# Ginger Beer



## Airgead (9/12/07)

Folks

I was trying to brew a ginger beer for the missus. Something with that nice ginger 'zing'. I have done gingers before but been disappointed in the amount of ginger I have managed to get onto the finished beer. This time I wasn't going to be accused of using too little. I added 250g of grated fresh ginger to the boil at 60 mins and another 200 at 5 mins (20l batch). 3 weeks later its all fermented out and what I have smells like ginger but there is no ginger taste. No 'zing'. The main taste I get is sour. Its not infected sour, Its the sour you get out of fresh ginger if you take all the flavour and heat away.

Has anyone out there done a ginger beer and got that 'zing'? After all.. it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that zing...

I am thinking of trying a tea made of dry ginger next time. Anyone else had success with that?

Cheers
Dave

P.S... In case anyone is interested the recipe was 50% Pils, 50% wheat, 10 IBU target and 15g hallertau at 5 mins for a bit of flavour and aroma. Plus the ginger mentione4d above.


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## Tyred (9/12/07)

It's possible that doing the 25g @ 60minutes wouldn't have left any ginger flavour and the 200g @ 5 would give you the aroma. Maybe doing the 250g @ 10 - 15 minutes would give you the flavour you are after. That's the way I believe hops work so I assume that ginger may work the same way.


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## dr K (9/12/07)

Google up Jeff Renner Ginger Wit for some inspiration
OK
http://www.hbd.org/brewery/cm3/recs/09_85.html


Worry not about the Grains of Paradise
Do not worry too much about the hop variety, its not about hops really
A quick scrape of lemon rind to the end boil will not hurt, in fact I suggest it
I would use a Belgan Wit yeast, but something like 1056 in its various forms is not going to hurt.
Aim for a SG of 1032..light, full flavored...
Perfect summer ale, one of my favorites.

K


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## drsmurto (10/12/07)

I'm still to step my ginger beers up from extract. I normally make 20L with 2-3kg of fermentables (raw sugar, dry malt extract). No cans of goo. For this quantity i use at least 1kg of ginger, my last had 1.25kg of which 0.75kg was fresh, the other 0.5kg i had left in the fridge for >2 months. Ageing ginger in a fridge reduces the ginger aroma but really ramps up the ginger bite or zing as you call it. I then add lemon, cloves, cinnamon to spice it up a touch.

Not sure how this will translate into a ginger flavoured beer as opposed to what i make which is more traditional ginger beer but alcoholic. Like bundaberg but without the sickly sweet taste.

Cheers
DrSmurto


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## Airgead (10/12/07)

Thanks Folks

From the look of the ginger wit recipe I am using more than enough ginger (3oz = about 90g compared to my nearly 500g). I suspect my problem was throwing it in too early and boiling all the flavour off. My thought was that the bite would equate to the bitterness in hops so throw that in with the bittering hops. It looks like it equated more with hop flavour so throwing it in at 5-10 mins was probably a better idea. Throwing it in with the bittering hops seems to have extracted an intense sourness.

I might make up a strong ginger tea by boiling another 150-200g for a couple of minutes and chucking that in to see if I can pick it up a bit.

Cheers
Dave


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## drsmurto (10/12/07)

I should have said that i boil the ginger for 1 hour. My GBs have never been accused of lacking the ginger character! :lol:


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## Airgead (10/12/07)

DrSmurto said:


> I should have said that i boil the ginger for 1 hour. My GBs have never been accused of lacking the ginger character! :lol:



Hummm...

Do you grate it up or chuck it in in chunks? That could affect the time it takes to extract the flavour... mine was mashed in a blender so it was very fine.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - sp


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## drsmurto (10/12/07)

I put it thru a food processor, skin and all. Throw it into a pot of boiling sugar/malt and add sliced up lemons, cloves and cinnamon sticks and let it go for an hour and then cool and strain into the fermenter.


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## Airgead (10/12/07)

DrSmurto said:


> I put it thru a food processor, skin and all. Throw it into a pot of boiling sugar/malt and add sliced up lemons, cloves and cinnamon sticks and let it go for an hour and then cool and strain into the fermenter.



I peeled mine... I have noticed that the bite is stronger towards the outside of the ginger root... Maybe I'll do it whole next time. I suppose I could have just had a bad batch of ginger. You do get some pretty flavourless stuff some times. And it was a box someone bought cheap at the markets then gave to me because they didn't want it.

Still.. i'll give the ginger tea a go to save this one and try some diferent things next time.

Cheers
Dave


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## Airgead (13/12/07)

Update - 

I made up a strong ginger tea last night. 130g of ginger (all i had left) grated and boiled in 1l of water for 2 mins thel left to steep until cool. Bite.... damn near took my head off when I tried it.

i added it to the brew this morning. i'll give it a day or 2 to mix through and see how that tastes.

