Lemon Twist

[jbumpstead]

Hi folks,

Getting my younger bro into home brew. He reckons he enjoys a beer from one of the big commercial breweries that has a hint of lemon in it. He'd like to brew something similar.

My question is will adding lemon juice to the wort kill the yeast? I wonder if the commercial brewery adds it at the end of the fermentation prior to botlling?

I did a search but couldn't find anything. I'm bracing for the "why'd you want lemon in your beer anyway", but like I said, if that's what he enjoys drinking, might be good to start him on something similar.

Has anyone had any experience with adding lemon/lime juice to the brew?

Cheers and thanks for any help.

Bumma

 

[manticle]

Hi folks,

Getting my younger bro into home brew. He reckons he enjoys a beer from one of the big commercial breweries that has a hint of lemon in it. He'd like to brew something similar.

My question is will adding lemon juice to the wort kill the yeast? I wonder if the commercial brewery adds it at the end of the fermentation prior to botlling?

I did a search but couldn't find anything. I'm bracing for the "why'd you want lemon in your beer anyway", but like I said, if that's what he enjoys drinking, might be good to start him on something similar.

Has anyone had any experience with adding lemon/lime juice to the brew?

Cheers and thanks for any help.

Bumma

I don't think it would kill the yeast but I can't imagine the flavour would hang around much either. yeast can cope with more than a bit of citric acid - I've used orange juice in homemade candy sugar before and all sorts of fruits have been put into beer (raspberry hefeweizen, orange and coriander in hoegaarden etc).

Maybe try using zest in secondary/part way through primary?

Use only the coloured part of the skin - not the white pith. Might need a few lemons worth to get a full impact but start slow and increase next time is a better approach than overdo it and make something undrinkable.

 

[Josh]

Try brewing a light lager or ale and then in 4 x 375ml glasses of beer add 1, 2, 3, 4 drops of lemon juice in each.

Get him to taste each and tell you which he likes the most.

Then at bottling add that many drops (x 2 for a longneck) to each bottle.

If this works, let me know cos at the moment it's something I've heard but not run with.

 

[bum]

It won't kill the yeast - search the board for lemonade recipes. The yeast will be fine.

Manticle is right - some of the flavour may get scrubbed out during fermentation. Maybe rack onto the juice for secondary? Someone here will have made something similar before and have better advice.

Josh's idea may be a good one but remember lemon juice has sugar in it so take that into account in your priming - not sure how significant the amount of sugar is.

 

[Phoney]

Your brother is probably a fan of Radler style beers (like Barefoot Radler)

Bit of info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radler

Try using lemon cordial like Bickfords into your next lager instead of priming sugar, there was a thread on here recently on using cordial for priming..

 

[jbumpstead]

Priming with cordial is a definately something I would never have thought of.

The beer is Carlton dry fusion with salt and lime.

From Hoppsy.com

Australias Carlton and United Breweries are the latest brewery to try their hand at a beer with salt and lime added. The Carlton Dry Fusion has just been released onto the local market and if the first few weeks of trade are any indication this drink is going to be one of the most popular boutique beers this summer in Australia. The beer is a full strength beer but with 25% lower carbohydrates than normal beer, so not only does it taste great it helps that dreaded beer belly away while lazing on the beach this summer. The dry taste is really enhanced with the twist of freshly squeezed lime and salt giving it a really refreshing taste. The might be a little hard to get until all the bottle shops and pubs stock it, but trust Hoppsy, the wait will be worth it- we really think most beer drinkers and a lot of people who are not too keen on beer will really enjoy it. It should really help open up a new market.

Think I may go with Josh's idea and add a small amount of lime juice and salt(??) at bottling. Thanks for all your input!

Bumma.

Edit: typo

 

[manticle]

Slightly OT and to be expected but that marketing blurb is laughable in so many ways.

I have absolutely no problem with experimenting with flavours in beer by the way so this is not a dig at the OP.

Firstly how is Carlton anything ever a 'boutique beer'?
Secondly Carlton's many attempts at remarketing their bland basic beer (which I will happily drink in context by the way - a cold one or nine on a summer's day after work with friends or jugs while watching a band is not to be discredited) are usually pretty woeful. Does anyone remember the Carlton with a vodka shot?

I won't start on the low carb thing because everybody knows it's bollocks.
Finally any beer designed to appeal to people who don't really like beer is likely not to really be like beer.....

Which is a shit idea for making a beer.

The comments on that linked page pretty much sum it up for me (in reverse).

 

[jbumpstead]

Agreed Manticle,

I hadn't heard of it before which was the reason for the post. I just wanted some ideas for when to add the citrus. By no means am I trying to spruke the Carlton brand as a top boutique beer.

 

[manticle]

No it wasn't a reference to you. Bad marketting (although the product will probably do really well - as they say 'it tastes even better than corona!!') just makes me chuckle.

 

[jbumpstead]

I know, no wukkas . Maybe on a warm summers day. Not that great this time of year.

 

[altone]

If you really want to do this I'd go the zest route late in fermentation.

I remember doing a Mexican style beer and adding the zest of 6 lemons when racking to secondary
which was quite drinkable on a hot afternoon.

Most of the flavour/aroma comes from the zest.

Just my 2c worth

 

[br33zy]

Bumma,

See my reply to a similar topic here a week or so ago. A good lemon flavoured quaffer.

Cheers

Breezy

 

[AntCoop]

If looking for a Kit & Kilo style beer, Morgans have a Cortez Cervera with lime infused in the goo in the tin. It also comes with lager yeast so it would need to be fermented at about 12 degrees

Hope this helps

Cheers Coops :icon_cheers:

 

[brettprevans]

glacier hops are what you need. lemony taste.