I recently had a bit of a brainwave regarding ginger beers. I've been making a few over the last couple of years, and only just got into All Grain beer brewing. I've always done my gingers from scratch using fresh ingredients, to varying degrees of success. One of the big hurdles many people seem to be having is sweetening the final product, as we all seem to use highly fermentable sugars. As a result, I've noticed a lot of people experimenting with stevia, lactose, or mixing just prior to consumption.
The idea I've been toying with is thus; making an All Grain beer with a very light malt, mashing at higher temperatures to bring the fermentability down (to hopefully avoid the need for sweeteners), and replacing hop additions with ginger/spice additions.
In the reading that I've done, it would seem that gingerol (the active ingredient in raw ginger that gives it the zing) changes state when cooked, to give a more aroma, but less zing. I was contemplating then adding some ginger at the beginning of the boil, but most of it uncooked, similar to a dry hop - maybe after a few days of fermentation, and again after about a week.
Basically, I would expect my recipe to look something like this:
20L batch, BIAB method
Mash:
4kg Pilsner malt, mashed at 70 C for 90 mins
Boil:
400g ginger pulp
juice & zest of 2 lemons/limes
1 cinamon quill
2 cloves
(20-30 mins, all additions at start of boil)
Ferment:
low AA yeast putting out plenty of spicy aromas. This I'm not too familiar with. I've used US-05 in the past for a more basic GB, but maybe something worth changing. Maybe WLP051 (California Ale V) or WLP 565 (Saison I)? Or maybe switch to a cider (WLP775) or sweet mead (WLP720) yeast? Stick to US-05? something else?
400g ginger pulp @ 3 days
400g ginger pulp @ 7 days, or at about end of fermentation
Bulk prime & bottle at about 10-14 days, or later if a slow fermentation.
I'm after a light, refreshing ginger beer, delivering a whole bucket load of ginger zing. I like it relatively dry, but my last couple of batches (FG ~1.005) of 'simple' GB have been a little too dry for my liking. Also don't want to add too much malt, as I really want to ginger to be the dominant flavour.
Any thoughts? Criticisms? Have I just violated every single law of brewing? Has anyone done something like this before? (I've tried searching, but haven't found much like this. And nothing with any results). Also looking for advice on malt and mash. would I be better off with a different malt(s)? Different mash temp/time/quantity?
The idea I've been toying with is thus; making an All Grain beer with a very light malt, mashing at higher temperatures to bring the fermentability down (to hopefully avoid the need for sweeteners), and replacing hop additions with ginger/spice additions.
In the reading that I've done, it would seem that gingerol (the active ingredient in raw ginger that gives it the zing) changes state when cooked, to give a more aroma, but less zing. I was contemplating then adding some ginger at the beginning of the boil, but most of it uncooked, similar to a dry hop - maybe after a few days of fermentation, and again after about a week.
Basically, I would expect my recipe to look something like this:
20L batch, BIAB method
Mash:
4kg Pilsner malt, mashed at 70 C for 90 mins
Boil:
400g ginger pulp
juice & zest of 2 lemons/limes
1 cinamon quill
2 cloves
(20-30 mins, all additions at start of boil)
Ferment:
low AA yeast putting out plenty of spicy aromas. This I'm not too familiar with. I've used US-05 in the past for a more basic GB, but maybe something worth changing. Maybe WLP051 (California Ale V) or WLP 565 (Saison I)? Or maybe switch to a cider (WLP775) or sweet mead (WLP720) yeast? Stick to US-05? something else?
400g ginger pulp @ 3 days
400g ginger pulp @ 7 days, or at about end of fermentation
Bulk prime & bottle at about 10-14 days, or later if a slow fermentation.
I'm after a light, refreshing ginger beer, delivering a whole bucket load of ginger zing. I like it relatively dry, but my last couple of batches (FG ~1.005) of 'simple' GB have been a little too dry for my liking. Also don't want to add too much malt, as I really want to ginger to be the dominant flavour.
Any thoughts? Criticisms? Have I just violated every single law of brewing? Has anyone done something like this before? (I've tried searching, but haven't found much like this. And nothing with any results). Also looking for advice on malt and mash. would I be better off with a different malt(s)? Different mash temp/time/quantity?
