Primary is a 6g carboy. Just thinking its going to be tough getting 4lbs of orange flesh and juice through the neck and into a mesh bag without spilling over or infecting, although risk of infection is very low at 5 plus abv already.

The orange zest in the boil has already imparted a lot of orange flavor and aroma, so I am struggling with whether or not to add the flesh. I feel like it will be overpowered. The flesh wouldn't be wasted either as my wife loves blood orange in her margarita.

Either way, I am going to take another reading and taste on wednesday and decide from there. But to circle back around to a previous question, at what point should one consider transferring to secondary or doing additions that would normally be done in secondary? Does attenuation need to be complete or just the bulk of it?

2 ...

Report Post

Posted by GeauxPack81

Member since Dec 2009

10485 posts

Posted on 3/23/20 at 9:56 pm to puffulufogous

quote:
The orange zest in the boil has already imparted a lot of orange flavor and aroma, so I am struggling with whether or not to add the flesh. I feel like it will be overpowered.

You could make a tincture to add right before bottling. Just slowly add a little of the tincture at a time until you think you've got the right amount of blood orange flavor. Or pull a sample and try to scale it up to your batch size. Just a thought.

quote:
at what point should one consider transferring to secondary or doing additions that would normally be done in secondary? Does attenuation need to be complete or just the bulk of it?

Your fine from an attenuation standpoint IMO. It will finish up in secondary. I think the main reason for keeping it in primary longer would be for the yeasts to "clean up after themselves" and get rid of off flavors that can be produced in fermentation. I'd probably go at least 10-14 days in primary, then move to secondary.

0 ...

Report Post

Posted by BugAC

St. George

Member since Oct 2007

53109 posts

Posted on 3/24/20 at 7:43 am to puffulufogous

quote:
Just thinking its going to be tough getting 4lbs of orange flesh and juice through the neck and into a mesh bag without spilling over or infecting,

4 lbs. isn't that much really (for example, i'm adding 15 lbs of strawberries to a kettle sour). Luckily, the meat of the orange is very soft. You can either freeze the meat of the orange then push it through the funnel into your fermenter or chop up the oranges to smaller pieces and do the same. I do this with my sours. Often times the fruit starts to plug up the funnel. When this happens i take the other end of a spatula and just smash it through the opening. Remember, if you're using a muslin bag, you'll have to be able to get the oranges out. So keep that in mind so you can untie the bag when you are done.

1 ...

Report Post

Food and Drink - Replies to Post

Return To Board

Page 1

Return To Board