Ginger beer using beer as a base ?

[Hangover68]

I brewed a pale ale a few months back and i used the spent grain for a parti-gyle, so i have 20ltrs of wort that is like a very light beer with an SG of about 1.018.
Thinking of using it as a base for ginger beer with maybe a small chilli infusion ?

 

[mynameisrodney]

Personally, I love beer, I love ginger beer, I hate beer with ginger in it. Obviously a matter of opinion, but that's just me. Have you had one that you liked?

 

[yankinoz]

Malt and ginger, fine. Hops and ginger might clash. How much hops in your wort? How much are late additions? Which hops?

 

[Hangover68]

its very weak like you would hardly taste any malt or hops in it as it only had bittering hops in the first mash, i brewed a lager and did the same process just adding LDME and dextrose and even then its a very light tasting beer.

 

[scomet]

Personally, I love beer, I love ginger beer, I hate beer with ginger in it. Obviously a matter of opinion, but that's just me. Have you had one that you liked?

DO IT, I love all three! Brews like this you just 'make up' as you go along thats the fun of brewing, let us know how it goes, what can go wrong!?

 

[Hangover68]

DO IT, I love all three! Brews like this you just 'make up' as you go along thats the fun of brewing, let us know how it goes, what can go wrong!?

I will, its not like i'm losing anything since it was from spent grain.

 

[duncbrewer]

@Hangover68
I did exactly what you plan and it worked well. Ended up with about 2 percent alcohol , pale ale colour, never really got completely clear. But it drinks well, I thought it was better than my first effort which was sugar, water, yeast and ginger. That turned out like a ginger seltzer which as you would expect lacked body and was a seltzer. Remarkably clear and gingery but not what I'd call ginger beer.
Latest brew I used some old LME and some gladiator malt steeped to try and put a bit more body in it.
I do back sweeten the GB with Monk fruit extract.
Interested to hear how yours goes, very rapid turnround for it, I had mine kveik pressure fermented and in keg in under a week as it was so low alcohol.

 

[Ian Smith]

Also did the duncbrewer thing - bubbly ginger drink. Have ground ginger into wort, drinkable. And tipped ginger syrup into beer that did not meet the taste expectation to at least not have to suffer average beer. You COULD ferment the wort into beer and prime your keg with syrup. Get light bodied beer, with a ginger flavour.

 

[duncbrewer]

Last brew I used some cold pressed ginger extract the juice of ten gingers it says so not very specific. But much easier and cheaper too. Tastes same as the bucket load of fresh ginger I peeled, chopped up, froze blended then boiled and fermented.

 

[Hangover68]

Alright, so the boss has gone to the shops to get me supplies and i will use the following to taste -

20 ltrs of wort
brown sugar - 2kg
fresh ginger - 120g to start
fresh chilli - 2-3
kaffir lime leaves - 3-4
lemons - 2

also may add some cinnamon and cloves

US05 from the same Pale Ale the wort is from.

 

[duncbrewer]

Yeast nutrient.

I used 750g of ginger in 23 litres but no chilli.

You can always add the extras later, but can't take them out if you don't like them.
I used the zest and the juice.

 

[Hangover68]

Yeast nutrient.

I used 750g of ginger in 23 litres but no chilli.

You can always add the extras later, but can't take them out if you don't like them.
I used the zest and the juice.

Thats like $40 of ginger at supermarket prices, i have some powdered if i need but we see what this is like first.
With the wort already at 1.018 plus 2kg of sugar i wont need nutrient with US05.

 

[duncbrewer]

I agree was about 20 dollars a kilo when I bought that at supermarket. Hence my move to the cold crushed ginger extract juice.
Ginger does freeze well so if you see it cheap at the right time of the year stock up and as you say powdered is actually pretty good.

 

[Vini2ton]

Used to like a nip of stones in a pot of carlton. Fortifying.

 

[Hangover68]

Its in the FV now, SG of 1.048.

19ltrs of pale ale parti gyle wort
2kg brown sugar
120g fresh ginger chopped
100g ginger powder
4 kaffir lime leaves
2 chopped lemons
2 small chillis
1/4 stick cinnamon

boiled in 2ltrs of water, strained and contents put into a hop sock and dropped into the fermenter with the liquor.

Taste is excellent at this stage but i will adjust if required.

 

[Hangover68]

Only took 2 days to get from 1.048 to 1.006 in the fermentasaurus, just added some lactose to bump up the sweetness a bit and will bottle tomorrow.