Orange Flavor

[Beer Baron]

I’m going to make an orange pale ale this week and I wanted some feedback.

I’m looking at 90% pale ale malt and 10% wheat to get to about 5% ABV. To get a distinct orange flavour I was going to add some orange peel in the last 10 minutes of the boil and then add some like a dry hop. 

I was after some feedback of some hops to pair that might give an orange taste. I have read that amarillo gives a solid orange taste. What are peoples experiences with using orange peel in their beers without the pith of course and what do you all think about the hops to go with it. 

Thanks

 

[Smash]

Might be good to have a look at some blue moon clones to see what they have, I think the recipe might be similar 

[Shamus O'Sean]

I did the Coopers Zesty Blonde a while back.  It has the peel from two grapefruits added like a dry hop.  The citrus came through nicely.

[Norris!]

Amarillo is a great hop for that strong citrus aroma, I have also found citra and azacca to really make things pop. A few others to look at are Sorachi Ace and Wakatu which bring some lime to the table which might highlight the orange peel some more.

Motueka is pretty tropical also with some citrus.

[Naughty Corner Brewing]

You can get dried orange peel from some home brew shops as well. I did a Blue Moon clone  a while ago that came out ok - probably should have used a little more orange though.

[Beer Baron]

I am going to try fresh oranges but I’m not sure how much. Maybe 100 grams in the boil and 50 grams when fermentation is nearly complete

[ChristinaS1]

I did some research in to orange zest for the purposes of making liqueur. It seems Blood Oranges (Moro and Tarocco) and Cara-Cara are the best of the sweet oranges. A lot of liqueurs are made with the zest of bitter oranges, available in dried form at many LHBS. 

I used to experiment with different non beer ingredients, but I didn't love the results.  They often thin the body, have no head, and the flavour is usually a disappointment. Now I stick to water, malt, yeast, and hops.  

Cheers,

Christina. 

[Beerlust]

Amarillo (as already mentioned), Ahtanum, American "C" hops, Mandarina Bavaria, Pacifica to name a few.

Cheers,

Lusty.

 

[ChristinaS1]

On 3/25/2019 at 6:43 AM, Beer Baron said:

I am going to try fresh oranges but I’m not sure how much. Maybe 100 grams in the boil and 50 grams when fermentation is nearly complete

Yeah, that is one of the problems with non-beer ingredients; it is all guess work. Commercial breweries will experiment with a non-beer ingredient repeatedly, dumping batch after batch until they get the balance right. Home brewers are unlikely to do that; we usually end up drinking our failures. 

Many of the essential oils found in citrus zest are also found in hops, but hops are more predicable due to our greater experience with them.  

Cheers,

Christina.

[PB2]

21 hours ago, ChristinaS1 said:

we usually end up drinking our failures. 

Yes, yes and yes!