Please Critique This Brewbie's Recipe

[Droog]

*NOTE* done with Mr. Beer

2 cans Whispering Wheat Extract
1 tsp crushed coriander seed
1/2 tsp ground Nutmeg
2 small lemons
1 medium orange

- Sanitized all equipment
- added Extract, a little lemon juice and rinds, a little orange juice and rinds, nutmeg, and coriander to post boil for wort.
- added wort to water in keg, added yeast to sit for 10 minutes, mixed it all thoroughly and put 'er away to ferment.

Did I make any wrong or unrecommended moves anywhere? Any recomendations? Like I said I'm a little new at this.

Thanks in advance!

[Otis_The_Drunk]

Just put in the zest of the lemons and orange... The pith (white stuff) will make your beer taste like soap.

[Droog]

Yes I used a filet knife to make sure I had all Peel no Pith! thanks. How's the process look to you?

[Carl Spakler]

I made a spiced holiday ale recently, I wish I had written down more info on how much spices I used as it was a bit overpowering IMO at first. It has mellowed some in the past month or two, though it's still strong. The orange was just not what I felt went well with the beer.

My advice is go easy on the spices, I'd rather have a hint of spice in a good ale, than be overpowered by them. :)

[Otis_The_Drunk]

I would put the spices in secondary, Primary fermentation tends to scrub some Flavors.
everything else looks ok....

[Droog]

Cool! Thanks guys for the great advice. I'lll let you know how it turns out.

[BathroomBrew]

lol, kinda of funny how 2 brewbies post recipes involving orange in their recipes within 1 week.

Maybe fresh orange zest is something to persue.

Good Luck with yours as well
Mines the Orange Cherry Red Ale.
I got a lot of similar feedback on when to add the orange zest

So far mine it coming along very well. Next time i'm probably going to add the orange into the secondary as suggested by a few people

[dparsons]

Originally posted by Otis_The_Drunk
I would put the spices in secondary, Primary fermentation tends to scrub some Flavors.
everything else looks ok....

Would you do that with a Wit as well?

[corkybstewart]

The only spiced beer I've done was a saison last year with orange and lime zest(1 oz total), red and white peppercorns(1 oz total) and coriander seed, (.75 oz). I added all this with 10 minutes left in the boil. Also this was a 10 gallon batch. The peppercorn and coriander were perfect, but it could have used a little more citrus I thought, although the beer was pretty damn good. I'm planning on a similar beer for this summer.

[Otis_The_Drunk]

Parsons, wits are a different story.

But I have noticed a lot of scrubbing of flavors out of primary fermentation, secondary tends to retain flavors a lot better. Also I have also noticed that if spices are added to the boil... sometimes they are too strong.. It's a crap shoot.

What I will tell this member is to put his spices in about a coffee cup full of whiskey for a day or two before putting them into secondary... For some reason it helps distribute the flavors a lot better.

[paulcgi]

it does because the oils & stuff in the spices are much more soluble in alcohol than in water.... at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it

[MichaelM]

Doing a brown ale bittered with Artemisia Absinthium (Wormwood) and some chai style spices. For the wormwood I used vodka to steep the herbs in because other then distilation high proof alcohol is the best way to disolve essential oils.

[dparsons]

Originally posted by Otis_The_Drunk
Parsons, wits are a different story.

But I have noticed a lot of scrubbing of flavors out of primary fermentation, secondary tends to retain flavors a lot better. Also I have also noticed that if spices are added to the boil... sometimes they are too strong.. It's a crap shoot.

What I will tell this member is to put his spices in about a coffee cup full of whiskey for a day or two before putting them into secondary... For some reason it helps distribute the flavors a lot better.

I didn't mean to bug you. The recipe was close enough to a Wit and I was curious as to why the distinction on when the spices were added and how that reasoning might apply to a Wit.

[Otis_The_Drunk]

Parsons, I would say that the reason is that in Belgium the brewers do things that would make most brewers cringe, but it works out for them...
I don't really have an answer for the question, but I will say that with spices in my experience adding them to secondary has always worked out better for me.

[dparsons]

I guess I can try that with a Wit recipe and find out for myself then.