Product details – Preferred by some to the bitter version, Sweet Orange Peel is the ideal addition to your Belgian strong ales and special holiday brews. Think Grand Marnier and Cointreau. How to use Sweet Orange Peel? To add a rich orange aroma to your homebrew, add at least 1 once of Sweet Orange Peel during the last 2-5 minutes of the boil. }
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How do you add citrus to beer?
A Your description reminds me of something in between a malternative and the classic beach side invention of a cold brew garnished with a wedge of lime. I must confess I too like certain beers enhanced with citrus flavors. Lager and lime, wheat beer with lemon and Belgian-style ales flavored with orange peel are examples of such pairings.
Maintaining a fresh citrus flavor in beer can be very difficult — no matter if you attempt to get the flavor from fresh fruit added early in the process or from juice prior to bottling. This is analogous to maintaining a fresh hop aroma in beer. Most brewers agree that very few beers, even when dry hopped, maintain all of the hoppy goodness found in hops prior to their addition to wort or beer.
The common citrus oils (lime, lemon, orange and grapefruit) are all primarily comprised of a compound called d-limonene, a monoterpene that has the distinctive orange aroma. Bergamot oil (used to flavor Earl Grey tea) is not dominated by d-limonene, an oddity among citrus oils, and is primarily made up of linalool, an oxygenated monoterpene, and linalyl acetate giving Bergamot oil a floral character.
- The “d” preceding limonene is a stereochemical modifier and signifies that there is a mirror image cousin called l-limonene; l-limonene smells like fresh pine needles.
- The compounds making lemon, lime and orange oil smell different from one other are a variety of other terpenes, such as farnasesne, caryo-phyllene and pinene, to name a few, as well as other aroma compounds.
Interestingly, these same terpenes are found in hops and explain why citrusy and piney are two common hop aroma descriptors. If you want to maintain the citrus oil aroma you should use the same practices employed to preserve hop aroma, such as late hopping and dry hopping.
Belgian-style white ale or wit bier is flavored using the peel of the bitter Curaçao orange and most recipes I have seen call for adding this ingredient late in the boil. I have used Curaçao orange peel added in the kettle and to beer during aging and have been happy with both methods. Peel oil is only one component of what one perceives as citrus flavor.
The other key components are sugar and acid. Most citrus juices have a specific gravity of about 1.048 because they contain sugar, like other commonly eaten fruits. They are also high in citric acid. The combination of sweet and sour give balance to citrus juices and some are more drinkable than others.
- Lime and lemon juices are more acidic than orange and grapefruit and are made more palatable as a beverage by adding “ade” behind their respective name.
- To transform lime or lemon juice to limeade or lemonade involves diluting the juice with water, thus diluting the acid to a palatable level and then boosting the sugar level back up to the undiluted strength by adding sugar.
Orange juice, grapefruit juice, limeade and lemonade all contain that “clean and crisp” flavor you are seeking. When the balance of the juice is disrupted so is the clean and crisp flavor. This problem is not unique to citrus beers and many fruit beers turn out to be a disappointment because they lack the fruity flavor of the juice used in the formulation.
- One reason is that the fruit sugar is fermented and that component of the fruit juice flavor is lost.
- In the case of wine, that’s a good thing since the goal is not to produce alcoholic grape juice unless of course we’re thinking of Mad Dog 20/20! The other component that is diminished is the acidity and that is primarily caused by dilution.
Okay, now for some frank advice on what you are projecting. Adding acid to the finished product is a common method used by commercially produced citrus flavored beverages. Go to the store and read the labels on non-alcoholic citrus drinks and you find that many contain various acids, with citric and phosphoric being the most common.
- Lowering the pH of a drink gives it that acidic zip you seek.
- This method will help achieve your desired result.
- Once upon a time I experimented with a blend of high-quality fruit juices, malic acid, lactic acid and acetic acid (found in lambics) to produce a blend that could be added to light beers (such as wheat beers) to produce a pseudo-lambic.
The resulting beer was delicious, but the blend was too expensive to be commercially viable. We sold a pilot run of this elixir to a brew-pub and it cost $90 to flavor one keg — unfortunately far too much for most brewpubs to afford. The key to this brew was the acid blend.
Without it the beer was too cloying and lacked the crispness and drinkability you desire in fruit beers. You can add the acid in the form of lime or lemon juice if you simply add enough fruit. Although many brewers cringe when people want fruit in their beer the result is quite refreshing. I personally enjoy wheat beer with lemon and light lagers with lime.
To really get that fruity tang, one quarter lemon per half liter gives a good, assertive flavor. This translates into the juice of 10 lemons or limes per 5 gallon batch. So, you could add this juice right before bottling, but the juice is fermentable and there is yeast in any unfiltered beer.
This means you would have to filter and preferably pasteurize (or chemically stabilize your brew) to prevent fermentation. This is not an attractive alternative to most of us, who appreciate the flavor components of unfiltered yeast in a brew. My honest and least sexy suggestion is to do what so many beer drinkers do when they want a lemon or lime flavor in their beer,
cut a piece of fresh, juicy citrus fruit, hold it over your glass, give it a squeeze and drop it in your brew — simple and effective!
How much orange to add to beer?
Use 1/2 – 1 ounce in a 5 gallon batch of beer. Add the peels with 15 minutes left of the boil.
Do you put the orange in the beer?
Why should I not drop the waiter-provided orange slice into my wheat beer?
The Question Why should I not drop the waiter-provided orange slice into my wheat beer? The Answer Because you’re not a cheesy North American beer newbie, you’re a sophisticated Belgian!
I don’t know how the orange slice became the de rigueur garnish in North America. It’s seen as déclassé by many wheat-beer aficionados in Belgium and Germany, where wit and weizen (or weissbier ), the brew’s respective names in those countries, is a cherished summer quaff.
- Good wheat beer, which is often flavoured during brewing with orange peel and spices, particularly in the Belgian style, needs no support from extraneous ingredients.
- Adding a slice of orange will upset the balance and prematurely disperse the brew’s foamy head.
- If you really love the taste of citrus and don’t take beer too seriously, order a Corona and enjoy the refreshing zest of the mandatory lime wedge.
your wine and spirits questions to Beppi Crosariol. Look for answers to select questions to appear in the and on The Globe and Mail website. : Why should I not drop the waiter-provided orange slice into my wheat beer?
How do you add orange peel to kegs?
Product details – Preferred by some to the bitter version, Sweet Orange Peel is the ideal addition to your Belgian strong ales and special holiday brews. Think Grand Marnier and Cointreau. How to use Sweet Orange Peel? To add a rich orange aroma to your homebrew, add at least 1 once of Sweet Orange Peel during the last 2-5 minutes of the boil. }
Why do you put orange in beer?
Beerista: The bittersweet role of oranges in beer Oranges have a special place in the brewing world. Subtle or strong, their presence in beer is varied and fascinating – sometimes bringing out the hoppy bitterness of a beer, adding a bright citrus tang or a delicate summery sweetness.