I think in future I'll use the add to end of boil method.

Cheers
Dave


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## Airgead (17/12/07)

Well folks the ginger tea certainly made a diference. I now have ginger flavour and some bite. Unfortunatly its not enough to mask the sourness I got from the original over-boiled ginger so it looks like its down the drain with this one (my first dumped batch ever). I'll make it again but next time what I'll do is make it as a beer (un-gingered) then add the ginger as a tea after fermentation as that seems to give a really good flavour and aroma. It also means I can split the batch and have a nice blonde ale for me and a nice ginger blonde for the missus.

Cheers
Dave


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## clay (17/12/07)

I've got 25L of hefe in primary right now and was thinking of racking half into secondary with some raw, fresh ginger. Any thoughts how this will go and how much I will need to get a decent ginger hit?


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## Airgead (17/12/07)

clay said:


> I've got 25L of hefe in primary right now and was thinking of racking half into secondary with some raw, fresh ginger. Any thoughts how this will go and how much I will need to get a decent ginger hit?



The ginger tea I made was 130g of fresh ginger pulped in a blender. I boiled for 2 mins then let it infuse till cold. It added a good bit of ginger flavour, aroma and bite to 20l. Not enough though. I'd say 200-250g done the same way would be enough for a full batch.

Cheers
Dave


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## troydo (17/12/07)

Ive been toying with an ag ginger and came up with this so far ./.. really simple..

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU 
5.50 kg Pale Malt, Galaxy (Barrett Burston) (3.0 EGrain 95.65 % 
25.00 gm Cluster [7.00 %] (60 min) Hops 17.3 IBU 
1.00 items Cinnamon Stick (Boil 5.0 min) Misc 
100.00 gm Ginger Root (Primary 12.0 min) Misc 
150.00 gm Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 min) Misc 
0.25 kg Brown Sugar, Light (15.8 EBC) Sugar 4.35 % 
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-05) Yeast-Ale


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## Airgead (17/12/07)

Troydo said:


> 100.00 gm Ginger Root (Primary 12.0 min) Misc
> 150.00 gm Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 min) Misc



Troydo

Based on the results I have had so far i would be tempted to move that 10 min addition in the boiler to < 5 mins. there should be plenty of steeping time to extract flavours as you do the cooling. The addition in the primary looks good but rather than dump it in I would boil it up as a tea for 1-2 mins then let it infuse before adding it. Ginger seems to need some heat to extract flavours (and kill off any bugs).

Cheers
Dave


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## troydo (17/12/07)

good plan


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## frasertag (20/12/07)

My Ginger Beer recipe has taken me a while to get good and i love gingery bite!!
Its a K&K tho so i hope its ok to post it here...

1 x Coopers Ginger Beer (or morgans but i cant taste the difference just the price)
1 x 500g Fresh ginger
1 x 250g *DARK* Brown Sugar
1 x 800g Raw Sugar (or dex or brewing sugar)
1 x 250g Buderum Ginger Honey
1 x 50g powdered ginger
2 x Whole cloves
4 x birds eye chillies (sliced thinly, i personally keep the seeds in)

Boil up around 3litres of water
Add in the honey, chillies
boil for 15minutes
then add the fresh and powdered ginger
boil for 15minutes
about now its smelling really tastey 
add the brown sugar and the cloves
boil for 15minutes
remove from heat (i usally cover the pot with clingwrap to prevent anything unwanted getting in) let cool while preparing the fermenter
I guess the order i add things in is abit random... but it seems to work

Make the kit up as normal from here
usually ferment for around 2 weeks, bottle for around 6 weeks, but do taste one bottle at 3 weeks the ginger kick is sooooo strong! it mellows out to a nice hit at 6 weeks, by 3 months its lost most its taste imho.


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## Muggus (20/12/07)

FrAsErTaG said:


> My Ginger Beer recipe has taken me a while to get good and i love gingery bite!!
> Its a K&K tho so i hope its ok to post it here...
> 
> 1 x Coopers Ginger Beer (or morgans but i cant taste the difference just the price)
> ...


Sounds like one hell of a strong tasting ginger beer! How big is your batch?


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## PJO (21/12/07)

Airgead said:


> Well folks the ginger tea certainly made a diference. I now have ginger flavour and some bite. Unfortunatly its not enough to mask the sourness I got from the original over-boiled ginger so it looks like its down the drain with this one (my first dumped batch ever). I'll make it again but next time what I'll do is make it as a beer (un-gingered) then add the ginger as a tea after fermentation as that seems to give a really good flavour and aroma. It also means I can split the batch and have a nice blonde ale for me and a nice ginger blonde for the missus.
> 
> Cheers
> Dave




Hi Dave,

glad you had success with the ginger tea method.

Another way to get some decent ginger bite, is with kibbled (sliced dried) ginger. 
20-30g for the last 10-15min of the boil works well. If you want a strong ginger bite then double or triple this amount.

