Ginger Beer Dry 'hopping' Experiment

[bum]

So these are all gone bar one single leaf bottle that I'm going to try to hang on to for a while to see how it travels. I guess my short-term conclusions are that the three leaf bottles showed some negative qualities that have me worried about their shelf-life but were still quite drinkable; the two leaf bottles showed none of worrying hallmarks of the three leafers and while they were slightly less present they were still very interesting; the single leaf bottles were really bloody nice and I wish the three leafers didn't have me so worried because I'd like to do a whole batch like this.

 

[bum]

So these are all gone bar one single leaf bottle that I'm going to try to hang on to for a while to see how it travels.

Turns out I also had a 2 leaf bottle floating around and had both bottles the last 2 nights. In terms of the longevity concerns I had in regard to the short term effects of 3 leaves I have to say I was worried about nothing - no further development of suspected flaws. In terms of aroma the curry did come a little more forward but still leaned more to toasted mustard seed, strangely. Very nice but not entirely what I was after. In terms of flavour, the single leaf bottles developed really nicely. Had every bottle in the bath turned out like this I'd be putting the recipe up in the DB now. Really nice. The 2 leafer aged really nicely too but not as nicely balanced.

So my final conclusion is I would definitely like an entire batch like the one or two leaf bottles - probably the two leaf because none of my GBs usually last as long as these two bottles. The difference between nice and overpowering seems to be pretty fine. I think in reality I'd still be a little afraid to commit to currying in the fermenter for a full batch - I'd still just do a few bottles. I'll probably do a few bottles out of every batch.