- Belgian breweries have used orange peel in their recipes down through the years – most notably in their Wit beers – and often paired it with coriander.
- Now you’ll get more brewers within the craft world experimenting and adding the juice and zest to get a more intense burst of orange flavour.
- Oranges fall into two categories: sweet and bitter.
Valencia and blood oranges are sweet, while Seville and the specially harvested Curacao oranges are bitter. Traditionally only sour oranges were used by brewers, primarily for the pungent oil in their rind. Hoegaarden, for example, uses Curacao oranges, but you’ll find Valencia orange peel on the list of ingredients in the mainstream Blue Moon beer.
- Orange is the New Black, made by Waterford brewery Metalman, uses Italian sun-dried orange peel which gives the beer a gentle orange taste to contrast with its dark, almost chocolate character.
- In comparison, Rascal’s Yankee White IPA also uses orange peel but it plays a quieter, more background citrus role.
Colorado company Ska Brewing has an IPA called Modus Mandarina (their famous IPA is called Modus Hoperandi) which is brewed with sweet orange peel and dry hopped with Mandarina Bavaria hops. It has a lovely coppery and amber colour and is quite bitter with an orange marmalade zing (think Jaffa Cakes without the sweetness).
How do you add orange peel to homebrew?
Sweet Oranges (Citrus sinensis) – Sweet oranges are the ones you know and love from the supermarket, the kind whose juice drips down your chin. The peel of the sweet orange delivers a more positively identifiable orange character to beer than does that of the bitter orange.
A popular member of the sweet orange family, the Valencia (Citrus sinensis var._ Valencia_) is the signature variety found in Blue Moon Belgian White. If you enjoy this kind of flavor, then sweet orange peel is the way to go. Sweet orange peel is popular in holiday beers and pairs well with other holiday spices such as cloves and cinnamon.
You can purchase the product dried, or you can always zest oranges from the supermarket. Just pick one you like, and make sure to use only the colorful outer layer and avoid the white pith underneath, which is bitter in a not-so-good kind of way. So there you go.
- Use bitter orange peel for a pleasant citrusy character and sweet orange peel for intense orange flavor.
- Regardless which you choose, start small and adjust your recipe to taste.
- Add 0.5–1.0 ounce (14–28 grams) of dried orange peel 5 to 15 minutes before the end of the boil, or steep in hot water for 10 minutes and add to secondary.
And here’s a Belgian witbier recipe to get you started.
How long to add fruit to beer?
Preparing & Adding Fruit – The methods of preparing fruit will largely depend on the form of the fruit (ex. whole, puree, juice, etc.), and at what point the fruit will be added to the beer. Again, there are many ways to skin the proverbial cat. Whole, puree, and juiced fruit are often added in the last minutes of the boil.
- This acts as a quick pasteurization step to prevent any potential bacterial contamination that could make your fruit beer go south.
- Adding fruit to the boil means the fruit is in the wort during active fermentation.
- Having fruit in the fermenter during fermentation causes a much different fruit character than you might find when adding fruit post-fermentation.
For starters, the fruit will likely add fermentable sugars to the wort, which you may want to account for when formulating the recipe. Fermented fruit also has a much different character than post-fermentation fruit additions. A lot of the fruit character will be blown off from the rigor of fermentation, and what remains will be a more wine-like fruit character since the fruit’s sugars were fermented, rather than a fresh fruit quality.
In some fruit beers, especially those that may use wine grapes, the fermented fruit character may be desired. Purees and juices can be added directly to the boil kettle. You can do the same with whole fruit, but you may want to consider mashing or pulse-blending the fruit before adding it to the boil to help release more of the juices.
Bagging the fruit in a hop bag is suggested if dealing with a lot of flesh and seeds, but it’s not 100 percent necessary if you take care not to rack the solids into the primary fermenter. If you’re after more fresh fruit character that is reminiscent of the raw fruit being used, then stick with post-fermentation additions after primary fermentation has nearly completed.
However, since you don’t have the high temperatures as you would when boiling fruit, you need to take extra care to avoid contamination (unless, of course, you are after something wild). Often times juices, purees, and frozen fruits undergo flash-pasteurization which leaves little risk for contamination if added to beer.
Whole fruit, on the other hand, is another story. First, mash or pulse-blend the fruit to release the juices and create more surface area for the beer to be in contact with the fruit. Now you have three options for pasteurization. First, is a low-heat pasteurization method that you can do in a double boiler or carefully directly on heat.
- Hold the mashed fruit at around 150-170°F for about 15 minutes, and that should rid the fruit of most of the unwanted bacteria.
- Second, simply freezing the mashed fruit before adding it to the fermenter.
- It is said that freezing and thawing fruit a few times helps release more flavors by breaking down cell walls, which means a fruitier brew! Third, simply do nothing at all and hope for the best (good luck!).
Once you’ve pasteurized your mashed fruit, bag it in a hop bag like you would dry hops and add it to your secondary fermenter or keg. Make sure all the juices make it into the fermenter, too, even if the bag doesn’t contain it. Then, simply age it on the fruit like you would dry hops.
- Pull samples and once it tastes as you hoped, yank the bag and bottle or start serving! You can forgo the hop bags and add fruit directly to the fermenter, but this will likely require filtering, racking to additional fermenters and/or cold crashing to get clear, solid-free fruit beer.
- Sources: “Brewing with Fruit” by Dave Mentus (May/June 2010 ); “Notes from a Fruit Beer Fancier” by Randy Mosher (July/August 2002 Zymurgy ); “Sweet & Sour: Adding Fruit to Sour Beer” by Kevin Wright (May/June 2015 Zymurgy ).
: How to Add Fruit to Beer
How to add fruit to beer recipe?
FRUIT EXTRACTS – The easiest way to add fruit flavor to your beer is to use a fruit extract. These come in 4 oz. bottles, and are added just before bottling or kegging. Most recipes call for 4 oz. in a 5 gallon batch, but some brewers find this to be too much.
- We recommend adding 2 oz., stirring it in, then tasting it.
- You can always add more extract if the flavor isn’t strong enough for you, but you can’t really take it back out.
- To use fruit extracts, simply pour the extract into your bottling bucket or keg before you transfer the beer.
- This way you can be certain that the extract gets blended in really well.
The main advantage of using extracts is their ease of use. Some brewers may find the flavor to be too strong or too sweet. If this is the case for you, you may want to try fresh, frozen or canned/jarred fruit next time. Real fruit isn’t quite as sweet and provides a nice backdrop to many beers.
How do you add color to beer?
Did you know all beer is red? We don’t perceive all beer as red, of course, but deep down in its molecules, it is. Since all beer is red, what determines the color of beer? Grain is by far the strongest coloring agent in beer, and grains are colored by melanin, a rust-red pigment that drives the color of beer.
But what about Pale Ales and Imperial Stouts, you say? Some beers don’t appear red at all. As with most questions about beer, the answer involves chemistry – in fact, a number of factors can affect color, and we’ll take a closer look at all of them. We’ll also examine what beer color can (and can’t) cue us to expect in terms of flavor, as well as how beer color is measured and described.
