Lemon Zest

Zak2428

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Hello, I read an article or a forum not too long ago that said using Candied Lemon Zest works pretty good to get a sweet lemon flavor out of your beer. I spent the time to make Candied Lemon Zest and was planning to add it to the Primary Fermenter 3 days into fermentation because that's what the article said. However, I can't find the article that suggested it so now I'm second guessing if I should continue down that path or just add it in the Secondary. There is sugar on these candies so I assume primary fermentation would benefit the most. Thoughts on that?

I've tried using the Zest in Secondary and also doing a lemon zest tincture and both did not deliver the flavor I was looking for. I want a strong lemon, like Summer Shandy by Leinenkugel's, but I feel like extract at bottling is the only way to achieve it. So, 2 questions:

Do you advise i use the Candied lemon peels and if so, during primary or at secondary?
If you've had better success getting a strong lemon flavor, what did you do?
 
I've never tried it but I'd done bitter orange peel in the boil and read about it in primary. You could definitely use a concentrate if you want a shandy flavour. I'm not sure you're going to get what you want out of just zest.
 
Agreed. Maybe a quart or two of zest (5 gal batch) but more likely you need extract or juice. Zest adds a lot of 'bitter' lemon, but a shandy has a more 'juice' flavor. The zest oils will be useful though.

Disclaimer: I have never brewed with lemon oil, extract, zest or Juice. But I do bake a lot and it is from there my experience is relevant.
 
Agreed. Maybe a quart or two of zest (5 gal batch) but more likely you need extract or juice. Zest adds a lot of 'bitter' lemon, but a shandy has a more 'juice' flavor. The zest oils will be useful though.

Disclaimer: I have never brewed with lemon oil, extract, zest or Juice. But I do bake a lot and it is from there my experience is relevant.
Taste fresh orange juice, then store brand frozen concentrate. That's the difference between juice and zest flavors.
 
There you go! How about adding tube of frozen lemonade concentrate to your secondary?
 
I'll give the Juice vs Concentrate a try and do a bit more research into that. Finally found the article I originally got the idea from...

https://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/candy-orange-ipa-hazy-session

Probably going to stay the course and test this out. Maybe even break the batch into 2-3 portions to test it with juice/concentrate. I'll update ya'll in a few weeks on how it tastes compared to my prevous batches.

Thanks all!
 
I'll give the Juice vs Concentrate a try and do a bit more research into that. Finally found the article I originally got the idea from...

https://www.clawhammersupply.com/blogs/moonshine-still-blog/candy-orange-ipa-hazy-session

Probably going to stay the course and test this out. Maybe even break the batch into 2-3 portions to test it with juice/concentrate. I'll update ya'll in a few weeks on how it tastes compared to my prevous batches.

Thanks all!

I've brewed a version of that beer. Messing about with the oranges takes a bit of time but the results, for me, were excellent. The orange syrup that comes from the orange processing goes into the boil and the candied peel goes into the fermenter like a dry hop addition.

If I did it again I would be happy to add more of the candied orange into the keg/cask.

I do a lemon and ginger cider which gets lemon zest right at the start. My understanding is that bitterness comes from the pith, the white stuff under the skin, so zesting is something I do with a bit of care. I do use the juice from the lemons as well but avoid the pips. The resulting cider is sublime, although I'm totally convinced that my process breaks some rules and would have proper cider folk tearing their beards out in fury :)
 
I've brewed a version of that beer. Messing about with the oranges takes a bit of time but the results, for me, were excellent. The orange syrup that comes from the orange processing goes into the boil and the candied peel goes into the fermenter like a dry hop addition.

If I did it again I would be happy to add more of the candied orange into the keg/cask.

I do a lemon and ginger cider which gets lemon zest right at the start. My understanding is that bitterness comes from the pith, the white stuff under the skin, so zesting is something I do with a bit of care. I do use the juice from the lemons as well but avoid the pips. The resulting cider is sublime, although I'm totally convinced that my process breaks some rules and would have proper cider folk tearing their beards out in fury :)

I didn't even notice that they used the simple syrup in the boil, that would have been smart because the simple syrup from the lemon zest is delicious. I don't want to add that to the secondary because that's sugar overload on the yeast. I'll have to try that next time if this batch isn't where I want it to be, as far as lemon flavor goes. It seems to be clear though that the pith in oranges/lemons do cause bitterness and to avoid as much as possible.

If I use Lemon Juice which has "2% Of Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Metabisulfite And Sodium Sulfite (Preservatives)" does this have any negative effect on the beer? Or, maybe I add the simple syrup at bottling as my priming sugar, but how would I know how much to use...
 
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Isn't the Metabisulphate going to stop it fermenting? That's something I would use in the cider but at pasteurising / packaging time.
 
I didn't even notice that they used the simple syrup in the boil, that would have been smart because the simple syrup from the lemon zest is delicious. I don't want to add that to the secondary because that's sugar overload on the yeast. I'll have to try that next time if this batch isn't where I want it to be, as far as lemon flavor goes. It seems to be clear though that the pith in oranges/lemons do cause bitterness and to avoid as much as possible.

If I use Lemon Juice which has "2% Of Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Metabisulfite And Sodium Sulfite (Preservatives)" does this have any negative effect on the beer? Or, maybe I add the simple syrup at bottling as my priming sugar, but how would I know how much to use...
Lemon juice and lemon zest do not taste the same. You can do as you say, just be aware you'll get a different flavor. To add it to secondary, boil it with half water and dump it in after high krauesen. It won't hurt your yeast.
 

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