Flavor almost all settled out?

[johnsonbrew]

I made a honey lemon wheat beer from extract a few weeks ago. After checking the OG (1.062) I tasted the wort before pitching the yeast and thought that this was going to be a really good beer. It went through the primary fermentation and settled at about 1.014 FG. I tasted the beer at that point and was a little disappointed in the fact that the beer lost most of the lemon and honey flavor. Why would a beer lose most of the lemon flavor? I get the honey since it was eaten by the yeast but it became a mostly flavorless beer?

Can I add some lemon juice or extract to bring back a little flavor now that I racked to a secondary to let it settle?

 

[Heavywalker]

Flat warm beer doesn't taste like much, let it carb up and properly condition before passing judgment.

 

[TopherM]

Did you use actual lemon, or lemon extract?

If actual lemon, you'll find that most citrus fruits tend to show up MORE in beer over time, so just be patient with it and the lemon will show up and get stronger over time (like on the order of 6-8 weeks after brew day).

If it was lemon extract, you really should have put it in the beer post-fermentation. If you do want to add lemon juice back in, do it post-fermentation. Yeast hate the low PH of acid, and adding too much lemon juice can inhibit fermentation.

As for the honey, real honey is pretty much a crap shoot as to what will show up in the beer. The actual honey is 100% fermentable, but it does leave behind the florals from whatever source the bees used to make the honey. It's wildly inconsistent, however. If you want a more consistent honey flavor, use HONEY MALT! It adds a very consistent generic honey taste at about 5% of the total grain bill.

Good luck!

 

[JoppaFarms]

Flat warm beer doesn't taste like much, let it carb up and properly condition before passing judgment.

+1 This!

 

[johnsonbrew]

I used lemon zest in the boil. I also added honey malt but only 1 lb with 12 oz of clover honey. It is my 4th of July beer so I still have a few weeks before it will be tapped so hopefully some of those flavors will show up.

Thanks