The Chemistry of Color Two chemical reactions make grains go from pale yellow to jet black: Maillard reactions and caramelization. Maillard reactions are what you get when you start linking amino acids to sugars, usually prompted by the introduction of heat.
The resulting combinations create a wide range of flavors and aromas and are associated with darkening color. Know it or not, you’ve been chasing and enjoying these flavors your whole life: the “browning” of grains in a kiln (and wort, in the boil) is the same process that steak or toast undergoes when heated.
In beer, these Maillard reactions express most often as toasty flavors, but that’s far from exclusive: literally hundreds of perceptible flavors can be created in this process. Since the reactions generally occur at lower temperatures (100-200⁰ F, depending on the malt we’re developing), time becomes an important factor.
- Length and temperature of kilning can vary and create malts of the same color, but they may have different properties relevant to brewers (whether they can be converted in the mash, for example ).
- The second process – caramelization – is much simpler.
- Caramelization is what happens when you heat a sugar until it breaks apart.
Grains don’t naturally contain sugar, though: we need to convert the starch in the grain into sugar, so the first step in the process is getting the grain wet and heating it to about 160⁰ F. At that temperature, you’re developing sugars inside the grain.
The maltster will then ramp up the temperature to 220⁰ F or higher, and at that temperature you’re baking the sugars apart. The flavor compounds are exactly what you’d expect if you’ve ever tasted caramel: burnt sugar, butter, dark fruit and toffee. The longer the malts are caramelized, the darker they’ll get.
All caramel malts contain also non-fermentable sugars, which will add flavor but not potential alcohol. Finally, we have roasted or chocolate malts. Nothing complicated here: these are non-caramelized malts that are simply kilned at high temperatures until they’re roasted black.
They add deep colors, and usually impart coffee, chocolate and even acrid/burnt notes. Far and away, the malts chosen and their ratios within the recipe are the most important aspect of beer color. The darker the malts used, or the more pale malts used (the color builds, making the aggregate color darker), the darker the beer will be.
Even small amounts of chocolate (roasted) malt will bring on rapid color shifts, while pale malts in sufficient quantities can still make for a very dark beer. Time is Color An underappreciated contributor to beer color isn’t even an ingredient: it’s time, As beer ages, particles in suspension within the beer – yeast, polyphenols, etc. – begin to fall to the bottom of the vessel. The remaining beer will reflect less light, making it appear darker.
In this way, age all by itself will darken beer over time. Aging also creates new flavor perceptions, the most notable of which is that beers become less bitter as the isomerized alpha acids that make the beer bitter break down over time, and the malts are emphasized. The aging process can be accelerated by something we often associate with age in beer: oxidation.
Oxygen is a key component in the degradation of organic products and can have pronounced effects on beer color. The oxidative process that turns bananas brown has the same basic effect on your beer, and just like with stale fruit or bread, you’ll notice flavor differences.
- Flavors will first become muted, and if oxidation is more severe, off-flavors like cardboard or wet paper can develop.
- Not all aged, oxidative flavors are bad, of course.
- The sherry or vinous flavors that result from oxidized melanoidins can be very pleasant in amber or dark beers.
- By and large, though, oxygen is the enemy, and if you see a beer that’s darker than it should be (a deep red IPA, for example), be on the lookout for off-flavors from age or oxidation.
The Usual (and Unusual) Suspects So far it’s been malts (and how kilned/toasted/roasted they are, and the amount used) and time that predict beer color. A host of other factors contribute as well, just to lesser degrees. In no particular order:
Boil Length: The longer a beer is boiled, the more Maillard browning occurs. pH Level: A more acidic mash results in a paler beer thanks to the chemistry of water. It’s also possible for some molecules in fermenting beer to lose their color as the pH lowers, causing the color of the beer to lighten slightly. Yeast Strain: “Low-flocculating” yeasts stay in suspension longer, catching more light, whereas “high-flocculating” yeasts drop clear more quickly. Hops Usage: Hops – especially as the amount used increases – leave behind polyphenols and acids. Depending on the beer, this can create haze that lightens the perceived color of the beer. Specialty Ingredients: This should be obvious but adding new ingredients with different colors of their own can skew the color of your beer! I still remember the blood-red cranberry ale my wife made; it was a beautifully unusual color in beer. Many fruited sours take on exotic colors thanks to fruit or syrup additions, adding to their visual and flavor interest.
What Color Tells Us – and What It Doesn’t Color tells us surprisingly little about what a beer will taste like. It gives us probabilities, not certainties. A lighter beer is more likely to feature light grainy flavors: biscuit, bread, very light toast.
As a beer moves towards amber and copper, we’re more likely to perceive caramel and toffee flavors. And, naturally, dark brown or black beer is more likely to showcase cocoa and coffee flavors. These are not conclusive, though: since color can be so easily shifted down the color scale by even minute amounts of roasted malts, it’s perfectly possible to use a relatively low-flavor-impact chocolate malt (Midnight Wheat, for example) and adjust color without adding flavor.
Color can be misleading. A good flavor wheel can give you approximations, but take it with a grain of grain! Probably the most common misperception is that color predicts alcohol content. If beer were brewed using only a single type of malt, it would: as grain was added to the grist and more sugar added to the wort, the color would darken at a generally linear rate.
However, it’s perfectly possible to make a double-digit ABV Belgian Tripel that’s pale gold by using only pale malts and simple sugars (which may add no color at all). By the same token, it’s possible to produce a German Schwarzbier (black lager) under 4 percent ABV by using small doses of roasted malts.
Assume nothing about ABV based on color – doing so can be, frankly, dangerous. Defining Color Finally, we turn to measuring color in beer. Believe it or not, there’s a lot of science that went into developing the scale we use! Beer color is measured on the Standard Reference Method (SRM) scale.
- SRM is calculated by passing light of a specific wavelength through a specific “thickness” of beer (one centimeter) and measuring the amount of light absorbed by the beer.
- Beers at 2-5 on the SRM scale are considered pale/gold and include styles like Pilsner and light lagers.
- Beer in the 7-15 range is considered amber, and styles include Oktoberfests, American Amber Ales and (paradoxically) English Pale Ales.
At 16-25, we reach copper and brown, with styles like Bock and English Brown Ales. Above 25, we’re parsing shades of deep brown and black, topping out (in practical terms) at about 40, though the SRM scale theoretically runs well into the 70s and 80s in the most-roasted beers like Imperial Stout! Above 40, though, the beer is effectively black and opaque.
How much flavoring to add to beer?
Fruit extracts – The easiest way to add fruit flavor to your beer is to use a fruit extract. These come in 4 oz. bottles, and are added just before bottling or kegging. Most recipes call for 4 oz. in a 5-gallon batch, but some brewers find this to be too much.
