Creative Thinking

Orange Blossom Honey is produced by local bee ranchers in ND. That said, it was not in stock as of 3 weeks ago.

In the off season (for ND) I know of at least one keeper near Bismarck who takes his bees to California to tend to the orange orchards.

i've seen orange bloosom honey here at dan's....i used it in one of my brew a year or two ago...

northern brew has clover honey, and i am sure jeff could get it for you. but northern brewer has mead kits so they have the honey.

I've never experimented with fruit before so its nice to get some good input on this subject. It might be hard to come across some orange blossom honey around here so I'll probably have to order some off the internet or something. I might try the fruit method first unless I find some honey somewhere in town.

Thanks for the help

I wouldn't worry about harvesting the yeast to save a couple bucks. Adding fruit in the final stages of primary melds the flavors with the beer, so it doesn't taste like you just dropped some juice in with your beer. When adding fruit you're adding fermentables, so you want to have some active yeast to munch and give off those complex fruit flavors. The other benefit to adding fruit a few days before primary finishes, is that you can always take a taste of your primary when transferring to secondary and add more fruit to the secondary if the flavor isn't strong enough.

That's just my preference though. I think either way, you'll end up with a really unique brew Eric.

Great idea Eric. Always good to see brewers thinking creatively! My only suggestion would be to consider the addition of malted oats. They won't alter the SRM too much on a lighter-colored beer, but they add a great deal of that slick, full mouthfeel you'd expect from an orange cream beer. If that isn't enough, consider adding lactose as well for that genuine-article cream effect.

i agree with Randi, with one difference, i would put it in secondary, mostly because a cream ale lends it self so well to havesting the yeast.

i would boil (actually i usually steam them) peels (agreeing with Mike bitter peels, or fresh is always best) and pulp of oranges and throw all of it in to your secondary while hot let it cool a bit then fill with your cream ale

just my .02.

I like the concept Eric!

IMO, the flavors you get from fruits greatly depends on when they're added. I've been doing a lot of research on fruits for a couple summer beers.

I wouldn't be scared off from using real oranges due to the PH. Orange beers have been done plenty. Jayme's had great results with his.

The biggest issue with oranges is that you don't want to over boil and lose all of the limonene, that lovely citrus flavor, and end up with a bunch of bitter.

Here's what I would do to get that orangey flavor:

Add to primary when fermention is complete

• 4-6 oranges pealed and cubed.
  
• zest about half of them
  
• Bring pot of water to a boil, add meat and zest, turn off heat and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes (or until it tastes orangy)
  
• when cool, add to primary and let your fermentation finish with it.

That's just my opinion anyways.

You can buy orange peels in both bitter and sweet styles (I'd recommend the bitter). Then just add those to your boil. Depending on your system, you may want to put these in a bag to avoid clogging things up.

Cheers!

When I make my Florida Blondie 5.5 gal batch I use fresh squeezed OJ & also the orange peels. I squeeze out 1 1/2 cups of fresh oj & then quarter up 4 orange peels (4 whole oranges). I throw in the OJ & peels @ 10 min left of the boil. Then I also throw the boiled peels in the fermentor. I have had GREAT results with this. I've had a lot of compliments on this beer from friends & family along with many club members.

Just thought I'd throw in my 2 pesos worth

I am interested in your idea as well! If you try your way I am REALLY curious on the results! I love to expiriment & try things others have not such as the fresh squeezed OJ & aalso have done a sweet potatoe ale.

GOOD LUCK!

I came up with an idea that i would like to do an orange cream ale. The problem is that orange juice is too acidic and touchy to try to get a ph you can work with for a healthy fermentation without sour flavors.

My solution theory is to use orange blossom honey instead to get a good orange flavor out of a cream ale recipe. I haven't started designing a recipe yet, but I thought I'd throw my idea up on here as food for thought and to see what people think