Sterilizing Oranges for dry hop?

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Sonnyjim

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Quick question. Planning on brewing a Wheat Beer tonight and the recipe calls for a dry hop of 1/2 onze orange peel. Should I sterilize the orange with boiling water or the sterlizing solution I have for the rest of my equpiment? Maybe let it boil for a minute so it's sterlized and then use that for dry hop? Any suggestions would be great.
 
What's the recipe? I have Wheat Beer which I was thinking of either adding dry hops to - but I'd also been thinking of orange peel, because I want a fruity taste.

I've only seen recipes which add orange peel during the boil (usually with coriander seeds).
 
Are you using fresh zest or the dried sweet or bitter orange peel?

I recently dry hopped a pale ale and added some fresh zest. I brought about a cup of water up to a boil, turned off the heat and threw the zest in and let it steep for about 5-10 minutes. Then i just added the zest+steeping water to the carboy.
 
How did that turn out? Was the flavour noticeable? How much did you use and how long did you leave it for?

I bought Japanese oranges and I plan to use the zest on those. Wasn't sure what oranges to get so I thought "When in Rome...." :)
 
Well i dry hopped with cascades and the orange zest. I'd say i used the zest from about 5 medium sized oranges.

Flavor was definitely noticeable and intense in the beginning. After a few weeks in the bottle its gotten really nice. The aroma is still there but the flavor has mellowed out quite a bit.
 
Just a note of caution: Just use the zest of your oranges. Fermented whole (or pureed) oranges closely resembles vomit, with a slight orangey taste. I don't recommend going there, hehe.

If you want to sterilize I'd recommend spraying your oranges with star-san.

Terje
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys. It was kind of a last minute one that I didn't get the answers in on time but I essentially used some fresh zest that I poured boiling water on for a minute then right into the carboy.
 
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