Red Baron
Well-Known Member
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.
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.