We recommend adding 2 oz., stirring it in, then tasting it. You can always add more extract if the flavor isn’t strong enough for you, but you can’t really take it back out. To use fruit extracts, simply pour the extract into your bottling bucket or keg before you transfer the beer. This way you can be certain that the extract gets blended in really well.
The main advantage of using extracts is their ease of use. Some brewers may find the flavor to be too strong or too sweet. If this is the case for you, you may want to try fresh, frozen, or canned/jarred fruit next time. Real fruit isn’t quite as sweet and provides a nice backdrop to many beers.
How do you add fruit to secondary beer?
Over the years, many beer styles have developed a reputation among homebrewers as being hard to brew. Many homebrewers worry that adding fruit will contaminate their beer with microorganisms from the fruit, leading to off-flavors. This has a basis in fact.
Careless use of fruit can contaminate batches. I once made a cherry beer that developed a horrible, tongue-coating, phenolic flavor that was so bad I was afraid to even open the fridge door. However, armed with a little knowledge, you can easily make a fruit beer — full of fruit flavors and aromas — without any worries of contamination.
In the last issue of BYO, I discussed the flavors in fruits and how they interact with beer flavors. In this article, I’ll explain how to go from the idea of a fruit beer in your head to a glass of fruit beer in your hand. Choosing Fruit Fruit comes in many forms.
- Some brewers prefer fresh fruit because none of its taste or aroma have been lost or altered during processing.
- In addition, many regions have varieties of fruits that are not available in any other form.
- In general, the best fruit beers are made from fresh fruits.
- However, there are several disadvantages to using fresh fruit.
Most fruits are seasonal, so the brewer will be limited to making his beer only when the fruit is in season. The brewer may have to do a lot of processing (washing, pitting, etc.) depending on the kind of fresh fruit he chooses. And, of course, all fresh fruit harbors wild yeasts and bacteria.
- On properly washed fruit, the level of microbes is not high enough to hurt you.
- However, when submerged in wort, these microorganisms can potentially multiply and add off-tastes and aroma to your beer.
- Some brewers prefer the convenience of using fruit concentrates, purées or juices.
- These fruit products are not seasonal and they save you time because you can simply open the can or jar and use the fruit as you would use any liquid sugar source (such as liquid malt extract, honey or molasses).
In addition, these products are packaged sterile. If contamination is your biggest concern when considering a fruit beer, using sterile fruit products is an option to consider. Brewers should avoid fruit products that contain anything other than 100% fruit.
- Some fruit products contain added sugar.
- This sugar won’t harm your beer — it’ll just boost the alcohol content slightly — but you’ll need to add more of it to get enough flavor.
- Some fruit products contain added acids, such as citric acid.
- In the concentrations they are present at, these probably won’t adversely affect your beer, but may add a slight “tang.” More problematically, some fruit products contain preservatives, which may interfere with your brewer’s yeast.
Don’t use jams or jellies. These contain pectins (either naturally or added), which can cause haze in your beer. You can also use frozen fruit in a fruit beer. Buying frozen fruit — or freezing your own fruit when it’s at its peak — allows you to brew your fruit beer when the fruit is not in season.
Amount of Fruit The amount of fruit to add to a beer depends on many variables — the type of fruit, the amount of fruit flavor desired, the beer style and many others — and so there is no simple answer to this question. As a first approximation, add one half of a pound of fruit per gallon of beer for strongly flavored fruits such as raspberries.
So, for a five-gallon batch of raspberry wheat, you would add 2.5 pounds of raspberries. For lighter-flavored fruits, such as cherries or peaches, you may need to add up to two pounds of fruit per gallon of beer. Your peach ale would thus need 10 pounds of fruit.
- Processed fruit is usually more concentrated, so you need to add less of it.
- Sometimes, the label will give some indication of how concentrated the fruit is.
- If not, add a small amount of processed fruit to a finished beer and estimate an appropriate rate of addition.
- One simple way to get the right balance is to brew a test batch.
Once the test batch is ready, taste it and determine if there is too little or too much fruit flavor. Adjust the amount of fruit (and perhaps other ingredients) and brew the beer again. Make note not only of how much fruit you added and the taste of the beer, but also how flavorful the fruit itself was before you added it to your beer.
- Another way to get the right balance is to blend your beer.
- To do this, brew two batches of your base beer and add fruit to one but not to the other.
- To the “fruity” batch, add about one and a half times the amount of fruit you expect you’ll need.
- Either keg both beers or bottle a few bottles from each batch and leave the remainder in your secondary fermenter.
Blend the two beers in a glass until you find the balance you’re looking for in the finished beer, then blend the rest of the beer according to that ratio. In the Mash For all-grain brewers, fresh fruits can be added to the mash. To do this, cut the fruit into pieces and stir the fruit into the grains while mashing in.
The sugars and fruit flavors will dissolve into the mash and be drained along with the wort. A benefit of adding fresh fruits to the mash is that the wort will subsequently be boiled and any yeasts or bacteria on the fruit will be killed. Simply finish brewing as usual after the mash. The drawbacks of adding fruits to the mash are that the extracted sugar and flavoring from the fruit will be boiled and then subjected to primary fermentation.
Most of the fruit aromas will be lost in the process. In addition, the fruit flavor may seem “cooked” rather than fresh. So, although adding fruit to the mash is safe and convenient, it is not the way to go for most fruit beers. Pumpkin ales are the only fruit beers typically made by adding this fruit — which is commonly referred to as a vegetable — to the mash.
- The pumpkin flavor desired in the beer is that of cooked pumpkin, and much of the flavor in a pumpkin ale comes from pumpkin pie spices.
- If you are using pasteurized fruit concentrates, purées or juices, these are already sterile so the mash is not the best place to add them.
- In Hot Wort Fruits can be steeped in hot wort before, during or after the boil.
For fresh fruit, whole fruit or pieces of fruit are placed in a nylon bag. Submerge the fruit bag in the hot wort and tie the string of the nylon bag to the handle of your kettle. Once you’re done steeping the fruit, lift the bag into a sanitized colander and let any wort run into the kettle.
The fruit will absorb some wort and lower your volume slightly. To counteract this, you can boil a slightly larger volume of wort or add water to your fermenter to make up the volume. The amount of wort absorbed by the fruit will, of course, depend on how much fruit you steep. Fruit can also be added directly to the wort and the fruit solids left behind as the wort is siphoned to the fermenter.
You may want to use a sanitized kitchen strainer to clear most of the fruit solids from the wort before racking it your fermenter. The heat from boiling wort will kill any yeasts or bacteria on the fruit. However, pectins in the fruit can be extracted and may cause clouding in the beer if the fruit is placed in boiling wort.
- To sanitize the fruit, but avoid extracting pectins, you can steep the fruit in hot wort after boiling.
- At lower temperatures — between 160–170° F — pectins from the fruit will not be extracted but the heat will still kill any microorganisms on the fruit.
- The fruit itself will cool down the wort, so you may need to heat the wort to keep it above 160° F while you are steeping.
