Belgian Wit Blunder !!!!!ARRRRRRRRRGGGH!!

I just realized that I forgot to put my Coriander in the boil!!!

Any suggestions on what to do now. I was thinking to either toast the coriander or microwave it to kill nasties then put it in the primary. But on second thought maybe it will be too strong a flavor if that amount is in there for 7-10 days during fermentation...

Any suggestions. This is a ten gallon batch and would like to get it close if I can.... Thanks Fellas

throw it in the primary. Boil it then throw it in. Thats my vote.

+1, essentially it'll be a corriander tea. I should work fine.

Take one cup of water and boil it. Add the amount of coriander you meant to add to your batch and boil it for the amount of time you intended to boil it. Then add it to the carboy when slightly cooled.

Why water down your beer. Take 1 cup of Wit wort and boil it with the coriander then add back in...

you could also steep it in your priming sugar solution when you get ready to bottle.

henrychinaski said:

you could also steep it in your priming sugar solution when you get ready to bottle.

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Great idea with a lot of applications. Thanks for sharing.

Id just make a little coriander tea and dump it in the primary.

Thanks Guys I'll make the tea and add it in.


henrychinaski- Awesome idea!! I may add a touch more orange flavor that way

Skimming through Radical Brewing during lunch and saw another idea that might work. Soak the coriander in a shot of vodka before dumping them in.

This got me thinking (dangerous.) I know that hops are suppose to be naturally antibacterial, but I always worry anyway when dry hopping with a previously opened pack. Would soaking them in vodka be a little reassurance?

or soaking in grain alcohol

henrychinoski, your idea is great!

henrychinaski said:

you could also steep it in your priming sugar solution when you get ready to bottle.

Click to expand...

In the same fashion, could you add coffee flavor to a stout at priming...??

Poobah58 said:

Why water down your beer. Take 1 cup of Wit wort and boil it with the coriander then add back in...

Click to expand...

Less than one cup of water (post boil volume) is going to have very, very little impact on the flavor or gravity of a five gallon batch. You could boil wit, but then you'd have to siphon some out of the carboy which could lead to contamination. If you happen to have a bottle of wit in inventory, then sure... why not?

beergears said:

In the same fashion, could you add coffee flavor to a stout at priming...??

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Yes, I did this by making some very strong coffee (I didn't have an espresso maker, so I just ran the maker with a small amount of water through a huge amount of grounds and repeated with small amounts over and over till I was satisfied, it's not as fast as just running the total amount at normal speed).
I chilled it in the freezer/fridge till it was the same temp as the rest, then poured it in with the sugar water for priming.

In hindsight I could probably have dissolved priming sugar into the strong coffee and boiled that, but it might have destroyed the coffee (coffee purists, what say you?)

Also, there are coffee extracts that you can buy.

I have a coffee stout in bottles right now. I added the espresso in the primary though, right after the boil. I'm thinking that boiling espresso wold definitly develop some off flavors. Coffee is a very delicate beverage.

Now that I think about it, it probably would have been better to add the coffee at bottling. Only one way to find out....

I used the cold steep method to add a touch of coffee to my stout. worked out great and wasn't harsh at all (which is what you might get out of making coffee the regular way).

Of course, the better option would be to let your grains impart the coffee flavor.

Regarding the OP, I used the coriander tea method with 1.5 cups water and .5 oz coriander boiled for 10 min added to 5 gal. To be honest, I wish I used more as the flavor was hard to detect......

AnOldUR said:

Skimming through Radical Brewing during lunch and saw another idea that might work. Soak the coriander in a shot of vodka before dumping them in.

This got me thinking (dangerous.) I know that hops are suppose to be naturally antibacterial, but I always worry anyway when dry hopping with a previously opened pack. Would soaking them in vodka be a little reassurance?

Click to expand...

Steep them in vodka, the liquid will turn brown. Steep them in grain alcohol, the liquid turns green.

And oh what a smell!!!!!

Coriander Tea made cooled and added to fermenters! Thanks Fellas

thanks everyone. it just makes sense to me, from a cooking angle, to add aromatics and slight flavor components as late as possible.
it's perfect for a coffee stout, which is good in it's own right for the upper/downer effect, but you can get sufficient coffee flavors with grain. for adding the bean to the beverage, the idea for me is to add as much caffeine and flavor with as little water as possible. for my last batch i did strong brew in my french press and augmented it with four cups from an italian espresso maker with the sugar at bottling. it was nice, though it made the head a bit big and foamy.
the vodka thing that randy mosher talks about in radical brewing sounds great too, though i've never tried it.
nathan, next time you could just steep the grounds in hot water for a while and use a fine mesh strainer to catch the grounds. running it through the machine probably made it a little too bitter (but maybe that's what you wanted). hell, you could even do like steinbeck recommends in travels with charleyand add an egg white and shell to smooth it out. it's supposed to remove the acid.

oh, and good luck with the beer, big a.
tonight i'm drinking a strong spiced wit of my own. cheers.