Orange Peel: Dried Or Fresh?

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geoffi

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Planning a Witbier.

Most recipes call for dried peel, but I have seen that fresh peel is used by some.

Any Witmeisters out there have an opinion on fresh vs dried?
 
Chad used fresh in his latest Tropical flower wit and it is bloody fantastic :icon_drool2:

From memory he used quite a bit, maybe he will see this post how much.
 
I've used both, but fresh orange peel is better in my opinion. You can also make your own dried orange peels, but be careful that the oranges are organic. You really don't want any pesticides or anything else that may have been sprayed on them. I also tend to use a lot of orange peel as I really like a strong orange note in my wits.
 
In a 24L batch, I used fresh navel orange rind.
19gm at 20min and 19gm at 0min.
 
I always use the rind of an entire orange, freshly grated, at flameout, and get good orange character. I have no experience in using dried peel, so cannot comment on whether fresh is the better of the 2, it is just what I use and am happy with
All the best
Trent
 
Planning a Witbier.

Most recipes call for dried peel, but I have seen that fresh peel is used by some.

Any Witmeisters out there have an opinion on fresh vs dried?

can you post your recipe?


I allways use dried as I thought that the oil in fresh could affect the head retention,anybody any ideas about this?

I use 30gr off dried ,last 10 min offf boil for 23 liter batch

attatched samples of both,
cheers amita

sevilles_009.jpg
 
For my last wit I added (all for 90 minutes):

272g navel orange peels (not dry)
131g Chinese mandarin orange peels (not dry)
26g dried sweet orange peel (from homebrew supply store)
20g coriander (ground fine)
2g paradise seeds (ground fine)

I was a bit concerned about possible head issues because of the oils, but this beer had a marvelous head. This beer had the perfect orange character but the coriander was a tad low. Next time I'll use 30g of coriander. This was for a 10gal batch, by the way.

During the boil the kettle looked like an orange had puked in it. My kettle's tap kept clogging up because of the orange peels too.
 
As far as the oils go, I'd have thought the dried would have as much as the fresh. Oil doesn't 'evaporate', after all.

I suppose dried is convenient, as you don't need to grate, chop or whatever. But I'm a bit of a drive from the nearest places I can think would probably have it, so the fresh appeals (boom, boom).

My basic recipe I'm thinking up is 50% pils, 20% wheat malt, 25% wheat flour, 5% rolled oats, EKG to 15IBU, coriander, cumin and orange (or mandarin) peel.

I have a bottle of Hoegaarden and I'll try to culture up the yeast from that.
 
Anybody used cumquat peel instead of orange? I've got a tree full in the backyard.
 
I have a bottle of Hoegaarden and I'll try to culture up the yeast from that.

I would recommend against that action and suggest you use WY3944 Belgian Witbier as your yeast. The yeast in Hoegaarden is a lager strain and not the fermenting strain. I cultured some a couple of years ago and the results were pretty ordinary.
 
Just had my witbier brew arv.

Ended up using fresh peel from two oranges -- one at 10 mins, one at 0. Plus 20g lightly crushed coriander @ 10, 10g @ 0.

Had a great smell. No doubt some is lost during fermentation, but it bodes very well.

Yeast-wise, I'll probably use K-97 for this one, as I don't have a genuine witbier yeast. I cultured up dregs from a Hoegaarden, but it didn't smell right, and tasted very odd, so dried it is.
 
The K-97 I pitched didn't show any signs of life after 24 hours so I pitched some US-56 for insurance. The show got going soon after.

Just gone into secondary. Fermented down to 1.011 from 1.052.

So far it's looking, smelling and tasting surprisingly like Hoegaarden. The orange has settled down but is still very much there. Coriander is more subtle. Very promising.
 
Anybody used cumquat peel instead of orange? I've got a tree full in the backyard.

Use kumquats whole in the boil, they work great!!!

Quite a good approximation of bitter orange peels from the seville variety imo.

Q
 
Anybody used cumquat peel instead of orange? I've got a tree full in the backyard.

yer RW ive used cumquat for me last 2 wits 1 per kg of grain i just cut them in half & drop them in for the last 5mins of the boil they work a treat tiny bit more bitter than the orange peel but works great in this style on beer
2.5kg pils
2.5kg wheat flaked
5 cumquats halfed 5min
15g coriander seed 5min
wb-o6
 
I should have added that the bottom of my fermenter had the most amazing amount of gunk I've ever seen. Three litres of sludge. I did have some sparging problems which no doubt contributed to this. Next time I'll use a crapload of rice hulls.
 
Use kumquats whole in the boil, they work great!!!

Quite a good approximation of bitter orange peels from the seville variety imo.

Q

Just remeber in a traditional Wit, the orange peel gives bitterness and the coriander the "orange" flavour.

Wes
 
This works well for a Wit?

I have some S-33 I was planning to try, but I love the WB-06, and am brewing another Weissbier soon, so I might give some of the slurry go instead.

it works well for me if u ferment it @ 20deg produces just the right amount of banana & a really smooth finish
 

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