For all-grain brewers, a drawback of not immediately cooling the wort is that DMS production continues in hot wort and may lend a cooked corn flavor to the beer. The amount of DMS production will depend on the type of malt you use. Extract brewers do not need to worry about DMS.
- When steeping fruit in hot wort, you should allow at least a half-hour to extract as much fruit flavor and sugar as possible.
- Swirl the fruit bag or stir the wort every five minutes or so to disperse fruit-derived sugars and fruit flavors into the wort.
- Since steeping involves shorter contact times than other methods of fruit use, you should increase the amount of fruit used by at least 15–20 percent.
For fruit concentrates, purées and juices, simply add the fruit product after the boil but before the wort is cooled below 160° F. Then, finish your brew as you normally would. Using Fruits in Secondary Fermentation For most fruits, the best time to add them is in secondary fermentation.
When added at this time, the fruits are not subjected to heat, their flavors do not end up tasting cooked and their aromas are not lost. The drawback, of course, is that adding fruits in the secondary fermenter runs the risk of contaminating the beer. However, green beer generally has enough alcohol and a pH low enough to discourage the growth of contaminating organisms.
For fresh fruits, remove the stems, leaves and pits or seeds. Wash the fruit thoroughly. If you want, you can use commercial produce-washing products such as Fit, although this isn’t necessary. You should reduce the fruit to small pieces by one of several methods: Mash the fruit with a potato masher, chop it with a food processor or cut it up with a knife.
- Place the fruit in your secondary fermenter and siphon beer on top of it.
- It is also important that the fermenter is sealed tightly.
- If air can get in, microorganisms can grow on the top of the floating fruit.
- This is what happened to my ill-fated cherry beer.) It is usually best to use a large bucket — one with some headspace — as a secondary fermenter, as some foaming may occur when the yeast begins working on the fruit sugars.
One way to minimize the risk of contamination from fresh fruits is to take a page from the winemakers’ handbook and sterilize the fruit with sulfur dioxide. Winemakers do not sterilize their “wort” by boiling it. They sterilize their “must” by treating it with SO2 (often in the form of Campden tablets).
- To sterilize a “mini-must,” mush your fruit into a slurry in a sanitized bucket.
- Add enough water so that it’s basically a thick liquid.
- Add one crushed Campden tablet for every gallon of your “mini-must” and let sit, loosely covered, overnight.
- During this time the SO2 will kill any microorganism in the “mini-must,” then diffuse away.
The SO2 also acts as an antioxidant, preventing browning of the fruit. The next day, add the now-sanitized “mini-must” to your fermenter. Adding fruits during secondary fermentation increases the volume of the brew, but some of this volume is lost when beer is racked from the remaining fruit solids.
- You can plan for this by making less volume of your base beer, but making it somewhat more concentrated.
- The degree you need to change your base beer depends, of course, on how much fruit you plan to add.
- Alternately, you can choose to simply not worry about it and end up with a couple extra beers in your batch.) To add concentrates, purées or juices to your secondary fermentation, begin racking the base beer to the secondary fermenter.
Slowly pour the fruit into the secondary fermenter as the beer is racked so that the fruit and beer mix well. You may want to stir with a sterilized spoon. The beer can be left in contact with the fruit for varying amounts of time. One week is long enough to extract most of the fruit flavors, but not prolong the batch interminably.
If you want to get the most out of your fruit, let it sit longer. Keep in mind, however, that flavor extraction decreases over time. Letting the fruit sit for two weeks will not give you twice as much fruit flavor as letting it sit for one week. After secondary fermentation with the fruit, siphon the beer away from the fruit solids into a keg or bottling bucket.
You may want to use a sanitized kitchen strainer to remove floating fruit solids before racking. Bottle or keg the beer as you usually do. Conditioning and Clarifying Part of the appeal of most fruit beers is their color. In order to best enjoy the color, the beer should be as clear as possible.
- There are a few ways to achieve this.
- First and foremost, you should store your fruit beer cold for at least a couple of weeks — but preferably a month or so — after kegging or bottle-conditioning.
- During this time, much of the yeast and chill haze (if present) will sediment out of the beer.
- In addition, the fruit flavors will have time to blend more completely with the base beer flavors.
One of the biggest enemies of beer clarity is chill haze, caused by protein/polyphenol (tannin) complexes in the beer. Although aging will help, minimizing chill haze to begin with will speed the development of the beer. Most fruits contribute tannins to a beer.
The tannins are mainly confined to the skins of the fruits and these tannins contribute to the flavor of the fruit. Although you can fine for tannins using PVPP (Polyclar AT), this will lessen the fruit color and flavor in your beer. A better method is to minimize the protein level in your base beer. There are a few easy ways to reduce protein levels in your beers.
First of all, use an appropriate amount of Irish moss — between 1.5 and 2 teaspoons of Irish moss per 5 gallons — in the boil. This will reduce protein levels in your beer, but should not affect head retention (which is also related to protein levels).
How do you add orange flavor to beer?
When To Add Orange Flavor To Beer While Brewing Today lots of popular beers have an orange flavor. Orange and craft beer go really well together. But as a brewer, have you ever tried adding orange flavor into your beer? All you are doing is adding orange zest or orange peel to your beer.
- It is very easy, but like a lot of things, timing is everything.
- So when is the best time to add orange peel to your beer? The best time to add orange to beer is in the last 5 minutes of the boil.
- Some brewers will say that you can do it in the last 10 minutes of the boil, but I find better results in the last 5 minutes.
sometime in the last 2 or 3 minutes. Alternatively, you can add the zest near the end of fermentation as well. Depending on your taste, you might like one way more than the other. So experimenting is a good idea. I will go over what can happen if you add the orange flavor at the wrong time, some tips on what kind of oranges to use, and I will also include a simple orange beer recipe below for you to try.
Should you put lemon in beer?
A very light, refreshing and tasty soft drink – Have you ever tried a fresh beer mixed with lemon juice ? No, not the simple and classical beer with a decorative lemon slice, but definitely a cocktail with the beer flavoured with the yellow citrus fruit.
Why do people put salt in beer?
10. Everyone Else Is Doing It – And, of course, the silliest reason of all: because everyone else is doing it. It does not have to be too silly, though. It can be fun to try doing what your friends or the locals are doing, and you might find it is the beginning of a wonderful tradition that offers a ton of health benefits to boot! In the end, there are many reasons people add salt to beer, and often the reasons are combined.
- https://renegadebrewing.com/salt-in-beer/
- https://www.soundbrewery.com/putting-salt-in-beer/
- https://www.drstevenlin.com/salt-good-for-you/
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Can you add citric acid to beer?
Can you use Citric Acid in brewing? – Citric Acid contributes to the overall acidity of a beer. However, it has little impact on the overall flavour. Occasionally some brewers add citric Acid to increase the acid content of some low-alcohol and nonalcoholic beers where incomplete fermentation fails to increase sharpness to an appropriate level.
- However, all fermentation stops after the pH drops below about 4.2.
