Beer Forum

I'm thinking this might be a dumb question but I'm drunk so here it goes.

We have alcohol fermented with honey, with apples, with pears. We have half a dozen types of sour beer with different fruit additions. Soo. Why am I only finding orange juice as an adjunct to beer, or as a bottle conditioning aid? Could I not just ferment a whole butt-ton of OJ? The only reason I could think of is that maybe with the acid content it could come out as orange tasting vinegar...

Any thoughts?

A friend once said they fermented orange juice with bread yeast when he was in highschool... said it tasted like bananas. Try it and report back to us.

We do have an empty bucket right now..oh man. Just gotta convince the husband & I'm on it.

The low pH from the citric acid may affect the yeast. However, it's worth a shot.
Rather than do a whole 5 gallons though, start off with a small batch and see if it works.
Remember to NOT use any OJ with preservatives or they'll kill the yeast.

Good Luck and let us know if it works

My grandparents are coming back from Florida next week, I'm going to have them bring back as many oranges as they can fit in the car & juice them myself. I'm going to shoot for a 2.5 gallon batch. Can I boil that juice, or at least get it hot enough to kill off any bugs that might be a contamination issue? I'm also thinking I want to use a wine yeast, something that can handle the PH. Any recommendations there?

Yeah, use a wine yeast. I like Cote des Blancs although I have never used it on OJ before, so YMMV.

Be sure to add some of the zest from the outer peels as well. 90% of the good flavor of oranges comes from the peel/zest, not the juice itself. But avoid the white pith which is very bitter -- just get the outer orange part. A quarter cup in 3-5 gallons should give you a really wonderful character, if this is going to turn out tasty at all, which I'm not sure of.

captaincrash3424 wrote:Can I boil that juice, or at least get it hot enough to kill off any bugs that might be a contamination issue?

If you do, you'll want to add some pectic enzyme to reduce the pectin haze that sets in (this goes for pretty much any fruit juice).

If it were me, I'd do a trial run with store bought before potentially wasting the oranges you're asking your family to mule across state lines for you...