a little more to the orange side than Cascade. Stuff in a bunch at flame out. Unless you are really intended to have a NEIPA or some other beer that really needs to be dry hopped. I'm sort of thinking you might be hiding the orange notes with the dry hopping. But I've not experimented with that to really know.

Mandarina Bavaria is another hop that comes up on a google search for having orange notes. And there are other suggestions to for orange flavor and notes that come up in a google search.

Interesting! The two hop flavors that I like the least would be pine and then grapefruit. But I don't get any grapefruit from Cascade (at least the way I use it, in this one beer). But now I'm keen to give Amarillo and Mandarina Bavaria a try.

As for dry-hopping, I really don't know what the hell I'm doing! But thru trial and error, have found that my 3 gal batch tastes better with a half-ounce Cascade dry-hop, than without. Have never tried MORE than that amount, but will for next batch.

 

[TBA]

A lot of my first beers I wanted a grapefruit taste. I use to add one grapefruit per gallon.... the entire thing minus the pith on the inside just under the skin. None of those 3 or 4 brews had a good grapefruit taste.

The beer I've made that had the best grapefruit taste didn't have grapefruit in it. Just Cascade hops. Quite a bit at 0 min. No dry hopping.

You might try Amarillo hops. I think it leans a little more to the orange side than Cascade. Stuff in a bunch at flame out. Unless you are really intended to have a NEIPA or some other beer that really needs to be dry hopped. I'm sort of thinking you might be hiding the orange notes with the dry hopping. But I've not experimented with that to really know.

Mandarina Bavaria is another hop that comes up on a google search for having orange notes. And there are other suggestions to for orange flavor and notes that come up in a google search.

Have you ever tried dried peel, added near the end of the boil? I am looking to clone Pulp Friction by Motorworks Brewing, which is a grapefruit IPA. Dried peel, either orange for the OP or grapefruit, would be an easy method if it works.

 

[hotbeer]

@TBA , no I haven't used any dried grapefruit peel. I found out that all I need is the Cascade to give me the taste I want. So I never continued looking to see what else might.

Dried peel probably would have been my next experiment. But when I saw that I could get that flavor without the expense and effort, it seemed a no brainer to not bother looking further. As well, once I got over the brief excursion to dry hopping for NEIPA's, I just don't care to dry hop or put anything into my fermenter once the yeast is pitched.

I've gotten somewhat of an opinion that fruit additions of most any sort don't lend much of their flavor in a true way. It seems that fermentation changes it to not resemble the unfermented taste. In the brews I've seen that do have various fruit flavors and do include the fruit in some form, I wonder how much is really the flavor from the fruit and not just the other hop combinations.

 

[OleBrewing]

@TBA , no I haven't used any dried grapefruit peel. I found out that all I need is the Cascade to give me the taste I want. So I never continued looking to see what else might.

Dried peel probably would have been my next experiment. But when I saw that I could get that flavor without the expense and effort, it seemed a no brainer to not bother looking further. As well, once I got over the brief excursion to dry hopping for NEIPA's, I just don't care to dry hop or put anything into my fermenter once the yeast is pitched.

I've gotten somewhat of an opinion that fruit additions of most any sort don't lend much of their flavor in a true way. It seems that fermentation changes it to not resemble the unfermented taste. In the brews I've seen that do have various fruit flavors and do include the fruit in some form, I wonder how much is really the flavor from the fruit and not just the other hop combinations.

a lot of commercial "fruit" flavored options are flavored with flavor extracts after fermentation. it takes a lot of fruit to ferment to impart flavor in end product. dried orange peel etc will add something in the background but the for front of it probably wont exceed the advertisement.

i will say you are correct in your observations.

my own opinion is the fruit addition is a marketing tactic which is funny because Sam Adams did a Cherry Wheat 20 years ago. not even sure if they still make it. was a good beer.