Too much ginger in my wit

[FunkGoff]

Tasted a sample of my sort-of-allagash-white clone when switching from primary to secondary and there's a STRONG ginger taste (almost soapy) when I was hoping for more of the bitter orange peel and vanilla to come through. Any ideas to counter the ginger, or at least an amount of orange/vanilla if they will work on their own in a larger quantity?

Thanks,

Dustin

 

[homebrewer_99]

Why did you add ginger to a Wit? (If you didn't then it's probably the oils from the orange peel.)

 

[HillbillyDeluxe]

+1 On the why add ginger. If thats what your going for ok, but wit with orange peel and coriander usually flavor out well and rapidly(why secondary a wit?). Mine is usually ready to keg in about 2 weeks and drinking at 3 or so. Secondaries usually are to clead or age beers, a wit needs neither. Just mho.

 

[FunkGoff]

Went to secondary to make bottling easier out of the carboy w/o grabbing sediment, etc. The ginger was actually a fairly small amount mixed with vanilla, of which only a small pinch was added. I added the ginger because I like ginger, so that seemed reason enough to try it out as part of a "secret spice" element, it just came out much stronger than I anticipated. The nose is badass, the taste is just off from what I was going for.

 

[squeekysheep]

best i could think of is do a small batch with no ginger and blend them

 

[Yuri_Rage]

RDWHAHB. The sharp ginger notes will probably fade quickly.

 

[david_42]

I've made ginger beers and the flavor fades quickly.

 

[Austin_]

I agree with the above two comments. It packs a punch early on but dies out pretty quick.

 

[FunkGoff]

Thanks for the input, I'll taste again in a week with higher hopes than before

 

[FunkGoff]

Update: Month and a half later and the beer isn't as bad as I had feared. The ginger did calm down some, but definitely needs some cutting back next time around. My beer snob friends agree it's a lot of ginger when you're pulling apart the flavors, but everyone who's been given one without a forewarning has liked it a lot comparing it to spiced belgians. I played with some bottles adding orange zest to some and vanilla to others wihich both turned out REALLY yummy having the clean ginger zip to finish off the other flavors. Next time will probably be 1/4 or so of the amount of ginger and a ton of vanilla . Thanks again to those who gave input.

 

[wizardofza]

Update: Month and a half later and the beer isn't as bad as I had feared. The ginger did calm down some, but definitely needs some cutting back next time around. My beer snob friends agree it's a lot of ginger when you're pulling apart the flavors, but everyone who's been given one without a forewarning has liked it a lot comparing it to spiced belgians. I played with some bottles adding orange zest to some and vanilla to others wihich both turned out REALLY yummy having the clean ginger zip to finish off the other flavors. Next time will probably be 1/4 or so of the amount of ginger and a ton of vanilla . Thanks again to those who gave input.

That's great news! There's no issue with adding ginger to a Wit. The secret is that it should just sit in the background - begging people to guess what it is.