# Lemon/lime Infused Beer



## whompa1 (4/10/08)

Just had a lemon/lime infused beer. Thinking about brewing one myself. Anyone with a recipe or idea about what stage of the brewing process to had the ingredients. eg. in the first brew or after bottling?
Cheers


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## sinkas (5/10/08)

tried the search engine?

some geezer asked the same question a week or so ago

A lot of eye rolling ensued.


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## rosswill (7/10/08)

Use Glacier hops. It is said to give a Lemony twist to the beer.
I have a Glacier pilsner in secondary at the moment.


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## apd (7/10/08)

Search for radler - that is the name of the style you're after.

Andrew


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## Swinging Beef (7/10/08)

Lime infused lager is a popular Mexican treat called Michelada.
Its normally lime or lime cordial added just before the drink is served, much like the scary lemon in a Corona.
Seriously, the best way to get that lemon lime flavour into a beer is to stick the lemon in the glass after it is poured, but if you are certain you want to make one, get a strong coctail grad lemon cordial and add it to your 2ndary.
Watch for sugar content as you may end up only needing to prime the bottles with the cordial.


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## Rodolphe01 (7/10/08)

Some ideas from a very inexperienced brewer...

You could boil up lemon/lime zest then add at some stage of the brew (fermenter or bulk priming), with lime in particular ensure you remove all white pith from the zest otherwise as it gets very bitter. A good way to get the zest without pith is use a vegetable peeler with light pressure and any pith that remains can be easily scrapped off with a knife.

Another option that comes to mind is you could buy a *good* quality lemon/lime extract/essence from a kitchen supply shop (such as executive chef in South Brisbane) and simply chuck that in at some stage, perhaps at bulk priming if you go that way.

I can't imagine that doing the boil of zest would give you a 'fresh' zing that I assume you are after though.

I have no idea what sort of quantities of zest or essence you'd need either.

And now for a quote from a wise German man in reference to Corona w/ lemon '_If beer was meant to have lemon in it, lemon trees would grow in Germany_'


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## reviled (7/10/08)

rosswill said:


> Use Glacier hops. It is said to give a Lemony twist to the beer.
> I have a Glacier pilsner in secondary at the moment.



Apparantly southern cross can give off lemon characteristics... But theyre really high in the AA's, so may not be a good hop to use as it could easily bump up the IBU's...


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## mynameisrodney (7/10/08)

I bottled a batch of coopers mexican cerveza about a week ago with lemon and lime in it. i juiced 2 lemons and 3 limes, boiled the juice with some water and added to the fermenter. i'll let you know how it is when i crack one.


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## Katherine (7/10/08)

try throwing in some kaffir lime leaves into the fermenter... only 5 or 6 of them.... Couple of chillis also if you dare... 2 months in the bottle the flavours combine beautifully...


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## mynameisrodney (20/10/08)

Ok i've had a few of my mexican cervezas now. The flavour of the lemon and lime is quite strong and overpowers the beer flavour substantially. Despite this, it is a really nice drink. It's definitely the most refreshing thing i have brewed and goes brilliantly with spicy food. Everyone that i have given one to try has also enjoyed it.

ingredients were:
1 coopers mexican cerveza
1kg coopers BE1
500g Dextrose
2 Lemons
3 Limes


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## davidsmith (21/10/08)

Mynameisrodney
what was the %alcohol of your creation


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## buttersd70 (21/10/08)

Dave-bob said:


> Mynameisrodney
> what was the %alcohol of your creation



At a guess, from the ingredients, ~4.5% post primary. But I'll let Rodney confirm that.


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## davidsmith (21/10/08)

buttersd70 said:


> At a guess, from the ingredients, ~4.5% post primary. But I'll let Rodney confirm that.


thanks butters,
sounds like a good brew my brother would like!!


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## mynameisrodney (21/10/08)

Good guess.
OG: 1.041
FG: 1.007
works out to 4.6 prior to bottling according to my calcs. 

It's got me a little confused though, the brewcraft calculator says 
OG: 1.051
FG: 1.012
5.8%


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## reviled (21/10/08)

mynameisrodney said:


> Good guess.
> OG: 1.041
> FG: 1.007
> works out to 4.6 prior to bottling according to my calcs.
> ...



The coopers tin have less malt in them than the brewcraft ones (apparantly) so they give you a higher OG


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## Benbrewer (17/2/09)

mynameisrodney said:


> Ok i've had a few of my mexican cervezas now. The flavour of the lemon and lime is quite strong and overpowers the beer flavour substantially. Despite this, it is a really nice drink. It's definitely the most refreshing thing i have brewed and goes brilliantly with spicy food. Everyone that i have given one to try has also enjoyed it.
> 
> ingredients were:
> 1 coopers mexican cerveza
> ...



My wife will only drink one type of beer, which is the lime infused type. A couple of questions if that's ok?
How much water did you add to the juice when it was boiled, and for how long did you boil it?
I'm planning to keg it so hopefully it will turn out.
What is the clarity of the brew? And did it keep a reasonable amount of gas and head?
Only ever added chilli to beer so not sure on adding extras.

Thanks in advance


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## Adamt (17/2/09)

I can't speak for rodney, but I'd imagine no more than the 2L you should add with the kit?

Also, this thread is a few months old so don't be disappointed if you don't get any responses from the original posters.


