Would you put lemongrass in this?

[FatherJack]

Would you put lemongrass in this brew? If so, how/how much/when?

OG: 1.050
% LB OZ Malt or Fermentable
47% 3 4.911 Extra Light Dry Extract
31% 2 3.274 Vienna Malt
16% 1 1.637 Wheat Malt
5% 0 5.291 Carared
2% 0 2.469 Chocolate Wheat Malt

60 mins 1 Northern Brewer pellet 10.7
30 mins 0.5 Styrian Goldings pellet 3.2
30 mins 0.5 East Kent Goldings pellet 3.8
15 mins 0.67 East Kent Goldings pellet 3.8
15 mins 0.67 Styrian Goldings pellet 3.2
5 mins 0.5 Styrian Goldings pellet 3.2
5 mins 0.5 East Kent Goldings pellet 3.8

dry hop 0.5 Styrian Goldings pellet 3.2
dry hop 0.5 East Kent Goldings pellet 3.8

(some of the grain bill is a little screwy...I put them in in metrics and changed them to US measurements)

 

[Oldsock]

I think it would be good without the lemongrass, plenty of malt and hop complexity already. That said, why not split the batch? I would steep some lemongrass in hot water for 10 minutes and add the "tea" to the beer (to taste) after you bottle half of it plain.

 

[FatherJack]

Oldsock,

Thanks for the input. I'll keep the lemon grass (lemongrass?) idea on the back burner, make it as is for this time and see if it could be used for a future brew.

Thanks again!

 

[KyleWolf]

I like Oldsock's tea idea. I will say the only time I ever added lemongrass to a beer, I added 4oz into the mash. The lemongrass was there but not overpowering.

 

[FatherJack]

Kyle,

Thanks for the input. My goal was to have strong earth/grass overtones from the hops and subtle citrus flavor lurking behind it.

Would anyone put a citrusy hop like cascade in the mix to accomplish that? Would lemongrass be best?

 

[KyleWolf]

I used amarillo

 

[mkling]

I wouldn't use lemongrass in that recipe. There's a lot going on in there already. Lemongrass has such a lovely, fragrant scent & taste that I think it would be wasted and not really detectable in dark, hoppy beer.

In general hoppy beers aren't great beers for spice additions. They just get lost. If you're dying to use lemongrass, I would say go simpler and lighter.

 

[KyleWolf]

mkling has a good point. my wheat beer only had 15IBU to it.

 

[FatherJack]

Thanks again for the advice! I'll stick with my original plan and crank this out and see what could/should be done to it.

Thanks!