American Wheat with Orange

Brewing Processes
1

Hey guys,

So we are planning on brewing a Wheat beer from extract tomorrow. 5 gallon batch, unfortunately we don’t have the tools to do a full boil though. So our boil will only be 3 gallons and we will make up for the rest with distilled water in the fermentor.

What we were planning on doing for the sake of experimenting was adding some orange flavor to it.

The kit we are using is a True Brew American Wheat Kit (unfortunately i can’t find the specifics on exactly what is in the kit).

We did a bunch of research online and decided the best method would probably be going with blood oranges.

Our plan is to zest about 4 oranges and boil the zest for the last 5 minutes in the boil. The guy at our LHBS also suggested that we steep some more zest and a few slices of the actual oranges themselves to the secondary fermentor and leave them in there for about 10 days. He suggested that we poke the oranges with some tooth picks before putting them in.

What are your guys thoughts on this one? We are obviously hoping for the sweet orange taste, as opposed to the bitter taste from the rind. We were told that we may want to skip adding the oranges and instead add freshly squeezed juice.

We were also told that adding oranges to the secondary may require us to re-pitch some more yeast.

Any suggestions/ comment?

Thanks

2

Zest and juice don’t taste the same, so use whichever one you think will give you the flavor you want.

You shouldn’t need to add any yeast in secondary, and if they’re sliced you shouldn’t need to poke them with toothpicks.  If you decide to do them in secondary I would slice them and freeze them before adding them, that will burst the cells and make them give up their goodness more easily.  You can zest them first too, if you think there isn’t enough flavor already in the beer.  I would definitely taste it first.

3

Thanks for the help… gonna try it in 3 hours or so… I’ll post updates once i get um’

4

Serve it garnished with a slice of orange and let the drinker decide what to do with it.

5

I did a Blood Orange Wheat about a month and a half ago. Steeped the cut up oranges and zest at 160F cooled and added to the fermenter. Turned out very good with a nice hint of orange.

6

The zest of 4 oranges sounds way too strong.  The zest of two is plenty.

7

I disagree - I do two oranges and a grapefruit in my wit, add it in the last 5 minutes.  I guess I like a stronger aroma/flavor :slight_smile:

8

I’m on board with giving 4 oranges a test drive - and I’ll be interested to hear how this one comes out.  :slight_smile:

I did a blood orange wheat a few years ago - used the zest and juice of 2 smallish blood oranges.  The most heard reaction was “there’s something in there and I think I like it”.  Nice but definitely not enough orange to let you know it’s in there…