Very Gingery Ale.....any tips/thoughts?

[Goran]

I'm thinking of doing a very gingery ale and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/tips on the following:

5.00kg Maris Otter
0.10kg Crystal
50g Goldings 5%aa for 90 min
750g Diced Ginger for 15 min
25g Fuggles 5%aa for 0 min
Steep for 30 min after boil
250g Diced Ginger in secondary.
S04 yeast

Does anyone know if that is too much or too little ginger? Also was thinking of possibly substituting some of the Maris Otter for some golden syrup in the boil. Any advice on this around amounts etc?

Cheers in advance,

Goran.

[dave-o]

Yes, i can now give you a definitive answer!
My "very gingery" ale was bottled about 6 weeks ago and is now good to drink.

My recipe was:

23 litres

4000g Vienna Malt
600g Cara Red
150g Torrified Wheat
30g Roasted Barley
15g Pacific Gem (14.6AA) - 90 minutes
10g Bobek (5.4AA) - 10 minutes
500g Chopped root ginger - 20 minutes

Th idea was that it would be as red as was possible using only grains to colour it (i.e. fiery) - hence the cara red and roast barley.
The Bobek is there to give a little citrus, which i believe goes well with ginger (e.g. Moscow mule etc.)

I used the ginger thus:
-Roughly chop it into cubes
-Put these in a hop bag and add to the boil for 20 minutes
-When the wort has been siphoned to the FV, remove the bag and empty the ginger cubes loose into the FV for primary ferment.

I was expecting it to be really gingery - something akin to Old Jamaica or Idris Fiery. Although the ginger is very noticable it is certainly not as hot as either of those. I would happily up the ginger to 750g next time. I am glad i used a lot of crystal (cara red in this case) as i think it needs the sweetness to carry off the strong ginger taste.

All in all, i do like the beer but i am not sure i will do it again. It's good for a one-off as a change, but I don't feel like drinking a lot of it at once.
On the plus side, ginger is an ayurvedic remedy to help with loose motions (hence why most authentic Indian dishes with lots of chillies also contain lots of ginger) - so this is the perfect drink to have after a hot curry.

[WHL]

I brewed this recipe last November. I was concerned about getting too much "heat" from the ginger, but with the addition method below I got lots of flavor while leaving a pleasant beer.



Beer: Hill Station Ginger Ale
Style: Spiced English Pale Ale
Type: All grain Size: 5.5 gallons
Color: 14 HCU (~9 SRM)
Bitterness: 31 IBU
OG: 1.052 FG: 1.012
Alcohol: 5.5% v/v (4.3% w/w)

5 lb. Golden Promise
2 lb. Munich 10
10 oz. British crystal 50-60L
.5 oz. Black Patent
6 oz. Flaked Wheat
Mash: 82% efficiency

1.5 oz. EKGs FWH
4 oz scored chunks Ginger Root with First Wort, removed before Flame On.

Boil: 90 minutes SG 1.032 7.5 gallons
1 lb. Palm Sugar
1 oz. EKG 15 min.
1 oz. All Spice whole clove 2 min.
1/2 Coriander whole clove 2 min.
2oz Dried Lemon Peel 1 min.
2oz Dried Orange Peel 1 min.
6 oz Ginger rough chopped Flameout.

Yeast: Wyeast 1099

Next time I will add another 5-10 ibus at 15 minute and flameout hop addition, both with Styrian Golding.

Cheers, Bill

[TC2642]

When I made my last ginger beer I grated rather than diced it. You would not need as much if you did so and still get the ginger taste you want.

[trucker5774]

I have done a couple of spiced beers. I used 200g of minced ginger at 15 mins from flame out. I found this was plenty for me

[awalker]

Try and get hold of some stem ginger, normally in syrup.

I made a ginger beer with ginger (but had no idea how old it was)
The ginger dropped of really quickly a matter of weeks

The wife bought some stem ginger in syrup, very, very fresh.
Still has a lovely strong ginger flavour after months in the keg.
It also has a softer ginger flavour not the really strong after taste like crabbies has.