Lime/Ginger extract needed with citrus hops in APA?

Woo-hoo! My first post! I've been using this site since I started homebrewing (a scant 3 months ago), and thought it was time to join the ranks.

My question is: If I want a slight lime/ginger taste to my APA, do I need to add an extract, or can I rely on my choice of hops to do the work for me? I don't want a Bud Lime flavor, just enough lime/ginger to tell it's there. I'm not looking to make a fruit beer.

The extract I'm using is of my own creation (4 limes worth of zest - no pith, just zest - and 20 oz. fresh ginger root soaked in 1/2 cup vodka and 1/4 cup water for 1 week), but I'm weary to add it to the secondary. I have 8 oz of extract I can use.

This is my current recipe. The beer is in the primary right now, and I'll be switching it over to secondary in 5 days. I've also considered dry hoping with more cascade. All opinions are welcomed! Thanks a bunch!

MALTS
½ lbs. Cara Pills
½ pilsner malt
½ lbs. Honey Malt
1 lb. flacked Wheat
6 lbs. Extra Light Dry Malt Extract

HOPS
1 oz. Cascade (60 min.)
1 oz. Cascade (20 min.)
1 oz. Citra-Hops (5 min.)

ADJUNCTS
Lime/Ginger Extract (secondary)

YEAST
Safale U.S. 05 (S-05)

If it were me, I'd use the fresh stuff you made. I've used extract in a few beers and haven't loved the results most of the time. I'm sure extracts vary but in one beer a small amount of lemon extract completely eliminated any head formation on the pour, others just haven't tasted as good as when I've used real ingredients. With all of that said, I think your lime amount is about right for your desired 'slight' taste but the ginger might be a bit much. The ginger will probably fade pretty quick so you'll get to decide for yourself but I'm betting it will taste pretty heavy on the ginger for the first couple months in the bottle.

Just out of curiosity, why the water added in your homemade extract?

mobrew,

I had never made an extract before, and just found a recipe online for how to make it. Next time I'm not going to add water and it'll be more concentrated.

I've decided to dry-hop with an ounce (maybe a 1/2 oz) of citra hops, and save the extract for the witbier I bottled last night.

I'd rather not kill the head on my beer (that's the only reason I added the flacked wheat), so I'll leave it to the hops.

I should have specified, I've only killed the head on one brew with a commercial extract. Guessing that extract had a high oil content but I'm not really sure. I also considered after posting that if you only add the liquid and not the solid ingredients from your home made extract it might not be as much overkill as I initially thought on the ginger. I've done a recipe with very similar hop additions to yours and about the same gravity. In my recipe I have the bittering hops and then a flameout (or 5min would be roughly the same) addition of 1/2oz Citra and another 1/2 oz of Citra for a 7-day dry hop added after fermentaion pretty much stopped. This beer has a strong but tasty grapefruit-forward element to it, a few describe it as Mango. Either way, it's one of my favorite hops for APA's.

One more thought if you want it, if not feel free to ignore it. You may consider dropping the pilsner malt from the steeping grains unless you're going to allow it to fully convert. Pilsner is known for higher levels of DMS and usually a 90 minute boil goes with pilsner to boil off the extra DMS. With the small amount you have in your recipe, the off-flavor would probably be minimal but you aren't getting much flavor or gravity from it either. If you're just experimenting for the sake of experimenting however, I'd say carry on! Everything else looks good to go and you should have a great beer!

Hmm...DMS? I just did a quick Google search and found out a little bit about it, but I hadn't heard of it until just now. I already brewed the batch using a 60 minute boil, so what's done is done. I switched it over to the secondary last night and tried a glass. It was reeeeeeal tasty, so I decided to just leave it alone and keep it all-natural without any additions.

That being said, I found some more citra hops, and decided to take your suggestion and dry-hop with 1/2 oz. I'm gunna let it sit in the secondary for another week, then move it into a 3rd carboy and let it sit for another week. My fingers are crossed that it will clear up a little bit while it sits.

Thanks for all your input!

I think you'll still be fine with that small amount of Pilsner, it should be a tasty beer considering the rest of the recipe!

If you're looking for clear beer, especially after dry-hopping, look up a few threads on cold-crashing before bottling or kegging. If you have the ability to do this it seems to help quite a bit.

After all this Citra talk, you've inpsired me to do another Citra Pale Ale so I brewed up a fresh batch yesterday evening. Already sniffing the airlock... YUM!

Cheers!