I bought a few shoots today. I have never used it. I have a kolsch that is finished and wanted to add lemon grass to it. I was hoping to just add it to a corvy with a surescreen on dip tube. Do you guys think this will be ready in a few days? How much should I use?
I’m asking because I need to have it done by Friday. 
I bet it’s ready by then, Keith. I’ve never brewed with it but I do cook with it in things like Asian soups - granted there is heat applied there. But regardless, it infuses quicker when you use something like meat mallet to crush it, then let it steep. If you crush it and get it steeping in a bag quickly I’ll bet you pick up some nice character by then. The alcohol should help extract it.
Edit - In a mild beer like kolsch, I’d think a couple 8 or 10" shoots crushed would give enough flavor.
Email Kona. They have a lemongrass beer at the pubs.
You could try using lemondrop hops next time. I used them in a saison once and got a lemongrass/citrus flavor out of them.
Well, looks like I handled the lemongrass wrong. I didn’t pulverize it just shredded it. Almost no lemongrass flavor. Back to the drawing board.
I love the idea of Lemondrop hops except that I’m not sure how easy they would be to obtain in bulk. This is for a local organization (Huntsville Botanical Society) and they want to keep it on draft and in bottles so I’d have to have a contract for the hops or they would have to be plentiful on the spot market, but I will look into their availability. Thanks for the suggestion.
Sorry, Keith. I was hoping my suggestion would help. The character comes out well in soups, but obviously that’s heated.
Not sure how much you need, or how much you pay per pound on the pro market, but YVH has 13 pounds in stock from the 2015 harvest on sale right now:
http://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/product_p/hopslemondrop1-2015crop.htm
Just kegged my blonde ale with lime zest and lemongrass.
I use a microplane to grate it and throw it in the boil with 5 minutes remaining. I have used it in the secondary which made it much more powerful.
I made a lemongrass hefeweizen . I did fresh lemongrass in the boil (last 10 minutes) and then some fresh lemongrass paste in the secondary and came out great
I am going to make a lemongrass kolsch (my ginger koslch recipe but replace the ginger with lemongrass) shortly too
I found that better results with lemongrass and beer happen from stripping all the green leaves off the stalk to reveal only the white cane. Cut that cane into thin slices and add very late in the boil.
The green leaves will definitely leave some grassy polyphenols in the beer.
yes, agree with this 100% . Last 10 minutes in the boil worked well from me, only use the stalk.
How much did you add to the boil?
I used freeze-dried lemongrass for a White IPA a while back and it turned out great, but the flavor/aroma was extremely subtle (@ rate of 6 grams per gal in last 10 minutes of the boil).
This got me thinking.
I love lemon pepper when I cook (especially whenever I cook salmon).
Extend that to lemon-pepper in a saison - using lemongrass and grains of paradise.
Any thoughts? What about proportions?
