In the early stages of something in vein of Tangerine Dream. I see that the beer is apricot aged with tangerine zest. Would this work in a dark saison or would it instead possibly magnify any bitterness from the dark malts in my beer? Is there any other way to add citrus? I imagine adding juice adds too much extra water.
I just did a blood orange IPA. Added the juice a little at a time to taste before bottling. Expect the sugar in the juice to ferment unless preservatives like sorbitol are in there. It's one way to bottle carb. Then consider cold crashing it before bottles explode.
You can add it to the last 10 minutes of the boil or you can add it to the primary or secondary. Use the surface of the peel, but not the pith (white part).
I would think that an orange flavor would be a nice feature in a Dark Saison. What you want to use for the orange flavor is Orange Zest. Northern Brewer has a kit beer they call La Petite Orange. I have not brewed this beer. The recipe mentions: “…the zest of 2 oranges at flameout…” http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/LaPetiteOrange.pdf Cheers!
I brew my wit when those cutie clementines are in season. I use one clementine per gallonx halved and juiced. I pitch the whole fruit with the peel and all as well as the juice at flameout and let it steep for half an hour. Turns out well.
Sure. You can make tinctures of orange zest and vodka and add it to taste. Layer flavors with zests of different types. Be carful to avoid the pith when zesting, which can be bitter. You can add triple sec or Cointreau or similar in secondary and let it ferment out, or add it at bottling and account for the sugar content, allowing it to prime your bottles. This is not uncharted territory, but do your research to avoid bottle bombs.
