Lemon extract

I’ve been having a lot of fun tooling and re-tooling my white IPA recipe. Because it has been some time since I last brewed up a batch, I wanted to bring this brew on-line again, with a few tweaks to inch ever closer to perfection.

The grain bill is essentially the same as my most recent batch, with the primary change being a switch to 2-row alone as the base malt. Hops are modified slightly in line with my current inventory, with Amarillo hops pellets instead of whole Cascade hops. The final component that I felt the beer was missing was a nice lemon background and aroma. One option was to use Lemondrop hops, but these are rather hard to get. Instead, I elected to craft some lemon extract (see photo at right). With the zest from four lemons and four shots of cheap vodka, I combined it all into a jar and did the “set and forget” routine. Once the beer fermentation is done, I’ll strain the mixture and toss it into the keg.

Pannotia White IPA 1.6

• 7.75 lbs. 2-row malt (Great Western Malting Co.)
• 3 lbs. white wheat malt
• 1 lb. flaked wheat
• 0.5 lbs. flaked quick oats
• 0.5 lbs. rice hulls
• 8 g. gypsum
• 1 oz. Amarillo hops pellets (7.0% alpha, 5.6% beta), added to wort prior to boil and boiled for 60 minutes
• 1 oz. Amarillo hops pellets (7.0% alpha, 5.6% beta), 35 minute boil
• 2 oz. Amarillo hops pellets (7.0% alpha, 5.6% beta), added at flame-out and steeped during chill
• 1 oz. Citra hops pellets (14.1% alpha, 3.6% beta), added at flame-out and steeped during chill
• 1 oz. Galaxy hops pellets (13.8% alpha, 5.9% beta), added at flame-out and steeped during chill
• 1 oz. Citra hops pellets (14.1% alpha, 3.6% beta), dry hop
• 1 oz. Galaxy hops pellets (13.8% alpha, 5.9% beta), dry hop
• 1 oz. Mosaic hops pellets (11.3% alpha, 3.2% beta), dry hop
• 1/8 tsp. yeast nutrient, 10 minute boil
• 8 g gypsum (added to boil)
• 0.35 oz. bitter orange peel, 1 minute boil
• 0.15 oz. coriander seed (crushed), 1 minute boil
• 1 pkg. Belgian Wit Ale yeast (WLP400, White Labs), prepared in 1.25L starter, chilled and decanted
• Lemon extract, zest of four lemons infused in four shots of vodka (~6 oz., resulting in 5 oz. of extract).

Procedure

• Eight days in advance, I prepared a 2L starter, with an aim to overbuild my yeast culture for an upcoming Belgian wit. On the third day, I decanted 0.75L into a jar and cold-crashed the remaining 1.25L. I ended up delaying my brew day a bit, due to illness.
• On brew day, I mashed in with 4.5 gallons of water at 167°, to hit a mash temperature of 152°. The temperature was down to about 150° after 30 minutes.
• After 60 minutes of mashing, I collected the first runnings and then added 4.25 gallons of water at 185°. This raised the mash bed to 165°. I let it sit for 10 minutes, vorlaufed, and collected the remainder of the wort.
• Altogether, I collected 6.75 gallons of wort at a gravity of 1.051, for 75% efficiency.
• I had an outside meeting, so had to leave the wort sitting for two hours. Upon my return, I added the first round of hops and brought the mixture to a boil (approximating a first-wort hopping technique).
• As the wort boiled for 60 minutes, I added the various ingredients per the schedule in the recipe.
• After 60 minutes, I turned off the heat, added the final charge of hops, and chilled the beer. Once the beer was chilled down to 77°, I transferred it to the fermenter and pitched the yeast. A krausen started forming within 12 hours.
• Starting gravity was 1.060. I am fermenting this at 68°, and plan to keep it in the primary for around 10 days before transferring to the keg.
• This beer was brewed on Tuesday, May 10.