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## adraine (17/2/09)

Flame suit on h34r: 

Citrus fruits such as lemons and limes were originally put in beer in Mexico to keep the flies away form the neck of the bottle.
Why on gods green earth would you spoil a decent beer by adding acid???? :icon_vomit: 
Ahhh well whatever floats your boat.


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## manticle (17/2/09)

Swinging Beef said:


> ..........much like the scary lemon in a Corona.



Slightly OT: I was under the (unconfirmed) impression that citrus was added to Mexican beers in Mexico to keep away the flies.
I'd be keen to know if someone with better knowledge can tell me if that's a load of horseshit as I've always found the lemon in Corona beer a bit of a wank (and corona a fairly unexciting beer).


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## /// (17/2/09)

adraine said:


> Citrus fruits such as lemons and limes were originally put in beer in Mexico to keep the flies away form the neck of the bottle.



No flame suit - acid is a common sanitiser in brewing (Peroxitane) and also used to adjust water and wort for pH numerous reasons. (high pH's produce more dextrinous worts, consistency in the brew house etc).

Also, ascorbic acids can, and are seldom used, be used to avert oxidation (alcohol and co2 do this for us naturally). I reckon the easiest way to make this beer though is to back the donkey up (beeep ... beeepp... beeep), grab his slong and alleviate present liquor, bottle it and then cut a fresh lime or lemon wedge and add to it.

I just reckon that the fruit thing is a way to get some flavour into to what is some high quality crap. Can you imagine the effort it takes to make beer so clear and flavourless - it is what one would think as working against common sense and nature. I dare anyone to go out and buy a decent beer and knock out the co2. It would still be drinkable. Do it to a ceveza and well ...

Beer - it is meant to have malt and hop flavour in it!

Scotty


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## Benbrewer (18/2/09)

manticle said:


> Slightly OT: I was under the (unconfirmed) impression that citrus was added to Mexican beers in Mexico to keep away the flies.
> I'd be keen to know if someone with better knowledge can tell me if that's a load of horseshit as I've always found the lemon in Corona beer a bit of a wank (and corona a fairly unexciting beer).



Wa stold by a barmaid that the fly story is true. She learned it on her bar course. I agree Corona is pretty average but the infused beers taste ok and a bit more soild than Corona which I find a bit waterery.

I will test out the infused beer receipe as soon as I drain my first keg, which shouldn't take too long!!


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## Interloper (18/2/09)

I've used kafir lime leaves (available at any Asian or Indian grocers and some fruit & veg shops) and it gives a Mexican Cerveza a very limey/floral twang. Chuck 3-4 in secondary for a week.

I still don't love corona, as it lacks guts/flavour/taste.

As someone said ages ago on this board "The hardest thing about making a corona clone is getting the stray cat to piss in your fermenter first"


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## manticle (19/2/09)

adraine said:


> Flame suit on h34r:
> 
> Citrus fruits such as lemons and limes were originally put in beer in Mexico to keep the flies away form the neck of the bottle.
> Why on gods green earth would you spoil a decent beer by adding acid???? :icon_vomit:
> Ahhh well whatever floats your boat.



Only just realised you posted this a minute before mine. 

Actually just came across this explanation.

Who knows for sure?



> _The reason for the lime is that hop compounds degrade when they come into contact with light. This causes beer in clear bottles to turn 'skunky.' The lime is used to mask this aroma. _



From here: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Corona-(beer)

Still sounds like something I'll be avoiding.


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## fiat84 (21/11/09)

Great homemade fresh citrus extract using vodka infused with lime, lemon, grapefruit, orange, etc.:

After a few tries the easiest and fastest way to zest citrus fruit is by using a horizontal peeler with light pressure with a sawing motion back and forth. You can thinly skin any citrus fruit by removing the outer zest which leaves the bitter white pith behind. The horizontal type peeler head that you also hold horizontally removes almost none of the white pith compared to those manual razor shaped peelers(the one you hold vertically and the head is horizontal on top 90 degrees). Put the zest strips into a cup, add vodka until 1cm higher than the zest, cover with plastic wrap, wait a few days and magically the zest color and flavor is extracted into the vodka. No need to chop up the zest strips it works fine with big strips and the zest strips have almost no flavor remaining after the extract is strained out with a fine mesh strainer. 

For the strongest flavor influence add the strained extract just before bottling to your bulk priming bottling pail. We always taste at this point and add more extract if needed so you can control the flavor influence. Any remaining extract is stored in those small 2oz glass liquor bottles for future use which is why we try to make a bit more than needed. We often add this left over extract to the finished beer when serving for those who want a much stronger citrus flavor. 

Make up Coopers Mexican Cerveza kit with 1KG dextrose, to 23L, 14 day primary at 18C, rack and add extract just before bottling, taste and add more extract if needed, add sugar solution to bulk prime, stir, then bottle. Result is a lightly colored, lightly flavored corona clone with infused lime flavor. 

The attached picture shows the lemon zest on the far left which is also coloring the vodka yellow, the grapefruit is clearer, and both smell great after a few days through the plastic wrap. Hope this helps others save some time and effort. We came up with this fresh citrus extract idea after making a tea from those gray bitter orange peels at my local brew store which did not taste like orange and were extremely bitter so we did not use it. The other picture shows the two varieties of coriander, the greenish, larger, oblong football shape is the "Indian Coriander" on the right which is much more lemony and citrusy compared to the western brown, smaller, round variety.


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