Adding Orange To Coopers Canadian Blonde

[Maltysob]

I've just bottled my first extract based ginger beer and had lined up a coopers Canadian blonde for the next brew. I'd like to give it a orange hint to it sort of like the Grand ridge Natural blonde. How would i go about doing this?

 

[BjornJ]

if adding fruit it's often done after primary fermentation is over, as a separate step.
This is done I believe to get the most out of the flavours you want to add as in freshness.

Here is a link to a discussion on adding fruit to beer and some hints around sanitising the fruit or orange peel in your case:


http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/adding-ora...rmenter-117056/

For most fruits, the best time to add them is in secondary fermentation. When added at this time, the fruits are not subjected to heat, their flavors do not end up tasting cooked and their aromas are not lost. The drawback, of course, is that adding fruits in the secondary fermenter runs the risk of contaminating the beer. However, green beer generally has enough alcohol and a pH low enough to discourage the growth of contaminating organisms.

I read that Barry of the ISB'ers said that when wanting to try something like this, ferment the beer and then at bottling time add a little bit straight into the bottles.
This way you don't screw a whole batch if over doing it, or not adding enough.
Carefully label bottles, then add "some" orange peel to 4 bottles, then 2 x "some" orange peel to another 4 bottles, etc until you go tired of adding more and more peel/rind and bottle the rest as normal.
After a month, and then after two you sample all versions and decide which one to do a whole batch of next time.
Sounds like good advice to me, I want to try this with lemon myrtle.

Bjorn

 

[keifer33]

As far as I know the Grand Ridge Natural Blonde is a wheat beer and uses orange peel and coriander. You could work with something simple to get started like this:

1x Canadian Blonde Can
1x Wheat Malt Extract (Liquid Can 1.5kg)
0.2kg Light Dry Malt Extract
Coriander
Orange Peel
Dry Wheat Beer yeast such as WB-06 (or clean ale such as US-05 but this wont give a true wheat beer)

This will get you moving in the right direction but definitely wont be a clone,

The 200g of Dry Malt Extract should be boiled in around 2lts of water. So bring it to the boil and drop the coriander and orange peel in and boil for 5mins. Then add to fermenter with all the other ingredients as per normal.

 

[Maltysob]

I'm sort of struggling to understand this primary and secondary fermentation stuff. What i got from of the first link was that i could sanitise the fruit, mush it up and add it into my brew. Would it be okay to add this minced up orange into the fermenter then bottle in a week as usual?

 

[Tanga]

That looks yum! I was planning on doing something similar, but from the other end (using a wheat kit and adding light malt extract).

There are other ways of adding citrus notes though. The yeast used (not sure about WB-06 but many wheat yeasts add citrus). Some hops also add citrusy notes.

I'm using this yeast and this hops in my next brew. I'll let you know how it goes, but it should (hopefully) have a bit of citrus zing without any actual fruit in the brew =).

 

[keifer33]

That looks yum! I was planning on doing something similar, but from the other end (using a wheat kit and adding light malt extract).

There are other ways of adding citrus notes though. The yeast used (not sure about WB-06 but many wheat yeasts add citrus). Some hops also add citrusy notes.

I'm using this yeast and this hops in my next brew. I'll let you know how it goes, but it should (hopefully) have a bit of citrus zing without any actual fruit in the brew =).

Yeah either way will work just working off the thread with using the Canadian Blonde can. You wont be disappointed with those hops, they would have to be my favorite so far.

I'm sort of struggling to understand this primary and secondary fermentation stuff. What i got from of the first link was that i could sanitise the fruit, mush it up and add it into my brew. Would it be okay to add this minced up orange into the fermenter then bottle in a week as usual?

Primary fermentation is basically where the yeast does all its work and will happen over the first week (in the primary vessel which would be your fermenter). Then transferring it to a secondary vessel (another fermenter) and allowing it to condition a bit further. You really only want the orange peel as the bulk of easily extracted flavors will be in this. If your still starting out id keep it simple til you get a bit more knowledge and confidence.

 

[Tanga]

Don't add any orange to the secondary though - the fruit fermentation thing doesn't really work for citrus. You'll need to use the zest to get the orange flavour from the fruit. This can be added to primary.

 

[Maltysob]

Okay i'll give that a go, thanks for your suggestions guys, i'm bottling my first brew tonight!

 

[DU99]

could try orange clover honey..seen it on selves in shop near me..but flavour might not been that strong...