[bfogt]

In searching for dried lemongrass to replicate a beer from Myrtle Beach's Southend Brewery, my friend found the best deal at an Asian market where the lemongrass was in 2 oz bags for $.33.  Since a quarter ounce at the supermarket was soemthing like $7 and we needed 2 ounces, it was a steal.  He bought all they had.  And we used one bag in a 10 gallon batch.

When the beer was done it tasted just like we'd squeezed lemons in it.  It didn't have a pellicle and everything should have been sanitized adequately.  Actually, we fermented in two carboys and the flavor is the very same between the kegs.  The acidity is so clean the only thing I'm left with is that the lemongrass was processed with citric acid or something else as an antioxidant. 

Now the obvious thing is to make a tea with it and see, but my friend isn't going about that with any speed.  3 months ago, we talked about that.  Since he has it all, I'm just making guesses. 

Has anyone heard of dried lemongrass having a sourness to it from additives?  It's so strong that I'd probably be better off calling it lemon AND lemongrass instead of just lemongrass for NHC.  It's pretty good and is so clean and refreshing, it stands out.

[tumarkin]

I can't speak at all to the specifics of dried lemon grass or how it's processed. I've only used it fresh - in meads & thai cooking. I have a clump planted in my yard. tops died over this winter, but new green shoots are already coming up. it has a very strong lemony character, both in flavor & aroma. I'd cut some of the dead dry grass tops and when I picked them up to haul to the pile, there was an incredible lemon aroma - from long dead, dried leaf material, not even from the stem part that we use. Great stuff.