RecipeDB - Ginger Pilsner

[Frank]

Ginger Pilsner

Pilsner - Bohemian Pilsner
All Grain

1 Votes

Brewer's Notes

Happy with the result. Not as much Ginger tang/burn as I was expecting. I used Czech Yeast as I was making a Czech Pilsner at the same time. Try any other Lager yeast and Pilsner grain instead. 90min boil, all spices added at 60 minutes. Ferment 12C. 8 cloves (not tbsp) is a lot, please count them out. See Discuss Recipe for a PDF, units are hard to get right for spices.

Malt & Fermentables

%	KG	Fermentable
	5 kg	Weyermann Pilsner

Yeast

1000 ml

Wyeast Labs 2278 - Czech Pilsner Lager

Misc

	1000 g	Ginger Root (grated)
	8 tbsp	Cloves (whole)
	1 sticks	Cinnamon
	1	lemon (juice and zest)

25L Batch Size

Brew Details

• Original Gravity 1.051 (calc)
• Final Gravity 1.013 (calc)
• Bitterness 0 IBU
• Efficiency 80%
• Alcohol 4.94%
• Colour 7 EBC
• Batch Size 25L

Fermentation

• Primary 28 days
• Secondary 7 days
• Conditioning 4 days

 

[buttersd70]

So there were no hops in this at all? It gets even more interesting.....

Got to say, this is one tasty beer. Incredibly refreshing. Amazing how much of a clove hit you get with only 8 cloves....powerfull little buggers.

 

[Frank]

It's a bit hard to get the spice quantities right in the RecipeDB so here is a PDf from Beersmith.
View attachment Ginger_Beer.pdf
This is a ginger infused beer, not a 'Ginger Beer' as most would expect. It was a sample bottle at the SA Christmas Case Swap that went down well with a few later in the evening.
Yes, No hops. I grabbed the spice quantities from a typical Ginger Beer recipe, the lemon was whole sliced into 10mm slices.

 

[muckey]

I remember getting a big hit of clove at the beginning but that subsided and the beautiful ginger flavour came to the front.
was very refreshing and certainly "moreish"

I was aware that it was a ginger infused beer ( even if I wasn't clear) but didn't know that there were no hops at all

am seriously looking forward to giving this a go

 

[winkle]

Interesting idea, might have a crack at it a bit later on.

 

[Jakechan]

This sounds like just the recipe I have been looking for! It may be a while before I get to it but thanks for the pdf Boston. I have it saved and shall return to it when I have time.

Cheers,
Jake

 

[Frank]

Tried another bottle today with a mate. Mine are all bottle conditioned; we both agreed that inverting the bottle and mixing the yeast lees through gave a better flavour profile. It was a bit thin on the mid palate with a clear pour off.

 

[drsmurto]

Interesting.

I have made a few ginger beers using the same combo of flavours/spices except i used raw sugar to get the desired ABV.

Funnily enough i have a yeast cake of 2278.

As for comments about the ginger bite/tang etc i have found that 1kg of ginger in a 20L batch is a minimum. I was up to 1.25kg on my last attempt.

I also split the 1.25kg into fresh ginger and stuff that i 'aged' in the fridge for >2 months. I find that it loses aroma in the fridge but the ginger bite increases. Have noticed it with the thai curry/laksa pastes i regularly make that the longer i leave the ginger for the less i need to use for the pastes.

My last batch was 750g fresh, 500g old. Nice and bitey but with a great ginger aroma as well.

I dont recall tasting this beer but then i only vaguely recall Paul Steeles arrival.

Sounds like the prefect plan to kick of this weekends brewing marathon

 

[drsmurto]

Picked up 1kg of fresh ginger on my way home from the local asian grocery store.

If i am up to it after Saturdays shenanigans i will be brewing this on Sunday.

 

[Frank]

I will bring a couple of samples on Saturday. Would boiling the ginger for 60min, drive off flavour / ginger bite or increase? When doing a kit ginger, I think I only boiled the Ginger for 20min.

