The aroma coming off of my witbier after chilling was absolutely sublime. Citrusy, fruity, little wheaty malt…I wanted to keep this aroma around so bad I ran to a buddy’s house to get some fermcap, hoping it would minimize my amazing aromas blowing off. It didn’t. My ferm chamber has smelled amazing for the last 5 days, and my beer doesn’t.
Was thinking of adding some more chamomile in a muslin bag. I usually add dry hops during the last third of fermentation to the primary and don’t worry about infection since the yeast is so active and the presence of alcohol.
I would feel a little weird adding chamomile and ESPECIALLY citrus zest, since the skin of fruit is so full of nasties. Any recommendations? Maybe just spray them with star-san? add them to boiling water, immediately cover, boil for 1-2 minutes, remove from heat, cool and add the whole thing to the fermenter?
The yeast is still a bit active, as I’ve raised the temp up from my pitch and initial ferment temp of 66 (up to 70, then 72 today), but I seem to have reached a final gravity (1.011 off of 1.048)
Vodka tincture? I tried that w/ raspberries in a raspberry chocolate stout and I could really taste it (though I used everclear).
Tried to split the baby. Soaked .4oz of chamomile and the zest of a navel and a blood orange in vodka for a few hours. Then read something (from Denny!) on the AHA forum and placed a sanitized muslin bag lining my favorite pint glass, poured the whole sloppy mess into there, pulled the bag out, dumped the vodka (which smelled more like vodka than the adjuncts…again only a couple hours), tied off the bag, re-spray sanitized, and dropped the whole thing into my fermenter at 75* or so. Since I’m not trying to turn this beer around for this weekend anymore, I have a little more time to play with it. Maybe if I leave it until Sunday or so, it will have picked up the aroma I’m looking for.
i just finished drinking a spiced red ale that came out pretty darn good. put cinnamon sticks, star anise, sweet orange peels, and crystallized ginger in a muslin bag, put bad in bowl, covered with white rum. (i was out of vodka too!). i let that sit overnight then dumped the whole thing in the keg. pulled it out the next day and carbed it up. in the future i would have used a bit less cinnamon and more orange peel.
Yeah, I don’t drink a lot of spiced beer, but I am finding the best way to control it is to add at packaging if possible. Basically dose four 2oz samples with increasing amounts of whatever flavor you want, pick the one you like most, then scale it up to fit your batch size.
Fruit is a little more tricky. I had GREAT results with a cran saison this Christmas by doing a 2nd ferment with cranberries. I feel like some fruit beers need to be supplemented with fruit extract at bottling though.
Herbs/Flowers/Zest, etc. I think this is my favorite way to go at the moment. Add the bag, taste until its where you want it, remove the bag, package.
