"Mojito" beer?

[gr8shandini]

With summer rapidly approaching, I was trying to think of a nice thirst-quenching brew to throw in the usual mix of Koelsch, Pils, and pale ales. A beer with some mojito qualities might just do the trick. I was thinking of using straight Marris Otter as the grain bill, mashed hot to retain some sweetness, adding lime zest to the boil and "dry hopping" with mint.

My main concern is finding a yeast strain that will finish "clean" but with medium attenuation. I'm set up for lagers, but would prefer an ale for quick turn-around. Any thoughts or suggestions? Also, I haven't worked with either citrus zest or mint in a beer, so any tips or recommendations on amounts would be appreciated.

 

[nalidixic]

I'd be really interested in hearing about how that turned out.

 

[dwarven_stout]

I had a commercial Mint Kolsch. It wasn't very good, though- I'm sure you'll do better. Your plan sound good. Around 1/2oz lime zest with a microplane or 1oz with a zester will give you a wit level of citrus, so adjust off of that as you like. I'd chop the mint and add it at flameout, but "dry-hopping" should work too.

 

[KingSaru]

Maybe a wheat beer of some sort? Quick turn around, normally goes well with citrus flavors? A Wit or a Weizen with mint in the secondary might be nice.

 

[julioardz]

I have flavored beer with vanilla and strawberries. I have tried using only strawberries, only strawberry flavoring, and a combination of both. Same thing with vanilla, using only the beans, only extract, and both. I find that using a combination of the natural fruit/bean and extract/flavoring works best for me. You can try some mint extract late in the fermentation or just before bottling. I made a beer with natural ginger this weekend. I'll taste it before bottling and decide if I'm going to add extract then.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

I make extracts with citrus zest, mostly lime. Put the zest in a sealed jar, covered with vodka for a week or two. I add the extract at kegging. That way, the lime does not ferment out.

I wonder if a mint extract could be made like that? Maybe mix the lime zest with the mint in the jar?

 

[gr8shandini]

Thanks for the ideas, guys. I'm leaning away from extracts since I want some of that "vegetal" taste from the freshly crushed mint. It may be tough to capture in a beer though. I wonder if I should just make a lime brew and serve it with a sprig of mint?

I'm also considering adding a bit of molasses to get a bit of "rum" in the flavor profile. I think that would be a tight balance, though, between getting enough to taste and not darkening the beer too much.

 

[thasnazzle]

I make extracts with citrus zest, mostly lime. Put the zest in a sealed jar, covered with vodka for a week or two. I add the extract at kegging. That way, the lime does not ferment out.

I wonder if a mint extract could be made like that? Maybe mix the lime zest with the mint in the jar?

Also interested in this. Would this approach necessarily be different for bottling? I'm thinking it might add to the fermentables leading to overcarbonation... am I wrong on that?

 

[no_borders]

I just did a lemon saison using only the zest. Just took a potato peeler to half a dozen lemons, threw the skins in the boil for 5 minutes and you could really taste the flavor. That was just a 3 gallon batch, I'm not sure how much lime flavor you would want, but the whole project sounds pretty cool.

For yeast, maybe Kolsch? it gets a tad fruity but it may help complimnent the lime

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

Also interested in this. Would this approach necessarily be different for bottling? I'm thinking it might add to the fermentables leading to overcarbonation... am I wrong on that?

No, the zest and vodka should not add to the fermentables.

With kegging, you can add a little extract, carb it up and taste, then add more if needed.

With bottling, you only get one shot.

 

[jdutton24]

i do love me some mojitos....im very interested in this as well. also one thing to possibly consider..... they have some mojito mix (i like rosies)....put that in the boil..... maybe at flameout to help get some more mojito flavor in there. its full of sugar so i dont know how much to add. maybe bump down the grain bill some to keep the abv in check....i dunno im just kinda thinking out loud here..... dry hopping wiht mint sounds awesome though.... ive never dry hopped before so im not sure about it..i would be a little worried about it infecting the beer though...maybe soak in star san before and not leave in too long?

