When to add orange zest

[mrphillips]

I want to make a beer with a hint of orange, and I wasn't sure when to add the orange zest. I found a real nice recipe here on homebrew that calls for 2oz of zest (which sounds good to me), but I wasn't sure if should add it at 10, 5, or 0 minutes. I don't want it to be an in-your-face orange taste, but present enough to be noticeable. Thoughts?

 

[Chefflahertycec]

All my zest additions are at 5 min. If you are brewing 5 gal, you might want to drop the amount your adding to 1 - 1.5 oz if your looking for it to be subtle.

 

[warnotwars]

Ok so I brew with a lot of fruit and citrus zest. Currently bottled I have a weizenbock bottled with orange zest in it and it's got a bit on the nose and a subtle undertone of orange. If that's what your looking for then I'll tell you how I did it. Filet the peel off of one orange. I use Valencia. Turn the peel upside down and carefully scrape the pith off of the peel. It doesn't taste very good. The bonus to using skin filets is that they are very easy to remove/strain out after your boil so that you can stop the addition of flavor when you want. Typically for a background flavor I boil them for 15 minutes in the wort. Less boil time equals a more in your face citrus punch. I use about half of a decent sized oranges worth.

 

[SpeedYellow]

Generally speaking, spices and flavorings that have delicate flavors and volatile compounds should not be boiled. So add orange zest at flameout, or better yet, once you've cooled to 180-185F. Use a fine grater like a microplane to avoid getting any white pith.

As another general rule, spices/flavors that don't NEED to be boiled shouldn't. There's certainly some funk on citrus, so 180-185F pasteurization works great.

 

[mrphillips]

SpeedYellow - this is what I've always thought, but like a fellow poster said, there has been quite a bit of success with adding them to the boil.

Warnotwars - was there any residual bitterness/astringency from adding the zest at 15min?

 

[shadows69]

I always add my spices at the last 8-10 min's left in the boil. Never had a problem.

 

[raysmithtx]

I add mine at 5 minutes left in the boil. Also I have found that if you use the zest from a LHBS (dried) instead of fresh then you need to double the amount.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[SpeedYellow]

SpeedYellow - this is what I've always thought, but like a fellow poster said, there has been quite a bit of success with adding them to the boil.

Sure, and you'd even be successful adding the zest at the start of boil, into the mash, or heck even into the mill with your grains. But if the question is how to *maximize* the citrus aroma and flavor, then you have to really ask if boiling is optimal. We all accept that boiling reduces *hop* aroma, so why would we think citrus zest would be any different?

 

[mrphillips]

Good point. Since I'm not looking for an Orange-Forward taste I think I'm leaning towards a 5 min. addition of 2 oz.

 

[shadows69]

I would do no more then 1 Oz in the last 5 mins of the boil if your not looking for the orange-forward taste. Unless your taking a 10 gal batch. 2 Oz in a 5 gal batch is going you quite an orangey taste. I don't even use 2 Oz in making blue moon. Of course as mentioned before in this post there is a big difference between fresh and dried peel. I always use fresh orange peel for the best taste.

 

[csanborn26]

I was thinking o adding a little lemon zest to a blueberry ale. I've never made a blueberry ale before my wife loves em so I thought I would give one a try... When baking a blueberry pie I use a hint of lemon zest (not enough to notice it there but without it you would miss it) has anyone here made a blueberry ale with zest just curious

 

[mrphillips]

Blueberry is such a subtle flavor, I'd worry that the lemon zest would take over the operation.

On another note, I'm bottling my Agent Orange this Sunday. As it ended up, the orange I bought only produced .8 oz. of zest. I soaked this in 2 oz of vodka overnight and added it at 5 min. A buddy of mine was brewing on my stove at the same time, so while I waited for my wart chiller to cool his down, my orange zest stayed in the hot-as-hell kettle for about 10 min. longer than I anticipated. I strained out the zest before putting it in the primary.