honey lemon wheat

Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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boom
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honey lemon wheat

Post by boom »

I want to try to make a honey lemon wheat ale. I don't know when to put the honey or lemon juice in or how much lemon juice to use to give a 5 gallon batch just a hint of flavor.
andytv
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lemon rind

Post by andytv »

My club brewed a great recipe for "lemon-ginger wheat". We used fresh lemon rind as opposed to juice. You get the great lemon flavor w/o the harsh acid/sourness. I would say that fro a five gallon batch, we scraped the rind off of three lemons (use a cheese grater or zester). As far as honey goes.. watch out. I have brewed honey-porters with about a pound per batch and it really takes a long time for the beer to mature into a palatable brew. Honey contributes some stong flavors and lots of alcohol, but will settle w/ time. If you just want the honey flavor, I would suggest using less than a pound of very good honey (perhaps orange blossom honey?)
I have tried "key-lime" honey in the past and thought it would alos be a great adder for beer. I guess you probably need to check out some recipes for honey amounts.

Good luck
Monkey Man
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Mmmmmmmmmmm, lemon rind

Post by Monkey Man »

Recently I have begun brewing with honey. I have two recipes on this site and have brewed them both and they are good, of course I would say that. I have used as much as three pounds honey in a batch. You definately want to increase your fermentation times. When I use tree pound o honey I keep it in the primary for about two weeks. Secondary at least a month. My experience the bottled beer has peaked after 2 months at cellar temps. Prost.
Sven
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My 2 cents...

Post by Sven »

In an article from "Brew" magazine, July 1999.
(severely edited by me)

...fresh fruit needs extra attention. You need to assess ripeness and flavor ahead of time, then use it before it goes bad...once you pick your your fruit, clean, stem, and crush it before use. Toss the fruit in a colander and run cool water over it while individually pulling stems and wiping debris. When crushing it, apply just enough pressure to break the skin and expose the inards... Pureeing and freezeing makes fruit sugars more accessible, therefore eliminating the need to crush the fruit...(after picking and cleaning of course) ...regardless of the form, all fruits work about the same when it comes to quantity. As a rule of thumb, use one-half to two pounds of whole fruit per gallon of beer. The exact amount depends on the type of fruit used , the method of adding the fruit, and the type of beer you are making.....if you make a beer that seems to subtle you can add more fruit extract in the bottle or keg, to heavy with fruit flavor, you can sit on it for awhile; the flavors tend to mellow with age... If you opt for pureed, frozen, or fresh fruit, you can add it to the end of the boil or sometime during fermentation. One method is to steep fruit for 15 to 20 minutes at 150 to 180 degrees at the end of the boil... When fruit boils it releases pectins, which can lead to haze problems... Adding fruit after racking to a secondary fermentor...the brewer has more control over how much time the fruit is in contact with the beer...it lets the brewer detect off-flavors before adding fruit. (i.e. dry-fruiting???)

The article then goes on to give you some quick tips on using fruit in beers. They don't mention lemon in particular, but here are some other ideas.

Raspberry / Blackberry:
...complement almost any beer recipe. Clean, stem, and crush...steep at end of boil...use very fresh, very ripe berries at less than 1 lb./gal. wort to minimize haze.

Peach / Apricot:
These fruits turn lagers, wheat beers, and pale ales into thirst quenchers. Remove skin and pits, cut into small pieces, and steep at end of boil. (no quantity given)

Pumpkin:
Add pumpkin at 5 to 10 lbs./5-gal batch. Peel, cut into two-inch chunks, and add to the wort with 30 minutes left to the boil. Or bake the chunks for a few hours, puree, and add to the mash.
Don't forget the pumpkin spice.

Hope that helps. This is a sizeable article, and I only breezed over it. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Sven
andytv
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Easy on the Lemon

Post by andytv »

I also read an article similar to the one you have paraphrased, but I would hesitate to apply it to lemon flavored beers. I found that zesting 4-5 lemons into a five-gallon batch towards the end of the boil gives more than sufficient lemon flavor. I'd be afraid of what sevarl pounds would do! Aside..... One of my club's best brews was a blackberry wheat where we produced a concentrated blackberry extract by pressing the berries, "sparging" w/ hot water, and reducing to about 12 oz in a double boiler. My wife picks about 40lbs of blackberries from our property every year so I figured I should make a beer with them. Back to the subject.. I would not classify lemon as a "fruit" for beer making purposes (a mouthful of fresh lemon doesn't exactly sound appetizing), I would consider it a "spice" and use it accordingly.

Good Luck
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Mesa Maltworks
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Killer lemon flavor... use rind in the mash...

Post by Mesa Maltworks »

If you want a subtle, non-overpowering lemon flavor (works with orange peel, spices, herbs and fruits as well) put it in the mash, not the boil. This technique works the same way as mash hopping does... due to the pH, temperature and enzymatic differences, harshness is not extracted and you get an authentic flavor reminiscent of the fruit/herb/spice product used. By placing fruit products in the boil, you caramelize the rinds/fruits or in the case of the pumpkin, the starches AND sugars which not only drastically alters the flavor, but also destroys alot of the aroma as well. In the case of spices in the boil, you can extract tannins, if present, and greatly reduce volatile aromatics.

I recently produced a Witbier at my brewery using Curaco orange peel and coriander that were both added in the mash and it blows away my prior renditions when I added the same elements to the boil. This technique also allowed me to produce a pumpkin beer (I roasted the pumpkin first, then chopped it up) that unlike most examples, tasted like pumpkin, NOT pumpkin pie. The added advantage of using this method with pumpkin is that you fully convert the starch, and the wax from the rind remains behing in the mash, so there is not residual haze produced like when you add it to the boil.

For the brewing historians among us: This technique was first used long ago by German wheat beer brewers who added hops to the mash to produce a smooth balance to their products and is gradually being rediscovered and implemented by pro brewers in the US.
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HumbleOpinion
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Here is a recipe from me!

Post by HumbleOpinion »

I hope this helps anyone http://www.beertools.com/html/recipe.php?view=7991. Good luck and good brewing!

~ John ~

http://www.clarksvillecarboy.com

~ In brewing, in cooking, and in life if everyone were to be the same it would be rather boring. You can always stay true to style while expressing individuality ~
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