All Grain Beer (with Ginger)

[Luxo_Aussie]

G'day All,

I've done a bit of digging into this sort of thing (here, here, here & here) and found some recipes of ginger beers without malt, some beers with malt but without hops & some beers with a bit of ginger added. I would be keen to sort of meet mid-way and see how that turns out, here's the plan :

Batch Size: 25.00 L
Est Original Gravity: 1.045 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Bitterness: 15.7 IBUs
Est Color: 19.8 EBC

1.000 kg Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) (5.0 EBC)
0.550 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (Weyermann) (4.5 EBC)
0.450 kg Munich Malt (Weyermann) (15.0 EBC)
0.350 kg Biscuit Malt (Brewferm) (45.3 EBC)
0.300 kg Cara-120 (Brewferm) (120.0 EBC)
0.250 kg Barley, Flaked (Brewferm) (4.0 EBC)
0.250 kg Wheat, Flaked (Brewferm) (3.2 EBC)
200.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 30.0 mins)
15.00 g Hallertauer Tradition [5.80 %] - Boil 30.0 min
125.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 15.0 mins)
30.00 g Saaz [3.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min
125.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 5.0 mins)
30.00 g Saaz [3.10 %] - Boil 5.0 min
0.500 kg Honey [Whirlpool]
0.500 kg Brown Sugar, Dark [Whirlpool] (50.0 EBC)
1.0 pkg British Ale II (Wyeast Labs #1335) [124 ml]
Yeast 150.00 g Ginger Root (Secondary 7.0 days) Herb

Mixed malt bill is hopefully going to make this feel rich without making it too heavy. I've gone with an English yeast to (hopefully) attenuate badly and leave some residual sweetness. Mash is fairly standard for a light-body : 15@52, 30@62, 25@66, 25@70 & 10@78. I'm not sure if the Saaz is a great idea - I'm keen for some floral elements to give a bit more to the beer but wondering if it would be better to just stick to a bittering addition to not over-complicate the beer. Honey & Brown sugar should give it a non-beerish dimension to remind drinkers that it ins't your average beer.

Anyone else gone down this route? Keen for any feedback on this, trying to go down a new-ish path.

Cheers!

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I used to make one in my extract kit days. It was excellent when balanced right. Not just my own opinion but other people liked it a lot too. The kit ingredients can just be a guide for the style and balance. I tried to adapt it to an all grain beer but didn't turn out as good as the kit & kilo version.
Cut and pasted from years ago.

1 can Coopers Draught
1 kg Dextrose
2 tblsp Molasses (for starter)
Standard Coopers Dry Yeast (Built up)
90g Fresh Ginger
1/3 Ghost Pepper
1 tsp whole cloves
1 Lemon, rind and juice
3 Bay leaves.


Activate yeast in small amount of boiled molasses and water.
Boil fine chopped ginger and cloves in around 5lt water for ~10mins.
Add chopped ghost pepper, chopped lemon rind and juice and Bay Leaves and the wort and sugar.
Rapid simmer for a few minutes.
Take off heat and cool. Strain into fermenter. Top up to 21lt. Pitch yeast.
OG = 1.040 2-march 2013
FG = 1.002 8-3-13
Alc/vol = 4.9%
Racked into secondary with (Beer Essentials) CLEARFINE. Then put in refrigerator
for ~36 hours.
10-3-2013 Drained into sanitized keg. Primed with Co2 and since it was cold force
Carbonated straight away.
Pured a glass, nice flavor and smooth but a tad flat and hazy.
Bottled left over. 20g dextrose to 3lt.
11-3-13 Learning to stabalize carbonation and pressure by my valve.

Pours a nice fluffy head beer. Cloudy but very nice to drink. Soft on the mouth
and great flavour that could be considered a dry (maybe an extreme dry).
With a mild burn from the 1/3 ghost pepper. Sweet but dry, akin to a dry ginger ale etc.
With an after burn that I personally like.
My best beer I,ve ever made. This is very impressive so far and its a green beer!
9 days from starting. 1 day in the keg.
Cleared after 1 week to a very impressive looking and tasting beer.

Tasted 340ml bottle. Minimal head. Still my best beer.

Taste 640ml bottle. Still my best beer. Maybe a tad too many cloves. After aging the cloves are moor up front.

 

[Malted Mick]

Hi GB fans. Luxo how did the GB turn out you planned?
I am resurrecting this old thread as I am also interested in an all grain beer with ginger. Doing my research I have sampled several GB's but only three that had a malt base and noted the ingredients where possible and listed them in order to my own tastes.
Wychwood Ginger Beard was a nice one. Noted as a Pale amber ale infused with fiery ginger. 4.2% ABV.
Stones Premium Ginger Beer, less body but still very drinkable. Noted ingredients, Carbonated Water, Sugar, Ginger Extract, Malt (Barley), Food Acid (330), Flavours Preservatives (202 211) Hops.
Cabbies Alcoholic Ginger Beer, very similar to Stones. Noted ingredients, Malt beverage contains wheat & barley, natural flavours and caramel colour. 5% beer. 4% ABV
Matsos Ginger Beer, very sweet and an easy drink. Noted ingredients, Sugar, Ginger, Lemon Juice.
Buderim Alcoholic Ginger Beer, very sweet more like a cider than a beer. Noted ingredients, Carbonated Water, Spirit Alcohol 11.3%, Cane Sugar, Fresh Ginger, Natural Flavours, Food Acids (Citric Acids, Malic Acid), Preservatives (Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate)

