# Galangal Beer



## Red Baron (24/1/15)

This topic came about after a brief discussion in the Growing Ginger thread.
After a search that turned up Galangal only as an adjunct to ginger, and with an abundance of it and other things in in the garden, I decided to get scientific with an all Galangal Beer base and change it up to see what I could do....

The base recipe for all 4 beers (6L total) was:
330g Galangal,
800g White sugar,
3-4tbsp Molasses (molasses and white sugar combined are brown sugar, and that's all I had),
4tsp Lemon juice, and
1tsp yeast nutrient.

I pounded the Galangal in a mortar and pestle to release the oils. Wear sunnies when you do this- if you've never had the pleasure of galangal in the eye, enough said! I then boiled it in enough water to cover it for 10min, then strained the hot liquid over the sugar and molasses to dissolve them. This liquid was measured evenly between 4 sterilised 1.25l soft drink bottles, and the following was added:

#1- Nothing as this was the control group,
#2- 2 slices of medium hot red chilli,
#3- 4 slices of fresh tumeric (i was hoping this would add an awesome yellowness),
#4- 2 slices chilli, 4 slices tumeric, 1 kaffir lime leaf shredded, 4 slices lemon grass.




Left to right as above 1 through 4.

All bottles were then filled with tap water. This gave an OG of 1061.
US-04 yeast was what I had on hand, so that's what went into the bottles.

The beer was fermented at between 12 and 18 deg in their bottles with the lid on loose( I was doing a lager and ale during the period) for 6 days. When the SG reduced to 1020, I capped them tight and allowed them to carbonate (2 days).

The taste testing was interesting.
#1 was quite floral (characteristic of Galangal, and I won't repeat it for the rest), and the molasses and residual sweetness was pleasing.
#2 was everything from #1, but with residual heat that I like in a ginger beer due to the chilli.
#3 tasted a bit dirty. I washed the Tumeric, but it has an underlying dirty taste that is a characterisic of tumeric anyway. Absolutely no change in colour from the tumeric due to heavy weight of molasses......
#4 floral in a different way due to the lemongrass and kaffir lime. Good residual heat, and the sweetness balanced it out nicely.

Fg was about 1015 (I had difficulty taking a reading due to carbonation), giving an ABV% at 5.5ish.
My favourite was #4 as a standout. #2 was pretty good, but as I have everything growing in the garden already, i'll be going with the Thai curry Galangal Beer recipe from now on! The missus tried it and raved about to, so that's a win. 

What i'll use next time will be (20L):
1kg Galangal root pounded,
2kg White sugar and 1/3 cup molasses (or 2.4kg brown sugar),
Juice of a lemon,
1tbsp yeast nutrient,
1 medium hot chilli sliced,
2 Kaffir lime leaves schredded,
1 small root tumeric pounded with galangal,
1 stalk of lemongrass pounded with above.

Boil galangal, tumeric and lemongrass in enough water to cover for 10 min. Strain liquid over remaining ingredients in a fermenter and add enough water to make up to 20L. Add any ale yeast, and ferment at 18-20deg. Bottle into plastic bottles when SG reaches about 1020 (higher if you like more sweetness, lower if you like a dryer beer) and cap. Secondary until bottles are soft drink firm on the outside, then crash chill in a fridge to retard fermentation. Drink when cold.

Enjoy!,
Cheer RB.


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## indica86 (24/1/15)

Wicked!
I have all the ingredients available in my yard. I'll jump on the bandwagon fo' sure.


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## Mardoo (24/1/15)

Damn. Thanks for posting this! Galangal is one of my favorite flavors.


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## Red Baron (25/1/15)

No worries guys. It's awesome to create something good to eat or drink from ingredients you have in the yard already.


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## Lewkowski (12/5/16)

Nice work Red Baron.

If you are after that bitey/spicy Galangal taste, the oils that are responsible for it are not readily soluble in water.

they are soluble in ethanol, so if you add a small amount, say 15 - 30ml of spirits (white rum/vodka) for 100 grams of grated Galangal, it will help to dissolve the oil and release the flavour into your wort. Then I would suggest putting that mash of Galangal and the juice into a cheesecloth pouch and leaving in your brewing container while you brew.

This should give you a drink with more of the familiar Galangal bite to it, rather than just the floral flavours as you described in #1.

Unfortunately, this process adds a small amount of alcohol to the drink. On the upside you will not need to use as much Galangal as more of the flavour will be released.

Let me know how you go.


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## Nicko_Cairns (19/7/18)

Hi, any updates on this? Many people tried it? Putting a batch down tomorrow, cheers!


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## Nicko_Cairns (20/7/18)

Trying something different, I'm pressure cooking the galangal to try and extract as many oils as possible, if anything can do it the pressure cooker can!

Brewing tonight, will post the results. I don't have kaffir lime leaves or lemon grass unfortunately and am omitting chilli due to the Mrs, so it's something like this for 18 litres

800gm galangal
Juice from two lemons
Rind from one lemon
2kg white sugar
250ml golden syrup

S04 yeast


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## Hangover68 (22/7/18)

Will be interested in the results.


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## jellyferret (25/3/20)

Red Baron said:


> This topic came about after a brief discussion in the Growing Ginger thread.
> After a search that turned up Galangal only as an adjunct to ginger, and with an abundance of it and other things in in the garden, I decided to get scientific with an all Galangal Beer base and change it up to see what I could do....
> 
> The base recipe for all 4 beers (6L total) was:
> ...



Sounds amaze-balls! I’m pounding right now, but I normally ferment without use of a fermenter.....as the temperature here is pretty right atm, how long would you say this process of ferment will take roughly? I’m guessing about 10-14 days... what do you think? And do you think I could leave the pounded roots in the mixture and strain when ready?(I do this for kombucha beer)
Just wondering..... tia


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## sp0rk (28/3/20)

jellyferret said:


> Sounds amaze-balls! I’m pounding right now, but I normally ferment without use of a fermenter.....as the temperature here is pretty right atm, how long would you say this process of ferment will take roughly? I’m guessing about 10-14 days... what do you think? And do you think I could leave the pounded roots in the mixture and strain when ready?(I do this for kombucha beer)
> Just wondering..... tia


I'd highly suggest the use of a Hydrometer, time alone is not enough to ensure it has completed fermenting


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