- The optimum pH is about 4.8 – Some fruits used in winemaking do not contain sufficient acid levels on their own, and the recipe will call for additional Acid.
- Citric Acid has a pleasant fruity flavour, typical in citrus fruits such as limes and lemons.
Add Citric Acid to fruits or flowers that are low in acidity in homebrew wines, meads, or cordials as per your recipe. A solution of Citric Acid is also helpful for cleaning protein deposits from your brewing equipment, such as inside your brew kettle where hops can discolour the inside.
How do you add fruit to finished beer?
Over the years, many beer styles have developed a reputation among homebrewers as being hard to brew. Many homebrewers worry that adding fruit will contaminate their beer with microorganisms from the fruit, leading to off-flavors. This has a basis in fact.
Careless use of fruit can contaminate batches. I once made a cherry beer that developed a horrible, tongue-coating, phenolic flavor that was so bad I was afraid to even open the fridge door. However, armed with a little knowledge, you can easily make a fruit beer — full of fruit flavors and aromas — without any worries of contamination.
In the last issue of BYO, I discussed the flavors in fruits and how they interact with beer flavors. In this article, I’ll explain how to go from the idea of a fruit beer in your head to a glass of fruit beer in your hand. Choosing Fruit Fruit comes in many forms.
Some brewers prefer fresh fruit because none of its taste or aroma have been lost or altered during processing. In addition, many regions have varieties of fruits that are not available in any other form. In general, the best fruit beers are made from fresh fruits. However, there are several disadvantages to using fresh fruit.
Most fruits are seasonal, so the brewer will be limited to making his beer only when the fruit is in season. The brewer may have to do a lot of processing (washing, pitting, etc.) depending on the kind of fresh fruit he chooses. And, of course, all fresh fruit harbors wild yeasts and bacteria.
On properly washed fruit, the level of microbes is not high enough to hurt you. However, when submerged in wort, these microorganisms can potentially multiply and add off-tastes and aroma to your beer. Some brewers prefer the convenience of using fruit concentrates, purées or juices. These fruit products are not seasonal and they save you time because you can simply open the can or jar and use the fruit as you would use any liquid sugar source (such as liquid malt extract, honey or molasses).
In addition, these products are packaged sterile. If contamination is your biggest concern when considering a fruit beer, using sterile fruit products is an option to consider. Brewers should avoid fruit products that contain anything other than 100% fruit.
- Some fruit products contain added sugar.
- This sugar won’t harm your beer — it’ll just boost the alcohol content slightly — but you’ll need to add more of it to get enough flavor.
- Some fruit products contain added acids, such as citric acid.
- In the concentrations they are present at, these probably won’t adversely affect your beer, but may add a slight “tang.” More problematically, some fruit products contain preservatives, which may interfere with your brewer’s yeast.
Don’t use jams or jellies. These contain pectins (either naturally or added), which can cause haze in your beer. You can also use frozen fruit in a fruit beer. Buying frozen fruit — or freezing your own fruit when it’s at its peak — allows you to brew your fruit beer when the fruit is not in season.
- Amount of Fruit The amount of fruit to add to a beer depends on many variables — the type of fruit, the amount of fruit flavor desired, the beer style and many others — and so there is no simple answer to this question.
- As a first approximation, add one half of a pound of fruit per gallon of beer for strongly flavored fruits such as raspberries.
So, for a five-gallon batch of raspberry wheat, you would add 2.5 pounds of raspberries. For lighter-flavored fruits, such as cherries or peaches, you may need to add up to two pounds of fruit per gallon of beer. Your peach ale would thus need 10 pounds of fruit.
- Processed fruit is usually more concentrated, so you need to add less of it.
- Sometimes, the label will give some indication of how concentrated the fruit is.
- If not, add a small amount of processed fruit to a finished beer and estimate an appropriate rate of addition.
- One simple way to get the right balance is to brew a test batch.
Once the test batch is ready, taste it and determine if there is too little or too much fruit flavor. Adjust the amount of fruit (and perhaps other ingredients) and brew the beer again. Make note not only of how much fruit you added and the taste of the beer, but also how flavorful the fruit itself was before you added it to your beer.
- Another way to get the right balance is to blend your beer.
- To do this, brew two batches of your base beer and add fruit to one but not to the other.
- To the “fruity” batch, add about one and a half times the amount of fruit you expect you’ll need.
- Either keg both beers or bottle a few bottles from each batch and leave the remainder in your secondary fermenter.
Blend the two beers in a glass until you find the balance you’re looking for in the finished beer, then blend the rest of the beer according to that ratio. In the Mash For all-grain brewers, fresh fruits can be added to the mash. To do this, cut the fruit into pieces and stir the fruit into the grains while mashing in.
- The sugars and fruit flavors will dissolve into the mash and be drained along with the wort.
- A benefit of adding fresh fruits to the mash is that the wort will subsequently be boiled and any yeasts or bacteria on the fruit will be killed.
- Simply finish brewing as usual after the mash.
- The drawbacks of adding fruits to the mash are that the extracted sugar and flavoring from the fruit will be boiled and then subjected to primary fermentation.
Most of the fruit aromas will be lost in the process. In addition, the fruit flavor may seem “cooked” rather than fresh. So, although adding fruit to the mash is safe and convenient, it is not the way to go for most fruit beers. Pumpkin ales are the only fruit beers typically made by adding this fruit — which is commonly referred to as a vegetable — to the mash.
- The pumpkin flavor desired in the beer is that of cooked pumpkin, and much of the flavor in a pumpkin ale comes from pumpkin pie spices.
- If you are using pasteurized fruit concentrates, purées or juices, these are already sterile so the mash is not the best place to add them.
- In Hot Wort Fruits can be steeped in hot wort before, during or after the boil.
For fresh fruit, whole fruit or pieces of fruit are placed in a nylon bag. Submerge the fruit bag in the hot wort and tie the string of the nylon bag to the handle of your kettle. Once you’re done steeping the fruit, lift the bag into a sanitized colander and let any wort run into the kettle.
The fruit will absorb some wort and lower your volume slightly. To counteract this, you can boil a slightly larger volume of wort or add water to your fermenter to make up the volume. The amount of wort absorbed by the fruit will, of course, depend on how much fruit you steep. Fruit can also be added directly to the wort and the fruit solids left behind as the wort is siphoned to the fermenter.
You may want to use a sanitized kitchen strainer to clear most of the fruit solids from the wort before racking it your fermenter. The heat from boiling wort will kill any yeasts or bacteria on the fruit. However, pectins in the fruit can be extracted and may cause clouding in the beer if the fruit is placed in boiling wort.
To sanitize the fruit, but avoid extracting pectins, you can steep the fruit in hot wort after boiling. At lower temperatures — between 160–170° F — pectins from the fruit will not be extracted but the heat will still kill any microorganisms on the fruit. The fruit itself will cool down the wort, so you may need to heat the wort to keep it above 160° F while you are steeping.
