Best Practices for Adding Lime to Blonde Ale

The majority of the lime flavor is in the skin, that's where the oils are, so zesting fresh lime into the beer after fermentation will give you the best flavor. The acidity, if you want that, and I'd think you'd want some, of course comes from the juice. How much to use? I haven't got a clue. Sorry.

 

Firstly, let me caveat that I have never personally brewed using lime.

A month+ ago I helped a fellow local homebrewer formulate a recipe for a Blonde Ale. The recipe we jointly developed did not have lime as an ingredient but when he brewed the beer he made a decision to add lime zest at the end of boil (and steep). I have a bottle of his beer in my basement (it is likely fully conditioned right now) but I have not drunk it yet.

Maybe adding lime zest at the end of boil will get you what you desire? I have no advice to you as regards amounts.

Cheers!

 

I recently used lime zest in a gose, and the lime flavor came through very well. I added the zest from around 6 key limes (note they're much smaller than regular limes, so I'd go with maybe 2-3? Zest just the green stuff, you don't want too much of the white pith or it'll attribute harsh/bitter flavors. Add it at flameout in the boil.

Then, at kegging/bottling, I made a tincture of zest from another 6 key limes, and let it soak in 4 oz vodka for 3-4 days in a mason jar. I added this directly to the keg before racking my beer onto it. I would assume if you're bottling, that adding this to the bottom of the bottling bucket before racking and giving it a gentle stir would infuse the tincture pretty much the same way.

 

For my hibiscus lime gose, I added a small amount of Rose's lime juice at packaging. A lazy approach, but it ended up working very well for my taste. If you do this, I strongly recommend adding different amounts to commercial beers to dial in your desired strength of flavor. I've used orange and grapefruit zest and also think the lime zest approach would work well.

 

Using zest is fine, as long as you can filter it out. If you're not able to filter well, using the citrus peel is a better idea. So instead of using a grater, you just need to use a vegetable peeler.

In my experience, the high citric acid levels in citrus fruit are not good bedfellows with beer.

 

My boss makes a lime blonde for his brewery, he starts with a 60 gallon batch that is then split into two fermenters; one gets frozen strawberries, the other gets the zest from a dozen limes and about 6 peeled limes slightly crushed. It's got a great aroma from the zest and the actual fruit gives it a nice tart flavor.

 

I brewed a lime Wit last year that turned out well...standard peel late in the boil and zested lime bagged like hops in the keg

 

I made a lime lager once. I used freshly squeezed lime juice in the keg then transferred the beer in to mix. Turned out really damn good.

I forget the quantity of juice. But I recall just playing around with a sample of 500 ml? and dropping in a tsp at a time until I got my ratio right to taste.

 

I like to add lime zest and juice at flameout too and get excellent results

 

No juice, just make a vodka tincture with the zest of a couple limes and add at packaging.

 

If you're adding any hops use some Motueka for late additions to give the lime a little more dimension.