My friend and I just brewed a batch of Brewer's Best Weizenbier. It's been in primary fermentation for 14 hours, and it's chugging away. Got to thinking about Blue Moon, and thought it would be nice to add the hint of orange, so I looked at recipes, which call for the addition orange peel/McCormick's orange extract and coriander in the last few minutes of the boil. It's too late for that now, so can I add the orange and coriander during secondary fermentation, and if so, what amounts would you recommend? Should I boil them in a small amount of water before adding to the brew? Anything else I should do?
Adding orange peel and coriander during secondary fermentation?
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One recipe on this site calls for soaking orange zest in vodka then adding it to the bottling bucket on bottling day. Another mentions using McCormick's Valencia orange peel (1.5 oz McCormick bottle) at the end of the boil, but I would think you could add this to the bottling bucket instead of the vodka/peel extract. The McCormick's would be sanitized, so I would expect it to be safe to add when bottling. Any thoughts?
I realize now that McCormick Valencia Orange Peel is dried orange peel, so I wouldn't want to put it in the brew just before bottling. McCormick also makes Orange Extract that is mostly alcohol and contains orange oil. This sounds like something I could add to the bottling bucket to get the hint of orange in our Weizenbier. An advantage of doing it this way is we could bottle half the batch without the orange, and add it to the remaining brew, to see how the beer tastes with and without the orange. Any feedback would be appreciated.
A good amount of the orange flavor comes from the coriander seeds, not the orange peel. You might want to crush some seeds and let them steep in some alcoholic beverage (vodka is suggested most often) to extract the flavor and add that to the bottling bucket.
For going into the bottling bucket I think I would rather strain it if I had that option. It might take quite a while to settle and I'd rather be bottling than waiting.
Alternatively, IF you want to secondary, you can add the coriander, etc to the secondary for a week or so and then bottle. Or you can just make the coriander extract and add it to the bottling bucket. Either way should work, although you MIGHT get slightly more flavor from letting the crushed coriander and vodka mixture soak in the secondary for a few days.
My only experience has been with vanilla beans which I put into the secondary and got good results from so take my response with a grain of salt.
My only experience has been with vanilla beans which I put into the secondary and got good results from so take my response with a grain of salt.
After reading several posts, I decided to make a "marinade" of McCormick Pure Orange Extract and ground coriander seed, let it marinate for a week, then add a little of the liquid to the racked batch of Brewer's Best Weizenbier before bottling. After one week of bottle conditioning, we tried the first bottle, and it's really good! Has a subtle bitter orange aroma, flavor, and aftertaste. Here's the recipe for the orange flavoring:
1 oz. McCormick Pure Orange Extract (1 bottle)
2 TBS McCormick Coriander Seed, ground (I put it in our coffee grinder)
Add the ground coriander to the orange extract, shake it up, and marinate in a glass container for one week. (I used an empty coriander bottle so no unwanted flavors would be added). In our experiment, not knowing if it would turn out well, we bottled half the wheat beer, then we added 1/2 teaspoon of the marinate liquid to the last half of the batch (approx. 2 1/2 gallons), poured through a strainer into the bottling bucket, stirred lightly, and bottled. So next time, I'll double the amount to 1 teaspoon for 5 gallons of brew. Special thanks to my wife, an accomplished baker, who warned me that a little of the orange extract goes a long way, and suggested adding a very small amount to the brew. I was going to add 2 TBS, and after her suggestion, I added only 1/2 tsp. (one-twelfth the amount I originally planned to add)! So glad I did. it tastes great!
1 oz. McCormick Pure Orange Extract (1 bottle)
2 TBS McCormick Coriander Seed, ground (I put it in our coffee grinder)
Add the ground coriander to the orange extract, shake it up, and marinate in a glass container for one week. (I used an empty coriander bottle so no unwanted flavors would be added). In our experiment, not knowing if it would turn out well, we bottled half the wheat beer, then we added 1/2 teaspoon of the marinate liquid to the last half of the batch (approx. 2 1/2 gallons), poured through a strainer into the bottling bucket, stirred lightly, and bottled. So next time, I'll double the amount to 1 teaspoon for 5 gallons of brew. Special thanks to my wife, an accomplished baker, who warned me that a little of the orange extract goes a long way, and suggested adding a very small amount to the brew. I was going to add 2 TBS, and after her suggestion, I added only 1/2 tsp. (one-twelfth the amount I originally planned to add)! So glad I did. it tastes great!
Calichusetts
Well-Known Member
Two days prior to bottling has worked well for me. I often did the vodka tea but have added the spices directly without issue. Throwing the coriander in a sauce pan after crushing can help release the flavors. Just did a brew Saturday with orange zest, coriander and grains of paradise...will let it ride for know before I know if I need do anything later down the road...I want this subtle
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