PJO


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## frasertag (26/12/07)

Muggus said:


> Sounds like one hell of a strong tasting ginger beer! How big is your batch?



I Usually make it up too 20L
Its over powering the first 4weeks but then each week it looses its bite and mellows out thats why i make it so strong
Its a great drop and everyone that has ever tasted it wants to buy some, but i just dont have time to look after mates.
I just tell em to get a homebrew kit, follow my reciepe or make there own!!


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## Dave86 (1/9/08)

Just trying to find some info on doing a ginger beer from scratch. When boiling your ginger up, do you boil it in a few litres on the stove or do a full boil and chill (or not)? Was just wondering if making it up from a concentrated boil would not deliver as much flavour? Anyone happen to have done a side by side?  

Cheers

Dave


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## Muggus (1/9/08)

I don't really see the point in boiling up a whole batch IMO.
Really all you want to do is boil up all of the ginger (and any other spices) with some sugar and water, to make a sterlised syrup of sorts, then water it down and mix in any other fermentables.

Never done a full boil for such a thing, but i'd be happy to have a side-by-side tasting if anyone wants to prove a point! 

Oh ps Dave, whats your recipe you plan to use?


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## Dave86 (1/9/08)

Muggus said:


> I don't really see the point in boiling up a whole batch IMO.
> Really all you want to do is boil up all of the ginger (and any other spices) with some sugar and water, to make a sterlised syrup of sorts, then water it down and mix in any other fermentables.
> 
> Never done a full boil for such a thing, but i'd be happy to have a side-by-side tasting if anyone wants to prove a point!
> ...



Cheers, mini boil it is

Got about 1-1.1kg of fresh ginger I'm going to put through the blender (a la Dr Smurto) and boil it up with a few sliced lemons (or blended maybe) and 0.5kg malt extract and 1.5 kg raw sugar. Make it up to 23-25L and ferment with nottingham or US-56. Thinking US-56 as it might not attenuate _quite_ so much

Cheers for the info

Dave


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## sponge (1/9/08)

I did something very similar a while back. it turned out very very dry, more of a ginger flavoured beer then a ginger beer.

the only way ive been able to get that real sweet ginger beer flavour is with a can of goop and some lactose on top of that (along with everything else of course...)


thats just my opinion though...  


Sponge


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## Muggus (1/9/08)

Dave86 said:


> Cheers, mini boil it is
> 
> Got about 1-1.1kg of fresh ginger I'm going to put through the blender (a la Dr Smurto) and boil it up with a few sliced lemons (or blended maybe) and 0.5kg malt extract and 1.5 kg raw sugar. Make it up to 23-25L and ferment with nottingham or US-56. Thinking US-56 as it might not attenuate _quite_ so much
> 
> ...


Sounds good to me.
The one thing i'm always a bit paranoid of when brewing a ginger beer from scratch is the brew attenuating way too much and becoming unbearably dry and hot, but having some malt in there and a yeast that won't go so nuts should help give your brew a bit of sweetness.
Good luck with it!


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## Jamz (7/9/08)

Here's a suggestion for ya, how would you go letting it ferment out fully, adding camden tablets to prevent further fermentation and then back-sweetening to taste by adding more sugar? I guess the big downside to that is that camden tablets would rule out bottle carbing, so you'd either have to serve it flat or force carb in a keg or something.


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## Shortz (15/9/08)

The problem i've had with ginger beer in the past is that it has been quite watery apart from the ginger zing or it tastes like a weird beer. Is it just my recipe?


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## Muggus (15/9/08)

Shortz said:


> The problem i've had with ginger beer in the past is that it has been quite watery apart from the ginger zing or it tastes like a weird beer. Is it just my recipe?


If you're just been using a Ginger Beer kit very specifically, you'll often find it is on the watery side.
As has been mentioned by others before, extra ginger (be it freshly grated or in a syrup) definately gives your ginger beer more flavour. More fermentables will also give you a less 'watery' overall sensation, though will also raise your alcohol...not sure if that's what you're after!


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## minxster (10/4/20)

frasertag said:


> My Ginger Beer recipe has taken me a while to get good and i love gingery bite!!
> Its a K&K tho so i hope its ok to post it here...
> 
> 1 x Coopers Ginger Beer (or morgans but i cant taste the difference just the price)
> ...


Sounds like a great recipe. I did one similar for my first ever GB batch which I have only just bottled. My recipe was quite similar however I only used 2kg of raw sugar (will definitely use dark brown sugar next time) and I accidentally poured it 22L not 20L.
I don't have a hydrometer yet but was wondering what did your GB batch here return?

Then last minute just after bottling I decided to add one carbonation drop to each bottle. Do you think this will up the alcohol %?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, cant wait to get my second batch perfected.

Cheers


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