Ginger Beer Recipe For Brewing Tomorrow.

[murrayr]

Brewing a ginger beer at the sisters request tomorrow(her christmas present).
Here's the recipe, was wondering what ya'll might think of it
Maris otter: 4kg
Flaked rice: 250g
Vienna malt: 500g

Dextrose: 500g
Tettnanger: 50g(60m)
Orange zest: 5g(5m)
Lemon zest: 5g(5m)
Fresh grated ginger: 60g(5m)
US-05 yeast
any advice on this recipe would be great as i've only made ginger beer from kits before.
cheers, murray

 

[bum]

Are you after a ginger beer or a beer with ginger? That recipe looks very much like the latter. Ever had Blue Tongue's ginger beer? Actually if I'm reading your recipe correctly you're putting 60g of ginger into the boil for 5 minutes? You'll get bugger all ginger flavour in there with that (especially with everything else in there it'll be competing with).

Try this one as your starting point perhaps? http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...&recipe=972 If you really wish to omit the kit try doubling the fresh ginger and using 750g/1k of raw sugar.

IMO, obviously.

 

[murrayr]

does the ginger need to boil longer? maybe i could grate some more into the primary as well?

 

[bum]

Most recipes I've seen boil the ginger for 60 min and use anywhere from 500g to over a kilo of fresh ginger. All depends on personal taste of course but I do find it hard to believe that 60g would noticeably cut through that grain bill and the hops with such a short boil. The recipe linked is very well regarded and I've made something extremely similar but omitting the spirit additions and it still turned out great. I'd advise you to look at that and consider altering that to your taste.

[EDIT: adding some to primary might be a good idea (I seem to recall Dr Smurto does this dry gingering with his ginger beers - ?) but I dunno if it would make up enough of a difference]

 

[murrayr]

ok, a quick check reveals that i have 240g of fresh ginger. seems we can use much more than i was planning. should i spread this across different points in the boil and put some in the secondary, or use it or for the whole 60 minutes?
cheers, murray

 

[bum]

I'd go the whole 60 minutes. I do have a very strong suspicion, however, that the malt and hops will still dominate - the ginger will be a background character rather than the driving flavour.

 

[murrayr]

hmmm, ok i might have to pop down to the shops. say i had about 500g, would i use all of that for the whole boil. or with that much(or more) spread it out a bit?

 

[murrayr]

ok, just went down to the local organic shop and got a tad more ginger, so the new recipe is as follows:
Maris otter: 4kg
Flaked rice: 250g
Vienna malt: 500g

Dextrose: 500g
Tettnanger: 50g(60m)
Fresh grated ginger: 400g(6m)
Orange zest: 5g(5m)
Lemon zest: 5g(5m)
Fresh grated ginger: 100g(5m)
US-05 yeast

does this seem more appropriate for a ginger beer? and thanks for your advice up to this point bum

murray

 

[manticle]

As bum suggested, it depends on whether you want a ginger flavoured beer or a ginger beer. My personal tastes go towards a ginger beer as the only ginger flavoured beer I've tried (aforementioned bluetongue) was awful.

I aim to try one soon and this is the base recipe I'll be tweaking: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=30492.

 

[superdave]

I haven't done a ginger beer for a while (I'm an extract guy). I ended up dumping all citrus fruits from my recipes as I would fine over time the ginger flavour would reduce and just leave a lemon/lime beer behind. I did a brew with 100g of ginger and was as bum said, the result was a beer with ginger flavour; which then turned into lime beer due to the citrus (I did have a lot more than 10g though). Added 700g of ginger the second time and was great for the first month in the bottle, but again the ginger flavour disappeared. I also add lactose to give it some sweetness, but being AG you might have better control over that than I do. Mine too is a work in progress and I'm yet to try it with hops. I also boil the ginger for 60minutes.

 

[murrayr]

righto, so as my mash does its thing just a quick update: went and bought another 700ish grams of ginger this morning bringing it up to nearly 1.2kg. thanks for all of your swell advice, saved me from what could of been a relatively gingerless ginger beer.
cheers, murray

 

[Infinitee]

It gets exxy, but if the person likes a real gingery drink (like your avg ginger beer/ale/cordial) then I'd go 2kg/~20L.

Otherwise it's a real background flavour.

And boiling kills the ginger flavour (as does freezing, drying, etc) so I'd do it just briefly enough pasteurise (a few minutes if grated) and leave it in the beer to ferment, leaches out more flavour over time.
Otherwise it get lost in the mix.

 

[bum]

And boiling kills the ginger flavour (as does freezing, drying, etc) so I'd do it just briefly enough pasteurise (a few minutes if grated) and leave it in the beer to ferment, leaches out more flavour over time.
Otherwise it get lost in the mix.

As with almost everything you post, I disagree with this pretty strongly.

However, I do also leave the ginger pulp in primary.

 

[DKS]

Hi Murrayr ,
I suggest a rethink on your ginger beer recipe. As others have said a ginger flavoured beer or a ginger beer?
A few things to consider are :

How much beer flavour to ginger flavour in a beer or, a ginger beer taste if you know what I mean, say, like Stones or Bulmers ginger beer or Bluetongue beer style.

Are you prepared to taint your brew equipment as is often highlighted by AHBers?

Authentic style old fashioned ginger beer or sugary supermarket gassed cordial?
Etc, Etc.Many questions.What are you trying to make?

I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud, naysayer or smart arse murray, but this stuff is important .(Cause I want a recipe too)

Ive been contemplating a ginger beer for a while but good recipes are hard to find, without investing a huge amount of time starting from scratch.,( especially for non alco. )

Try old mate Chappo ; (best ive found yet without actually brewing) and some more research .
Good luck and let us know the results.From what Ive seen/read its not that easy.
Daz

 

[Muggus]

Didn't pick the best time of year to do a ginger beer I gotta say...fresh stuff gets expensive this time of year!

Anyway, you can actually use ginger the same way you use hops.
500g is a good starting point. You could use say 100g at the start of the boil, almost like first wort hops. Then add another 200g at 15 minutes and 200g at 5 mins.
Just like hops, the flavours and aromas you get from ginger change the longer you boil them. If you mix it up like that, you're more likely to get quite a complex ginger flavour and spice.

 

[murrayr]

well, it's all done and fermenting away now. ended up using 1.1kg at the start of the boild and another 100g for the last 5 minutes. smells pretty good but i guess time will tell.