Brewing with Marmalade

[Ally Mcg]

Brewing at the w/e and scheming up a Belgian recipe that chucks in everything vaguely belgian related I can think of. I was thinking of adding some coriander and navel orange peel late in the boil (complimented by some star anise) and some candy sugar, then decided that in interests of science/curiosity that I'd add some marmalade into the mash instead, maybe half a jar or so.

I might wind up adding the marmalade anyway, along with the candy sugar and the orange peel but I'm just wondering if anyone has done this. Googling has thrown up a few pages saying i should beware of cloudiness and a bitterness but i'm keen to learn a little more from anyone who's actually done it on here.

Anyone any tips?

[Stu McKinlay]

Start with a really simple recipe and get to learn the Belgian yeasts. Build it from there.
It's really hard to learn much about anything in the middle of a tornado.

ps. love the Merckx tag... I've not been on the bike since I rode 45km on 01/12/2009 (two days after riding the Taupo Enduro... 320km), I am SOOOOO itchy right now with Le Tour and just having watched 'A Day In Hell' the Paris-Raoubaix doco).

[Glynn Foster]

So I've done a bit of research into various recipes given that I've got a packet of 1388 Belgian Strong Ale waiting in my fridge. What would you classify as a 'really simple recipe' out of curiosity? (simply a collection of malts like Pale Ale, Wheat and Munich and some candi sugar?)

[Stu McKinlay]

For a first Belgian Beer...
Belgian pale ale
base malt + 5-10% carmunich and 1-2% caraaroma
OG 1.048, IBU 24 (not too much late hopping, you want to discover what the yeast is like)

or maybe a Belgian Blond
base malt + 2-3% caramunich + 1%abv in sugar/candi
OG 1.065, IBU 22 (same again on hops)

Or a Bruin
Same sort of stats (and sugar) as the Blond, similar malts as the Pale, but up the caras and add some carafa.

Or a Mike Neilson one:
6 malts, 1.115, 85ibu, 3 yeasts blended, tastes friggin' awesome!!!

Really depends on what you like brewing. I'm really interested in what different ingredients contribute but sometimes I do like using the "Neilson Method".

read lots about the yeast to try and figure out what temps it likes, build the smaller beer, then build a big beer on the subsequent batches when the yeast is feeling at home in your brewery.


I like building smaller beers to start with as I've not had a lot of experience building up yeast from a single vial to a 40L batch of 1.080. and i love drinking small beer!

[Mike Neilson]

HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[Soren]

I have often thought of brewing with marmelade and have researched it a bit, never actually done it though. The haze problem is due to pectin, which is also one of the reasons you shouldnt boil fruit you add to beer (marmelade is boiled of course). The bitterness you mention is from the orange peel in the marmelade of course and you could just counter it by adding less hops I think, just as you might decrease the hops in a recipe with a lot of heavily roasted grains...
One of the reasons I've never done it is that it seems difficult to find good marmelade. Most of the ones I found were 50% grapefruit, which was not what I was after. The only one I found with 100% orange was mainly juice, and I wanted the ones with a lot of peel. I'm sure you'd be able to find some good stuff if you look harder than I have.

Let us know how you go, I'm curios:)

[JoKing]

I have done a couple of wit beers with it. The best one is "Roses" classic English marmalade, made from Seville Orange peels. I use half a jar at the end of the boil and get a pretty hazy beer at the end. But that could be down to the 60% wheat malt. Or the 10% Oats... who knows? It don;t matter if it's hazy!

[Ally Mcg]

cheers guys, some useful feedback there.

Agree entirely with the rationale Stu, but I've got some recycled Wyeast 1762 and I'm just brewing a belgian for giggles - they aren't usually my cup of tea, or pint. Glad you enjoyed the tag - i got quite into the tour this year and spent last weekend reading about cycling legends

Cloudiness doesn't bother me too much in a beer and I'll tweak the hops so the bitterness comes mainly from the marmalade. There's a wee grocers (Johnsons) in Chch that has a fantastic range of imported marmalades so I'll find something high in fruit - i'm thinking a nice bitter seville orange. Will chuck the recipe up in what are you brewing once I've got it finalised; provisionally its going to have weetbix and oats (or maybe Oatbran weetbix), so pursuing a bit of a breakfast theme

[Stu McKinlay]

this is the only time of the year that i wish i had tv. those men are giants in miniature bodies.

I'm coming around Ally... the talk of Soren and Joking has started to win me over, now I'm thinking I want to make a Wit beer... if only I'd keep something from the 200ml of WLP550 slurry that I dropped off to Mike Neilson this morning. Ah, i've got too much planned. It'll have to hold off for now.