diff --git a/.github/workflows/jdk-early-access-build.yml b/.github/workflows/jdk-early-access-build.yml
index e0df80ee025300..aca087fcf2d1d4 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/jdk-early-access-build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/jdk-early-access-build.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ on:
         description: 'JDK version'
         required: true
         # make sure to keep the default of JDK_VERSION in sync!
-        default: '17-ea'
+        default: '16'
 
 env:
   JDK_VERSION: ${{ github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && github.event.inputs.jdkVersion || '17-ea' }}
@@ -70,10 +70,9 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build with Maven
         # -fae to try to gather as many failures as possible
         # (but not maven.test.failure.ignore because test report generation is buggy)
-        # Gradle bits are excluded due to https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/13481
         # descriptor-tests (integration-tests/maven) are disabled due to https://github.com/quarkusio/quarkus/issues/16862 (and/or 16806)
         run: |
-          ./mvnw $JVM_TEST_MAVEN_OPTS -Dtcks install -fae -pl '!devtools/gradle' -pl '!integration-tests/gradle' -Dno-descriptor-tests
+          ./mvnw $JVM_TEST_MAVEN_OPTS -Dtcks install -fae -Dno-descriptor-tests
       # Test reports disabled due to: https://github.com/ScaCap/action-surefire-report/issues/39
       #- name: Publish Test Report
       #  if: always()
diff --git a/build-parent/pom.xml b/build-parent/pom.xml
index 24996d37b6c628..da72625ac879eb 100644
--- a/build-parent/pom.xml
+++ b/build-parent/pom.xml
@@ -1058,17 +1058,5 @@
                 <script.extension>bat</script.extension>
             </properties>
         </profile>
-
-        <profile>
-            <id>jdk16-workarounds</id>
-            <activation>
-                <jdk>[16,)</jdk>
-            </activation>
-            <properties>
-                <!-- auto-exclude tests that are known to fail on JDK 16 (tagged via @Tag("failsOnJDK16")) -->
-                <excludedGroups>failsOnJDK16</excludedGroups>
-            </properties>
-        </profile>
-
     </profiles>
 </project>
diff --git a/devtools/cli/src/test/java/io/quarkus/cli/CliTest.java b/devtools/cli/src/test/java/io/quarkus/cli/CliTest.java
index 5aef8a41f77597..58fa2143c8eb25 100644
--- a/devtools/cli/src/test/java/io/quarkus/cli/CliTest.java
+++ b/devtools/cli/src/test/java/io/quarkus/cli/CliTest.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeAll;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
-import org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 
 import io.quarkus.cli.core.ExecuteUtil;
@@ -158,7 +157,6 @@ public void testAddListRemove() throws Exception {
     }
 
     @Test
-    @Tag("failsOnJDK16")
     public void testGradleAddListRemove() throws Exception {
         // Gradle list command cannot be screen captured with the current implementation
         // so I will just test good return values
@@ -285,7 +283,6 @@ public void testCreateWithAppConfig() throws Exception {
     }
 
     @Test
-    @Tag("failsOnJDK16")
     public void testCreateGradleDefaults() throws Exception {
         Path project = workspace.resolve("code-with-quarkus");
 
@@ -305,7 +302,6 @@ public void testCreateGradleDefaults() throws Exception {
     }
 
     @Test
-    @Tag("failsOnJDK16")
     public void testGradleBuild() throws Exception {
 
         execute("create", "--gradle", "resteasy");
diff --git a/integration-tests/devtools/src/test/java/io/quarkus/devtools/codestarts/quarkus/QuarkusCodestartBuildIT.java b/integration-tests/devtools/src/test/java/io/quarkus/devtools/codestarts/quarkus/QuarkusCodestartBuildIT.java
index c3ab047cba163d..41f15ff0077e9d 100644
--- a/integration-tests/devtools/src/test/java/io/quarkus/devtools/codestarts/quarkus/QuarkusCodestartBuildIT.java
+++ b/integration-tests/devtools/src/test/java/io/quarkus/devtools/codestarts/quarkus/QuarkusCodestartBuildIT.java
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ public void testRunTogetherCodestartsJava() throws Exception {
     }
 
     @Test
-    @org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag("failsOnJDK16")
     public void testRunTogetherCodestartsKotlin() throws Exception {
         generateProjectRunTests("maven", "kotlin", getExtensionCodestarts(), Collections.emptyMap());
     }
@@ -69,7 +68,6 @@ public void testRunTogetherCodestartsScala() throws Exception {
 
     @ParameterizedTest
     @MethodSource("provideLanguages")
-    @org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag("failsOnJDK16")
     public void testGradle(String language) throws Exception {
         final List<String> codestarts = getExtensionCodestarts();
         generateProjectRunTests("gradle", language, codestarts, Collections.emptyMap());
@@ -77,7 +75,6 @@ public void testGradle(String language) throws Exception {
 
     @ParameterizedTest
     @MethodSource("provideLanguages")
-    @org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag("failsOnJDK16")
     public void testGradleKotlinDSL(String language) throws Exception {
         final List<String> codestarts = getExtensionCodestarts();
         generateProjectRunTests("gradle-kotlin-dsl", language, codestarts, Collections.emptyMap());
@@ -91,7 +88,6 @@ public void testRunAloneCodestartsJava(String codestart) throws Exception {
 
     @ParameterizedTest
     @MethodSource("provideRunAloneCodestarts")
-    @org.junit.jupiter.api.Tag("failsOnJDK16")
     public void testRunAloneCodestartsKotlin(String codestart) throws Exception {
         generateProjectRunTests("maven", "kotlin", singletonList(codestart), Collections.emptyMap());
     }