Making a Ginger Hefeweisen.

[Frozgaar]

So I brewed a hefeweisen 3 weeks ago and it's been fermenting in primary ever since.

I decided I want to flavor it with ginger, which I was planning to do by soaking fresh ginger in rum (I don't have vodka) and then sticking in it a weighted hop bag in secondary.

The question I have is, can I just do this without racking into secondary?

I've heard from several people that it is better to not do a secondary for a hefeweisen because it would benefit more from staying on the yeast cake until it is ready to bottle. Is this true, and can I just stick the bag into the primary?

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

I think that sounds really good. But be careful, I doubt it will take much at all to get what you're looking for. I've made homemade ginger ale a few times before. Ginger gets really spicy and hot-tasting. In large quantities, it may be confused with alcohol burning on the way down, so you're going to want to keep it fairly subtle.

Yes, I would add it to primary for a hefeweizen. In fact, I'd probably skip the rum or vodka and just add them straight in. I'm pretty sure that ginger is pretty acidic. I doubt much is going to infect and grow on the inside. I'd just trim the outside, dip them in starsan for 5-10 minutes, and go straight into a hop bag in primary.

I'm thinking that if you did thin slices, for a 5 gallon batch, I'd probably do something that would be the equivalent of ten to fifteen pieces, each one being a little bit smaller than a nickel, and I'd taste it after about 5-7 days.

The one variable I can't comment on though is the difference between boiling ginger, and just steeping it at room temperature. However, I'd err on the side of caution to guarantee you a tasty brew. You can always up the quantity next time. In my experience, the flavor-quality of ginger is easy to pick up even at a very low level.. however the less pleasant spiciness also sneaks up quickly, so in general less is more when it comes to ginger.