I do not want to add any extracts, preservatives, colours whatever to keep it fresh and natural!
My plan at this point is mash a 25L BIAB batch at around 68c to get some body for my base malt. I have on hand Marris Otter, BestMaltz Meloidin and Gladfields Med Crystal to go for a rust coloured amber ale similar to Ginger Beard. I will add Enigma hop pellets, fresh ground ginger, fresh chilli, fresh lemon grass, maybe some fresh galangal and honey during the boil. Not sure yet but maybe a dash of cloves or corriander seed. SAF-04 for fermentaion and I also have it on hand. I like it fiery and am a fan of the chilli/galangal/lemon grass combination. Maybe at least 500gms of fresh ground ginger will needed to get the zing I am after. This is very much an experiment and self indulgent as it will be on the spicy side suited to my tastes. I will put a recipe together with quantities but would appreciate comments and advice. I will have to put it down soon as I will be going away for a few weeks at the end of the month.

 

[Luxo_Aussie]

Luxo how did the GB turn out you planned?

This turned out very good, really exactly as planned with the balance between the beer and ginger. This batch was well liked by lots of people over here who'd never even heard of a ginger beer.

That said, a few points for improvement for the next time :
1) Head retention was a bit lacking, I'd remove or lower the brown sugar / honey as it was also quite dry - in the final recipe I only used 250g of each as well!
2) For the ginger additions, I'd do a hopstand to maximize flavour without the burn - could probably move the 30min addition to hopstand.
3) I'd mash higher to leave something more & hopefully improve the head retention.
4) OG should be 1040-42 to leave a beer in the 4-4.5% range as there's a lot of flavour going on which prevents a second bottle.
5) I don't think there's any point for hops to be used for flavour - a single clean 60min addition for about 15 IBU's would be enough.

I'm starting to nitpick though, overall it turned out excellent. Good luck with your attempt!

 

[Malted Mick]

Thanks Luxo.
Head retention is not normally a problem with my brews, but I have note used sugar or honey before.Will delete the honey and sugar as I was unsure about those ingredients as well. Palm sugar was another option I considered but rejected as well. I do not have a sweet tooth and the malt base with a minimal hop addition at 60min will be sweet enough for me. I had a higher IBU in mind around 50 but again taking your advice I will tone it down a bit.

 

[Malted Mick]

Ok
I have a draft of my all grain GB recipe.
Batch Size: 30.00 L
Est Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Bitterness: 28 IBUs
Est Color: 30 EBC
ABV: 4.2%

BIAB Full body single stage. 69C
The ginger, galangal, lemon grass and chilli. I will process through the wifes blender without peeling or removing seeds.
Decided to cut back on the lemon grass as the galangal has citrus notes.

4.000 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (7.9 EBC)
1.50 kg Melanoidin (BestMaltz) (70 EBC)
0.70 kg Medium Chrstal (Gladfield) (110.0 EBC)
20.00 g Enigma [16.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
300.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 30.0 mins)
200.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 15.0 mins)
100.00 g Galangal Root (Boil 15.0 mins)
100.00 g Fresh Chilli (Boil 15.0 mins)
100.00 g Fresh Lemon Grass (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.0 pkg Saf-04 English Ale
No dry hopping or secondary additions planned at this point.

 

[kadmium]

Ok
I have a draft of my all grain GB recipe.
Batch Size: 30.00 L
Est Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Bitterness: 28 IBUs
Est Color: 30 EBC
ABV: 4.2%

BIAB Full body single stage. 69C
The ginger, galangal, lemon grass and chilli. I will process through the wifes blender without peeling or removing seeds.
Decided to cut back on the lemon grass as the galangal has citrus notes.

4.000 kg Maris Otter (Crisp) (7.9 EBC)
1.50 kg Melanoidin (BestMaltz) (70 EBC)
0.70 kg Medium Chrstal (Gladfield) (110.0 EBC)
20.00 g Enigma [16.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
300.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 30.0 mins)
200.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 15.0 mins)
100.00 g Galangal Root (Boil 15.0 mins)
100.00 g Fresh Chilli (Boil 15.0 mins)
100.00 g Fresh Lemon Grass (Boil 15.0 mins)
1.0 pkg Saf-04 English Ale
No dry hopping or secondary additions planned at this point.

I would pitch 2 packets to be safe. With lemon, chilli and ginger in there, just to ensure you get a healthy ferment. Other than that looks good!

 

[Malted Mick]

I would pitch 2 packets to be safe. With lemon, chilli and ginger in there, just to ensure you get a healthy ferment. Other than that looks good!

Yes good point, I had wondered how the yeast will tolerate the spices!