Ag Ginger Ale

[manaen]

Last night a mate and I had our first crack at a AG Ginger Ale (recipe below), smells & tastes quite spicey going into primary but it just isn't gingery enough. We were hoping for a nice ginger bite from the brew. We transfered the chunks of ginger root into the primary fermentors after the boil.

I was thinking about putting another 100g crushed ginger in each fermentor .. what do you guys think?

BeerSmith Recipe Printout - www.beersmith.com
Recipe: AG Ginger Beer
Brewer: Jay
Asst Brewer: Dean
Style: Specialty Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 40.00 L
Boil Size: 48.00 L
Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 6.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
4.50 kg Pale Malt, Traditional Ale (Joe White) (3.Grain 47.4 %
4.50 kg Pilsner (Weyermann) (1.7 SRM) Grain 47.4 %
0.25 kg Carahell (Weyermann) (13.0 SRM) Grain 2.6 %
0.25 kg Caramunich I (Weyermann) (51.0 SRM) Grain 2.6 %
40.00 gm Northern Brewer [9.90%] (60 min) Hops 23.4 IBU
0.50 tsp Clove (Crush) (Boil 25.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Lemon (Juice) (Boil 25.0 min) Misc
1.00 items Lime (Juice) (Boil 25.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Nutmeg (Ground) (Boil 25.0 min) Misc
3.00 tsp Cinnamon (Ground) (Boil 25.0 min) Misc
210.00 mg Ginger (Crushed) (Boil 25.0 min) Misc
210.00 mg Ginger Root (Boil 25.0 min) Misc

US-56 Dried yeast 11g in starter

 

[agro]

Believe it or not you would probably get more 'bite' out of ground ginger. Either that or add a little bit of cayenne pepper for a little heat.

I think I will have to try your recipe... looks tasty

Agro.

 

[manaen]

Ground ginger hey .. how much per 20L??? 40g? too much? not enough?

 

[Jagungal]

Ground ginger hey .. how much per 20L??? 40g? too much? not enough?

[post="115533"][/post]​

Last time I made ginger beer I put heaps of fresh ginger in and it came out very nice.

I used a ginger kit as a starter - then probabally about 4-500 Grams of Ginger Root. The root was cheap from the supermarket as it was getting a bit old. I grated it up as much as possible and then gave it a good boil. This was then strained and sparged. The result was a very gingery and peppery water that had a real bite.

This was then added to the ferment. It is a very popular ginger beer.

Maybe you could just do the above with a bit more ginger to see if it improves.

 

[warrenlw63]

Manaen.

If you're kegging your ginger beer ( :excl: note this method is too dangerous for bottling). I used a bottle of Buderim (sp?) brand ginger cordial. I just waited for the ginger beer to ferment out and basically added a bottle of cordial to the keg.

Takes care of 2 things. Firstly the massive carbonation that ginger beers require and secondly it adds a pretty big ginger character (and some extra alc.) to the whole batch. :beerbang:

Once the desired carbonation level was achieved the keg was basically polished off in a couple of weeks. By the end it got fairly dry but had a kick like a mule. :lol:

I reckon a half to a whole bottle of Stone's Green Ginger Wine would be pretty awesome (if not a little lethal) too.

Warren -

 

[kungy]

Just an additional thought concurring with Jagungal - the age of the ginger root used to can have a pretty dramatic effect upon the "zinginess".

The older the ginger root the more spiciness and richness, and the younger the more freshness.

I would go for the older ginger root if available, not the dried shrivelled up ones, but the one with the more darker and tougher skin. Its a little tougher to grate up, but the flavour profile it contributes is probably what your looking for


Will

 

[Josh]

If I don't have enough zing in my ginger beer, can I grate up some more ginger, boil it for 15 minutes and add that to the ferment like a dry hop?