For all-grain brewers, a drawback of not immediately cooling the wort is that DMS production continues in hot wort and may lend a cooked corn flavor to the beer. The amount of DMS production will depend on the type of malt you use. Extract brewers do not need to worry about DMS.
- When steeping fruit in hot wort, you should allow at least a half-hour to extract as much fruit flavor and sugar as possible.
- Swirl the fruit bag or stir the wort every five minutes or so to disperse fruit-derived sugars and fruit flavors into the wort.
- Since steeping involves shorter contact times than other methods of fruit use, you should increase the amount of fruit used by at least 15–20 percent.
For fruit concentrates, purées and juices, simply add the fruit product after the boil but before the wort is cooled below 160° F. Then, finish your brew as you normally would. Using Fruits in Secondary Fermentation For most fruits, the best time to add them is in secondary fermentation.
- When added at this time, the fruits are not subjected to heat, their flavors do not end up tasting cooked and their aromas are not lost.
- The drawback, of course, is that adding fruits in the secondary fermenter runs the risk of contaminating the beer.
- However, green beer generally has enough alcohol and a pH low enough to discourage the growth of contaminating organisms.
For fresh fruits, remove the stems, leaves and pits or seeds. Wash the fruit thoroughly. If you want, you can use commercial produce-washing products such as Fit, although this isn’t necessary. You should reduce the fruit to small pieces by one of several methods: Mash the fruit with a potato masher, chop it with a food processor or cut it up with a knife.
- Place the fruit in your secondary fermenter and siphon beer on top of it.
- It is also important that the fermenter is sealed tightly.
- If air can get in, microorganisms can grow on the top of the floating fruit.
- This is what happened to my ill-fated cherry beer.) It is usually best to use a large bucket — one with some headspace — as a secondary fermenter, as some foaming may occur when the yeast begins working on the fruit sugars.
One way to minimize the risk of contamination from fresh fruits is to take a page from the winemakers’ handbook and sterilize the fruit with sulfur dioxide. Winemakers do not sterilize their “wort” by boiling it. They sterilize their “must” by treating it with SO2 (often in the form of Campden tablets).
To sterilize a “mini-must,” mush your fruit into a slurry in a sanitized bucket. Add enough water so that it’s basically a thick liquid. Add one crushed Campden tablet for every gallon of your “mini-must” and let sit, loosely covered, overnight. During this time the SO2 will kill any microorganism in the “mini-must,” then diffuse away.
The SO2 also acts as an antioxidant, preventing browning of the fruit. The next day, add the now-sanitized “mini-must” to your fermenter. Adding fruits during secondary fermentation increases the volume of the brew, but some of this volume is lost when beer is racked from the remaining fruit solids.
You can plan for this by making less volume of your base beer, but making it somewhat more concentrated. The degree you need to change your base beer depends, of course, on how much fruit you plan to add. (Alternately, you can choose to simply not worry about it and end up with a couple extra beers in your batch.) To add concentrates, purées or juices to your secondary fermentation, begin racking the base beer to the secondary fermenter.
Slowly pour the fruit into the secondary fermenter as the beer is racked so that the fruit and beer mix well. You may want to stir with a sterilized spoon. The beer can be left in contact with the fruit for varying amounts of time. One week is long enough to extract most of the fruit flavors, but not prolong the batch interminably.
- If you want to get the most out of your fruit, let it sit longer.
- Eep in mind, however, that flavor extraction decreases over time.
- Letting the fruit sit for two weeks will not give you twice as much fruit flavor as letting it sit for one week.
- After secondary fermentation with the fruit, siphon the beer away from the fruit solids into a keg or bottling bucket.
You may want to use a sanitized kitchen strainer to remove floating fruit solids before racking. Bottle or keg the beer as you usually do. Conditioning and Clarifying Part of the appeal of most fruit beers is their color. In order to best enjoy the color, the beer should be as clear as possible.
- There are a few ways to achieve this.
- First and foremost, you should store your fruit beer cold for at least a couple of weeks — but preferably a month or so — after kegging or bottle-conditioning.
- During this time, much of the yeast and chill haze (if present) will sediment out of the beer.
- In addition, the fruit flavors will have time to blend more completely with the base beer flavors.
One of the biggest enemies of beer clarity is chill haze, caused by protein/polyphenol (tannin) complexes in the beer. Although aging will help, minimizing chill haze to begin with will speed the development of the beer. Most fruits contribute tannins to a beer.
- The tannins are mainly confined to the skins of the fruits and these tannins contribute to the flavor of the fruit.
- Although you can fine for tannins using PVPP (Polyclar AT), this will lessen the fruit color and flavor in your beer.
- A better method is to minimize the protein level in your base beer.
- There are a few easy ways to reduce protein levels in your beers.
First of all, use an appropriate amount of Irish moss — between 1.5 and 2 teaspoons of Irish moss per 5 gallons — in the boil. This will reduce protein levels in your beer, but should not affect head retention (which is also related to protein levels).
Can you mix citrus with alcohol?
Give Drinks a Tart Kick With a Citrus The Spruce / Ali Redmond If you mix enough drinks, you know that citrus fruits are essential in the bar, They not only come in the form of lemon, lime, orange, and grapefruit juices, but also as citrus-flavored liquors (e.g., triple sec, Aperol, and Campari) and syrups like sour mix.
- Citrus cocktails can be sweet, but the fruits’ tart taste is often used to balance out drinks that use sweeteners or to accent the flavors of liquors.
- In several mixed drinks, citrus is the dominant flavor, and it’s extremely versatile, mixing well with everything from whiskey to vodka.
- While citrus is often associated with summer drinks because the fruits have a bright, refreshing, and tart flavor, fresh citrus fruits are actually best in the winter.
No matter the time of year, any cocktail is better with fresh-squeezed juice, and citrus cocktails are a great way to pick up your spirit when the weather turns cold. To experience the best citrus-forward drinks, have fun exploring some iconic cocktail recipes that feature fresh fruit juices, popular citrus spirits, and other mixers.
