Originally from Sam Calagione, the founder/genius behind Dogfish Head, this beer sounds amazing. Seriously, blood orange….hefeweizen. I love blood oranges and I also love hefeweizens. And this beer is from a notable brewer known for creating interesting and unusual beers. Everything stacks up for it except for the actual taste.
Orange is a notoriously difficult flavor to infuse into beer. I’ve heard stories of how Coors attempted to add orange flavor to Blue Moon, so that you didn’t need to add a real slice of orange, and failed. Coors failed. They couldn’t even do it with all their Frankenfood science.
Unfortunately this beer doesn’t live up to its name. It’s not a bad beer. A decent hefeweizen with the scarcest shadow of fruit flavors (albeit not citrus) that can be deliciously refreshing on a hot summer day. Just not a hefeweizen that I would buy at the store.
Hops
.5oz German Hallertau (4.1%AA) @ 60min
1oz Czech Saaz (2.4%AA) @20min
.5oz German Hallertau (4.1%AA) @10min
Malt
7lbs Wheat LME
Yeast
Wyeast Bavarian Wheat (3638)
Adjuncts
1tsp Irish Moss @15min
Fruit
5 Blood Oranges
SG: 1.066
2wk: 1.008
FG(10wk): 1.011
Zest 3 out of 5 of the oranges. Peel, section, and then rough chop the oranges. Put the zest and orange sections in .5gal water and heat to 160°. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool to 70-75°F. Add the mixture to the primary.
Compared to the other beers I had in storage up to this point, this beer became the one I could pawn off on people who I knew didn’t really care about beer but were still impressed and grateful when receiving homebrewed beer. I know, despicable. Don’t try to tell me you would never do that. There’s no way you like every single person so much that you wouldn’t give them one of your less favorite beers if they happened to be over at your house. You disgust me.
I’m kidding, I still love you.