 

[turkeyjerky214]

Personally, I think mint in a beer would be horrible. Why not just mix up a 5 gallon batch of mojito and put it on tap?

 

[gr8shandini]

.... ive never dry hopped before so im not sure about it..i would be a little worried about it infecting the beer though...maybe soak in star san before and not leave in too long?

Yeah, I'm a little worried about that as well. I'm thinking of either soaking it in starsan/rum/vodka or blanching for a few seconds in some boiling water.

 

[gr8shandini]

Finally got around to plugging this into Beersmith. Here's the recipe I'm thinking of using based off of what I have on-hand. If I have time I'll brew it up on Sunday and let you know how it goes:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.50 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.62 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 5.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 14.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.4 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name
8 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
4.0 oz Molasses (80.0 SRM)
0.50 oz Cascade [8.90 %] - Boil 50.0 min
1.5 oz Lime zest
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast

Mash at 156 for 50 mins. "Dry mint" when kegging, remove after 10 days.

I don't want this one to be hoppy at all. I'm wondering if I should go even lower on the IBU to accommodate the lime?

 

[spearko520]

if you just make mojitos, you will pee less...

 

[bwomp313]

not the same but you could try this.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/cilantro-lime-wheat-beer-228418/

 

[gr8shandini]

An update for those that are interested:

I brewed this up a few weeks ago using the recipe above with the exception of adding a total of 2 oz of lime peel since I was using a vegetable peeler that took a fair amount of pith with the zest. Out of the fermenter, it had a very strong lime aroma, but the flavor was just about spot on.

I "dry minted" with 1 oz of fresh mint soaked in 2 oz of rum to sanitize. The original plan was to leave the mint in for 10 days, but it reached the appropriate level after five days and started tasting less than fresh on the 6th, so I yanked it.

The finished product was a little stronger than I had planned for with an OG of 1.048 since I forgot to take the late addition of the molasses into account during the boil. It's plenty sweet with the low IBUs and a FG of 1.012, but is balanced nicely by the "bite" of the lime. Somehow, the color wasn't affected nearly as much as Beersmith predicted and it looks pretty much just like a Pils or cream ale. All in all, it's just about what I had in mind. Not something that I would drink every day, but an interesting change up.

 

[keesh]

Sounds good, let us know how it tastes once it is done.

Quick tip for next time - when using a potato peeler to remove the zest from citrus, obviously avoid as much pith as possible. However, inevitably you'll get some on the peel. Take a paring knife and try to scrape some off to reduce the astringency.

 

[gr8shandini]

I'd definitely call this one done. I know there's a strong lobby for aging beers on HBT, but two weeks in primary and a week in the keg is more than enough for low to medium gravity ale like this one.

 

[xwass]

Just made an unfiltered wheat beer with fresh peppermint (5 gallons: ~.5oz added at flameout, ~.5oz added after fermentation calmed down), coriander and honey. Also dry hopped with Perle (2oz for 2 weeks) which complimented the mint nicely. I would say it's sort of Mojito-like.

I did not sanitize the mint before adding, just took it from the garden. With this amount I found it to be a pretty subtle flavor and aroma, it does add a nice "cooling" effect to the beer. Actually has a good bit of alcohol with the honey added and goes down really easy.

I am no mint expert but apparently there are some other types like chocolate mint and fruit flavored mints that could be interesting in a beer as well.

One thing I would do differently is only add the mint for a minute or two after flame out (in a muslin bag or tea-ball) because it did add a very sharp bitterness at first--think of how it tastes if you leave green tea steeping for too long. That bitterness faded with fermentation/conditioning and really isn't noticeable anymore.

Tried one a few days after bottling and it tasted the way I had in mind, a nice refreshing beer to have in the summer. In a week or so should be ready to go.