Lemongrass in a Hefeweizen

[Oktober]

I went back into the archive and relistened to the Magic Hat show (Fall 2007). After hearing all the "interesting" ingredients they have tried, I was really inspired to try putting some lemongrass into my upcoming Hefe brew - to sort of make a Circus Boy clone. Based on the interview, they put 5 lbs of tea-cut lemongrass in a 50 barrel batch at the end of the boil, which works out to be 1/4 oz in a 5 gallon batch. I also plan on switching my hops over to Amarillo (again, like Circus Boy) to get that citrus/ apricot hop flavor, which should mesh well with the lemon twang from the lemongrass.

Anyone else played around with Lemongrass in a beer? Its supposed to be pretty potent. Does 1/4 oz at 5 minutes from flameout make sense?

Thanks!

-Okt

[huskerbrew]

I was actually considering doing the same thing, lemongrass in an american hef. That stuff is pretty potent in cooking, so 1/4 or 1/2 oz would be where I would start. If it wasn't enough you could always add some to water, boil it and add it to the keg later. Please post if you try this and let us know how it turned out!

[Oktober]

let us know how it turned out!

You bet.

Here are a couple other resources I have come across on Lemongrass, in case anyone is curious about it in the future.

Pro Brewer Thread

BeerTown Recipe - Seems like a lot of lemongrass though.

-Okt

[tavish2]

if your looking for a lemongrass flavor in an american hefe, try out sorachi ace hops as a flavor edition around 15 min or so. probably want to go with a 1/2 oz as this is a higher alpha hop anywhere from 12-16% AA.

[Whitebeard_Brewer]

+1, I did a Hefe with Sorachi Ace before. 1/2 oz @ 60 min and it tasted fantastic.....just a hint of lemon. Am also getting ready to brew another Sorachi Ace Hefe, thinking about doing 1/2 @ 60 and 1/2 @ 15 or so....see how that comes out.

[tavish2]

you will get a lot of lemon grass favor and not so much lemon. personally i dont like the hop at all. i bought two ounces of it at steinbarts in portland i i give away the entire batch of pale ale cause i had a taste aversion to it. everyone else thought it was an awesome beer. i couldnt even take a sip w/o gagging. its one of those love it or hate it kind of flavors.

[Oktober]

I ended up using Amarillo (60m addition and 15 min addition) in mine with about 1/3 oz of dried lemongrass (from an asian grocery). My efficiency on the mash was way low (~60%) so I had to drop in some DME to bring it back up.

Should be ready to drink in a couple weeks.

-Okt

[Kazzell]

i did a belgian witt with 1.5 oz in the boil and .5 dry spiced in the carboy mostly it's had good reviews, one person said it was like lemon pine-sol.

I love it and it accents the Belgian yeast strain very well!