Did I just ruin my beer (orange peel edition)

So, I decided to add orange peel to a brew this past weekend, and rather than reading up on it like an intelligent person, I simply took one whole orange peel, diced it, threw it in at 5 minutes, and then tossed it into the fermenter along with the wort.

My thinking was that the rind would provide some degree of nutrients for the yeast. However, I'm now reading that you're only supposed to add the zest or at the very least, the most outer portion of the peel.

Is the whole rind going to give my beer a bitter, unpleasant flavor? I'm fermenting in a bucket, so it wouldn't be terribly hard to skim the bits of peel out.

I do think the rind will make your beer more bitter than you originally planned. I'm not sure how much it will change, pulling them out of your fermenter now. If you're on the more worried side of things, I would say yes, sanitize a strainer and pull out the bits. Hopefully they're floating.

It depends on the orange. I once tossed in a few peels from valencia oranges with a thick pith (the white part) and it was more bitter than I had hoped. The beer was still very drinkable. I try to use mandarin, tangerine or clementine peels because they don't usually have much pith. I toss the whole peel in at 5 minutes and get a decent flavor out of them.

OMGTheyKilkenny said:

Is the whole rind going to give my beer a bitter, unpleasant flavor? I'm fermenting in a bucket, so it wouldn't be terribly hard to skim the bits of peel out.

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At this point I wouldn't touch it, you could cause more damage, even infect the beer, by trying to mess with it.

We can't tell you how it's going to turn out, all you can do is wait the process out, see it all the way through, let it condition and see.

THEN if it's too bitter, put it way for another few months and see if the bitterness retreats (just like hoppiness can fade, time can be your friend here too,) or mix it with another beer.

Don't always assume 1) that something is ruined, until the process is completely carbed and conditioned. 2) Don't assume it's ruined even then, time can surprise you. 3)Don't try to fix something in mid stream, you can end up doing more harm than good. 4) Don't act like every batch with be the ONLY beer you ever brew.....if it's a failure, chalk it up to experience and move on. We all have bad beer, hell if you ever watched Brewmasters with Sam Caligione on TV when it aired, Sam and Dogfish head dumped 2 multimillion dollar batches that didn't live up to their hopes; they did every effort they could to save them, but ultimately the let them go and moved on.

It's really not a big deal.

Revvy makes a great point, and it's one I try to be mindful when I'm dealing with anything, brew-related or otherwise. It's done. Take note, and move on. I've only been brewing for a few months, but durnit, I'm at it once a week making my five gallon batches. They can't all be winners. You're going to have good ideas, and not execute them to perfection. You're going to half-ass a recipe, not remember what half the ingredients were, and it'll be one of your favorites that you can never duplicate. You'll have near acts of god that will affect your beer. Beer is pretty cheap to make. Even with all the hidden costs (labor, water, time lying awake while your blow-off tube gurgles away), you get a really satisfying experience after it's all said and done. You make something yourself, you put time and care into its fermentation, and at the end, you get a (hopefully) tasty alcoholic beverage. And if you have friends to drink it with, then there's nothing better.

Don't sweat it, just drink it!

i used a orange in my brew, and had some zest and didnt wanna waste an orange you know so i throw it in when i pitched the yeast.
my beer turned out great, i was going for a blue moon clone

You threw a whole orange in post boil?

Were_Wolf said:

i used a orange in my brew, and had some zest and didnt wanna waste an orange you know so i throw it in when i pitched the yeast.

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...did you consider eating the orange?

OMGTheyKilkenny said:

You threw a whole orange in post boil?

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yup i just dropped in the furmentor before adding in the yeast.

temple240 said:

...did you consider eating the orange?

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i mean i could have, i guess if your in to that kinda of thing..