Meyer lemons and pale ales

[benflath]

Hi all,
I've been particularly drawn to the amazing sweet, floral flavor of meyer lemons this year and thought it was about time someone brought that to a beer. I've put together the recipe below, but am still trying to figure out when to add the juice and the zest. I feel like putting zest in the secondary would get the most aromatic flavors, and the juice after the boil for the most bright flavor, but I'm a little worried about overpowering and sanitation. Any thoughts? Thanks!

6 gal boil, 5 gal batch

- 5.5 lbs 2-row
- 2.5 lbs CaraPils
- 1 lb Crystal 15L
- 1 lb flaked barley
- 1 oz Cascade @ 60min
- 0.5 oz Santiam @ 30min
- 0.5 oz Citra @ 15min
- zest of 6 Meyer lemons
- juice of 3 Meyer lemons
- American Ale yeast

 

[acidrain23]

If it was me, I would soak the lemon zest in vodka or other neutral spirits and add little by little shortly before bottling until you're reached your desired concentration. Or, maybe add half of what you have there at the end of the boil and tincture the other half as mentioned for additional control.

 

[benflath]

Thanks, that's a great idea to be able to control exactly how much flavor is going in to the brew!

On an unrelated note, I think I am going to move half the cascade to 30 min or remove it entirely with the hope that the floral lemon taste will really take over.

 

[benflath]

Update: Brewed yesterday with the following recipe

- 6.5 lbs 2-row
- 1.5 lbs CaraPils
- 1 lb Crystal 15L
- 1 lb 6-row
- 0.5 oz Cascade @ 60min
- 0.5 oz Cascade @ 30 min
- 0.5 oz Tettnang @ 30min
- 0.5 oz Tettnang @ 15 min
- 0.5 oz Citra @ 15min
- zest of 8 Meyer lemons @ 15 min
- juice of 8 Meyer lemons @ 15 min
- American Ale yeast
- 0.5 oz Citra (dryhop)

When everything went into the fermenter, the Meyer lemon smell was pretty great. Hopefully it won't totally disappear, but if it does I'll add some more zest in secondary using the method above.

 

[EyePeeA]

I would've added the zest and juice in the secondary. The aromatic oils in the zest and the brightness of the juice would've held up better that way.

 

[benflath]

It's not too late! My only concern with adding the juice in secondary was sanitation. Any boiling or freezing (really any time spent not being a whole lemon) would drastically reduce or eliminate the lovely aroma. Any thoughts on how I could do this or am I worrying unnecessarily?

I suppose I could always split the batch...

 

[JUST_BREW_IT]

It's not too late! My only concern with adding the juice in secondary was sanitation. Any boiling or freezing (really any time spent not being a whole lemon) would drastically reduce or eliminate the lovely aroma. Any thoughts on how I could do this or am I worrying unnecessarily?

I suppose I could always split the batch...

I'm also very interested in methods for adding lemon or lime zest late in the game. I'm using Biermuncher's Centennial blonde as a base recipe. I have 10 gallons going on 10 days in the primary. I would like to add lime zest to half of the batch.

I was thinking of zesting 4 or 5 limes and boiling in a cup of water. Wonder if this would work for what we are wanting while minimizing contaminants with the boil?

 

[acidrain23]

It's not too late! My only concern with adding the juice in secondary was sanitation. Any boiling or freezing (really any time spent not being a whole lemon) would drastically reduce or eliminate the lovely aroma. Any thoughts on how I could do this or am I worrying unnecessarily?

I suppose I could always split the batch...

Add neutral spirits vodka, everclear etc to kill the germs while still preserving your volatiles.

 

[inthesound]

If your fermentation is done, and there's alcohol in your beer, I wouldn't worry. Sanitize everything else, but just add your zest right to it. That's what hops and alcohol are good for: eliminating bacteria.

I'm rather skeptical at the addition of lemon juice. I had a beer not too long ago that was of a similar sort, but with grapefruit instead of lemons. It definitely had a noticeable grapefruit flavor, which put it over the top, honestly. I'd be worried about the same sort of thing happening here, but I'd same lemon juice might be even more potent. Whenever I use citrus zest, I add it to the flameout addition, and if you want to bring it up in the nose, add it to the secondary, but if you're going to dry hop, and don't mind dry hopping in stages, I'd say dry hop with your hops first, then dry hop just with a zest addition.

 

[benflath]

10 days in and it's still fermenting! Bubbling from the airlock every couple minutes! I figured a fairly low gravity beer wouldn't take so long...

Hopefully I will rack this to secondary tonight or tomorrow, depending on it's activity level. I'll update with taste tests, but it still smells pretty good coming out of the airlock.

 

[benflath]

Moved the beer over to secondary today. A little high on my FG (1.0165 vs my target of 1.015), but it will probably drop a little lower. It has an interesting smell, sort of lemony, but not quite what I want yet. Dry hopping with citra and lemon zest next weekend will change that, though. It has a good light color, body and base bitterness. I'll post an update in two-ish weeks at bottling.

 

[benflath]

Bottled yesterday. Great golden color, spot on for my target. Could smell the lemon pretty well and I think carbonation will help increase that. The dryhopped citra is a nice complement to the minty, flowery aroma from the zest. Didn't quite get down to target gravity (1.016 vs 1.015), but I'm ok with that.

 

[benflath]

Popped the first bottle yesterday. I'm pretty happy with it. Good lemony aroma with lots of the floral Meyer lemon in the aftertaste. Good level of bitterness and great color, a bit low on the head retention, but the level of carbonation is just right. Slightly sweeter than I was aiming for, but overall a pretty solid brew. Might leave out the juice next time and just stick to the zest.

 

[benflath]

For anyone who showed interest, I submitted this recipe in a competition recently. 41.5 points! Wasn't a finalist or anything, but I'm really happy with that score. It's just about Meyer season again, so stay tuned on recipe updates!