Anyone ever 'dry hop' a belgian wit with Fresh Orange Zest?

[Stevorino]

Ok - I ended up doing it.

I took a 5 gallon batch of Belgian wit and kegged it. After a few days of sitting in the keg, I put my orange zest in.

I zested two oranges finely and dropped them into a small amount of boiling water -- no more than a cup. Then I cut off the flame and poured the solution into the beer.

I tried it one day later -- there was a perfect amount of orange aroma and flavor. The Aroma definitely had a present orange flavor but it wasn't overbearing or inappropriate (at least I didn't think so). The beer went from an average beer to the best I had on tap (according to me, my wife, and friends).

The only drawback has been that there were tiny zesties floating around in the beer. It didn't affect the head at all. I've let it sit again for a couple weeks to see if I can get all the zesties to drop out.

[alan_marks]

One suggestion to avoid floaties would be to "zest" the orange with a vegetable peeler rather than a zester. When I make candied orange peels for desserts I'll do this, then cut them into strips with my chefs knife. Another trick would be to blanch the orange peels for 1 minute in boiling water before using them and discarding that water. This will blanch any excess bitterness from any pith you may trim from the fruit without loosing the orange oils.
Hope this helps.

Alan Marks
Executive Chef / Assistant Director of Dining
Concordia University Nebraska

[Stevorino]

One suggestion to avoid floaties would be to "zest" the orange with a vegetable peeler rather than a zester. When I make candied orange peels for desserts I'll do this, then cut them into strips with my chefs knife. Another trick would be to blanch the orange peels for 1 minute in boiling water before using them and discarding that water. This will blanch any excess bitterness from any pith you may trim from the fruit without loosing the orange oils.
Hope this helps.

Alan Marks
Executive Chef / Assistant Director of Dining
Concordia University Nebraska

Well, interestingly enough, I had two kegs of beer that I did this to. The first keg I used a zester and the second keg I used a knife, which resulted in bigger chunks. The knife'd zest is definitely not showing up in the beer as much, but it also hasn't produced nearly as much aroma/flavor either. I'll see how it clears over the next few weeks.