I am brewing a Lemonade Golden Ale similar to Sam Adams Porch Rocker and the recipe calls for Lemon Extract. Can I use fresh Squeezed Lemon and zest instead, and if so much much for a 5-gallon brew?
My guess would be yes, I feel that they are calling for lemon extract to make life easier. As far as how much I’m not sure since I haven’t brewed with lemons yet.
Yes you can but the lemon extract is more consistent and would involve less guesswork as to the amount.
If you want to use extract, use this: If not, use lemon peel (removed by a vegetable peeler in long strips without any pith) and not zest, in the secondary. Unless you have the ability to filter, that is. Don't use lemon juice, as the sugars will ferment out and all you'll be left with is the acidity from (mostly) citric acid.
If you don’t feel like messing with the extracts and peel you can get a lemon like character from hops. Sorachi Ace and Loral to name a couple.
I've used experimental Lemonaughty from Yakima Valley Hops and they gave off some of the smell of Lemon, but not the aroma. When I make my Lemon-Lime Hefeweizen, I add a jug of Simple Limeaide to the beer.
http://brulosophy.com/2017/06/01/the-hop-chronicles-lemondrop/ This write up from Brulosophy is pretty good and there is a YouTube video from the Brew Dudes. Also Ive read some reviews from MoreBeer and Northern Brewer. Not definitive, but helps. I’ve looked into buying some recently but choose not to apon some research.
I took note from the Brulosophy link: “| CONCLUSION | Just the name Lemondrop is enough to leave one with an impression of what to expect from this hop and potentially even influence perceptions a bit. Indeed, citrus was the most prominent character endorsed by participants in terms of both aroma and flavor, which aligned with my personal experience, though the citrus character I perceived wasn’t strongly reminiscent of lemons. Interestingly, Marshall was able to rub Lemondrop cones fresh from the bine during last year’s hop harvest and he said the aroma was quite noticeably lemon forward, which left me wondering if maybe that character might present itself differently in a lower hopped style. Either way, I enjoyed how Lemondrop presented when used as the sole hop and would likely pair well with other hops in a variety of styles.” So, for the experimental beer the Lemondrop hop was strongly citrus but not specifically lemon. Although Marshall detected lemon doing the ‘rub test’ from the prior year. Maybe it is just a case of hops vary with the specific hop crop (i.e., hop crop year, specific hop farm, etc.)? You did notice the photograph where Hopsteiner listed “Lemon” as the first flavor descriptor? Cheers!
Simcoe tastes like cat pee, but we don't call it Cat Pee Drop because that would make too much sense. Paradoxically, we have Lemon Drop hops that don't usually taste like lemon. Yeah, go figure.
I would take the zest (leave the white pith behind) from 2 organic Meyer lemons and make a small tincture with everclear (just enough everclear to wet all the zest), let it sit for a week or so to extract all the essence and strain the zest out before adding tincture directly to the finished beer. It has worked great for me in the past.