The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck A legend in the cocktail world, the Ward Eight is an enhanced whiskey sour. Choose bourbon or rye whiskey, then add equal pours of orange and lemon juices and just a dash of grenadine for sweetness to recreate this 19th-century drink, The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck A fantastic brunch cocktail dating to the 1920s, the Buck’s fizz is possibly the predecessor to the mimosa. The only things you need to pull off this drink are orange juice and Champagne (or sparkling wine like Cava), though an orange twist adds an elegant touch. The Spruce Eats / Ali Redmond The last word cocktail is often an overlooked drink, but this variation on the gimlet deserves a taste. In it, the combo of gin and lime is enhanced with Green Chartreuse and maraschino liqueur. The Spruce Eats / Mateja Kobescak For scotch drinkers, there is the blood and sand cocktail, Best described as a scotch Manhattan with cherry brandy and orange juice, the four ingredients are poured equally (so it’s easy to remember) for a well-balanced cocktail that will impress anyone. Continue to 5 of 32 below. The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck Key lime juice is not called for often in cocktails, though it does make the pisco sour far more enjoyable than the standard lime. To offset that intense citrus flavor, a touch of simple syrup sweetens the mix while an egg white gives the drink a luscious texture. The Spruce Eats / Ali Redmond Building off the original margarita’s focus on lime, you can create several spectacularly flavored cocktails. Use pineapple juice and a dash of hot sauce to create a pineapple chili margarita that has a gentle but noticeable spicy kick. The Spruce Eats / S&C Design Studios The orange creamsicle is an utterly delicious drink. You can serve it several different ways. On the rocks, as a martini or shot, or blended into a frozen delight; you can use the same proportions of vanilla vodka, triple sec, orange juice, and cream no matter the preparation method. Lifewire Lemon is often used as an accent juice, but in the corpse reviver no.2 cocktail, it gets equal billing with orange liqueur. Set against the botanical combination of gin and fortified wine—with a little absinthe tossed in for good measure—this drink is bright, refreshing sipper. Continue to 9 of 32 below. The Spruce Eats / Madhumita Sathishkumar The lemon drop makes a regular appearance on modern martini menus. Take that irresistible sweet-sour taste to a new level and make a lavender lemon drop, The only difference is that you’ll muddle lavender with simple syrup before adding the vodka and lemon juice. The Spruce Eats / Ali Redmond Accented with a hefty dose of lime (as any good daiquiri should be), grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur make the Hemingway daiquiri unique. Named after the writer who was known to thoroughly enjoy rum, it’s a drink that will transport you to the Caribbean any day of the year. The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck Toss orange juice into a gin martini and you have an orange blossom, It’s fantastic for brunch, and the key is to use sweet vermouth rather than the dry variety that’s often paired with gin. The sweeter fortified wine marries the botanicals of gin with the tart citrus, making this a spectacular drink. The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck The area around Valencia, Spain, is famous for its oranges, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that a few orange juice cocktails have adopted the name over the years. In this classic Valencia cocktail, you’ll shake apricot brandy and orange juice and accent the duo with orange bitters. Continue to 13 of 32 below. The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck For a subtle orange flavor, go with the aptly named beautiful cocktail, The recipe mixes cognac with an equal amount of Grand Marnier, one of the best-known orange liqueurs. It’s sweet, sultry, and an elegant sipper. The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck Sparkling and tantalizing, the Lita Grey cocktail is a twist on a classic recipe. Made with gin, apricot liqueur, sloe gin, and lemon juice, it’s a stunning Champagne cocktail you won’t want to miss. The Spruce Eats / Karen Hibbard Beyond the sweet orange liqueurs, you can also enjoy the citrus fruit’s flavor in bitter apéritifs. Campari is the star of this category, and it’s used in several famous cocktails. While the Negroni and Americano get a lot of attention, the bourbon-based Boulevardier cocktail deserves equal recognition. The Spruce Eats Apéritifs are designed to be enjoyed before dinner, and Aperol is another excellent option. The best introduction to its bittersweet taste is in the Aperol spritz, which simply needs a little prosecco and club soda. Continue to 17 of 32 below. The Spruce Eats / Ali Redmond Enjoy the perfect harmony of citrus and gin in the lovely Pegu Club cocktail, The recipe mixes orange liqueur and fresh lime with your favorite gin and aromatic bitters. It’s a classic cocktail in every sense and has received the respect it deserves in modern bars. The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck Lime is the preferred citrus pairing for tonic water, The fruit’s tart taste is the ideal counterpart to tonic’s dry profile, and the vodka tonic displays this match in the purest form because the liquor has a relatively neutral taste. It’s a refreshing dinner drink option. The Spruce Eats / Ali Redmond Sour mix is a syrup flavored with both lemon and lime juices. Easy and inexpensive to make at home, it’s a brilliant mixer that quickly adds a sweet-tart taste to any drink. In the apricot sour, all you have to do is mix it with apricot brandy. The Spruce Eats Though it comes in many flavors today, the original daiquiri is one of the best lime-focused cocktails you can mix up. Quite simply made with light rum, lime juice, and simple syrup, it’s an exquisite drink with an impeccable balance of sweet and tart flavors. Continue to 21 of 32 below. The Spruce Eats / S&C Design Studios The gimlet requires just two ingredients. Choose a great gin, stir it with lime cordial (homemade is best, and it’s easy to make), then strain it into a cocktail glass and enjoy the tart botanical taste of this legendary drink. The Spruce Eats / S&C Design Studios The devil’s punch combines sour mix with orange liqueur and juice. Yet, it’s the sweet flavor of limoncello that really sets this tequila cocktail apart from the rest. The SpruceEats / Emily Baker Go with lemon or lime to create your personal rendition of the gin fizz, Either citrus works wonderfully in this classic highball, and adding the egg white distinguishes it from the more popular Tom Collins, The Spruce Eats / Emily Baker Lemon is used quite often in sour cocktails, and it’s an excellent companion to whiskey. Unbelievably simple, the scotch sour displays this marriage wonderfully. Requiring just the two ingredients, this brightly flavored sipper is a pleasant treat on cold days. Continue to 25 of 32 below. The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck For a tasty mocktail with old-fashioned style, mix up a citrus fizz, Following a formula similar to the Ramos fizz, this zero-proof cocktail is made with orange and lemon juices and a hint of lime. Adding an egg gives it a luscious texture and foamy top. The Spruce Eats / Cara Cormack The aviation cocktail is a lemon-kissed drink that is as beautiful to look at as it is to drink. The keys to this gin classic are to find crème de violette liqueur and use top-shelf ingredients. The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck The bright sweetness of limoncello is enjoyable on its own, and it makes a fantastic cocktail mixer. In the lemon cake cocktail, it’s mixed with a popular cream liqueur to create an utterly delicious dessert drink, The Spruce Eats / Emily Baker Grapefruit isn’t used as frequently as the other citrus fruits. However, it’s a fantastic mixer and the greyhound is a perfect introduction to its usefulness in cocktails. It even comes with the option of pouring gin or vodka. Continue to 29 of 32 below. The Spruce Eats Add a peachy twist to your screwdriver with the fuzzy navel, Switching from vodka to peach schnapps brings in a gentle sweetness that quells the acidity of orange juice perfectly. For a stiffer drink, a shot of vodka transforms it into a hairy navel, The Spruce Eats / Teena Agnel A rum drink entrenched in the history of sailing the seas, navy grog has taken many forms over the years. As diverse as they may be, this grapefruit and lime juice recipe from Don the Beachcomber’s bar is a favorite. The Spruce Eats / Ali Redmond Orange juice is the star of countless cocktails, and the simple screwdriver is among the most iconic. Essentially vodka-spiked OJ, consider fresh-squeezed juice essential to this brunch and happy hour favorite. The Spruce Eats / Nyssa Tanner Several cocktails use a combination of citrus, but few play it up quite like the cantarito With a tequila base, this highball uses lemon, lime, and orange juices as an accent, then tops the whole thing off with grapefruit soda.