Cloning Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat - Continued

Hi there Dave here again...

Well we tried a taste test of the experiment to clone Lost Coast Tangerine wheat beer. Each of the 5 categories; 1 - no added tangerine oil, 2 - 1/2 tsp per gal, 3 - 1tsp per gal, 4 - 1 1/2tsp per gal, and 5 - 2tsp per gal were tasted. Here are my taste bud results:

1 - This is a very nice tasting beer. Light and refreshing with a clean finish. No bitterness at the end and easy on the taste buds. I like this one and will make it again.

2 - Like Cat-1 this is very nice but there is a slight tinge of tangerine aroma when you first bring the beer to your nose. Very light tough and you can also taste a little of the tangerine extract in the beer. However, like all the other categories that had the extract added, it kinda tastes like the extract was added...duh. It does not taste like it is blended into the full aroma of the beer, which is what I feel is a must.

3 - Like Cat-1 and Cat-2 but there is a more distinct aroma of tangerine with this one but still a little lighter than I would want. The beer tastes really good though with a nice effervescence and not foamy at all. The tangerine taste still tastes like it was added :(

4 & 5 - The good news is that the tangerine aroma is very nice and in category 5 almost smells exactly like the commercial tangerine wheat. However there is one major problem. It appears that the increase amount of tangerine extract stymied the creation of effervescence in the bottle and the beer is flat after 3 weeks. This tells me that at the higher quantities of added oil the tangerine extract will have to be introduced into the last 10 min of the boil to break down the oil and blend the aroma into the wart.

Anyway...the first 3 categories will be a wonderful refreshing beer that we will enjoy.

I will get another experiment going in a few weeks using the same ingredients but separate the wart into 2 batches; 1 - 2tsp per gal and 2 - 3tsp per gal. The tangerine extract will be introduced at the last 10 min of the boil on each batch. I believe this next experimental batch will be really good.

TTLY

dB