 

[buttersd70]

So in a couple of months you'll no doubt be getting a visit from a strikingly handsome shorter gentleman, accompanied by a taller, fatter, common type of individual, asking for a taster or three.... :lol:

Would boiling the ginger for 60min, drive off flavour / ginger bite or increase? When doing a kit ginger, I think I only boiled the Ginger for 20mi

Not sure, but I would have thought that for something like ginger or other spices, a longer boil would intensify the flavour....

BTW, Boston, are you still of the impression that the clove needs to be cut back slightly, or has it settled in?

 

[Frank]

BTW, Boston, are you still of the impression that the clove needs to be cut back slightly, or has it settled in?

I think the clove level is about right. Our pack of cloves is probably 6 months old, so still pretty fresh. Some people only buy one pack in a life time, which would lose some flavour over time. I personally would prefer a bit more ginger, so the cloves would be pushed to the back flavours. Mine was a 25L batch, so going by DrSmurto's recommendations, I would need approx 1.6kg of Ginger, I used 1kg of fresh (juicy to cut) Ginger in this batch.

 

[drsmurto]

Going thru my old brew book from the kit days and found a heap of my ginger beer recipes.

They were all loosely based around the sound combo of spices.

1kg ginger
2 lemons
2 cinnamon sticks
10 cloves

Thats for an 18L batch, i did find one i had made on a trial scale that used 375g of ginger in a 4L batch. The comment at the bottom reads - Nothing subtle about the ginger flavour......

I always boiled for 60 mins with everything in the one pot and then strained into the fermenter and topped up to desired level.

Mostly it was raw sugar altho i did move into extract plus steeped caramalt. Always used a champagne yeast.

Go thru cloves regularly enough, used in thai curry pastes (massaman from memory)

Keen to taste your ginger pils Jeff.

As for boil lengths - i think it was Kai that suggested i boil some of the ginger for the full 60 mins and then add some later to secondary for more aroma without extracting the ginger bite.

 

[redpolka]

do you need to peel the ginger?

 

[drsmurto]

I didnt ever do that. Just threw the ginger into a food processor till it was finely chopped and then dumped it into the pot.

I figure if something can survive 60 mins at 100C then i natural selection will take over.

Have heard some people put it thru a juicer so they dont have all the pulp to deal with........

Am pretty sure the beerbelly hopscreen, whilst not built for this purpose, will have no dramas stooping the ginger getting into the chiller.

When my partner saw me walk in the door with a big bag of ginger she didnt even need to ask me what i planned on doing with it. This will be the first GB to go on tap tho.

 

[mschippr]

Hi Boston,

I tasted this one at the brew day on Saturday in Adelaide, Definately on my list of brews to make. I notice you had the PDF from beersmith, any chance you can PM me the beersmith file?

Thanks,
MARK.

 

[Frank]

Hi Boston,

I tasted this one at the brew day on Saturday in Adelaide, Definately on my list of brews to make. I notice you had the PDF from beersmith, any chance you can PM me the beersmith file?

Thanks,
MARK.

I'll give it a go.

 

[mickoz]

Hi Boston,

Any chance you could PM the beersmith file too please?

Thanks

Mick

 

[Frank]

Hi Guys
Try this. I don't think you can add attachments to PM's.
View attachment Ginger_Pilsner.bsm
You might need to check that it looks right with your equipment.

 

[Hugo]

I tried to create a similar type of beer late last year for drinking on warm January days, however I hopped (Centennial) and used ground spices. After about 8 weeks in the bottle, I'm happy, but not wrapped in the result. Seems like the spices and the beer are still separate entities in the bottle. Only used 5 gms of ground ginger, and one gram each of cloves, cardamon and corriander (a bit strange I know). Mixed the spices up into a "tea" that was added at the end of the boil.

Have made plenty of soft ginger beers in the past that involved boiling fresh ginger with lemon etc.... will probably follow that path next summer.