AG Ginger Beer

[Hawks]

I've done some searches on here and on tinternet and found quite a few ideas, but a bit of a lack of feedback on which worked and which didn't..

But to cut to the chase, I tried a bottle of Wychwood Ginger Beard last night and I want to make something along those lines, which would appear to basically remove hops and replace with ginger...

My plan so far is mostly pale malt with some added Caramalt and maybe a touch of crystal

Bittering hops to around 15 - 20 EBU
Replace all late hop additions with grated root ginger
Possibly add a touch of coriander, cinammon and / or lemon zest/ juice
Maybe a bit of chilli and some ground ginger to up the heat a bit at the end

Ferment with S-05

But how much ginger - has anyone done anything along these lines? From what I found for 5 gallons it seems to vary from 120g up to 1KG.

Based on the fiery ginger beers I have made from the forum recipes in the past I think nearer the KG per 5 gallons is going to be right, but at the same time I don't want to totally overpower the malts. I'm happy to guess if needed, or ever run a gallon of wort off from a next suitable brew and do a test batch, but if someone has done this and had success I'm game for doing 2 cornies :thumb:

Any thoughts on this would be great

Cheers
Paul

 

[snail59]

I tried to replicate William Brothers Ginger Beer (I failed). I would use just Pale Malt with a little Wheat Malt and LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of ginger

 

[Hawks]

Was it okay, or failed badly?

Do I risk 40l or just go small ... :wha: :wha:

 

[snail59]

It kind of worked and then again didn't :wha: It was nowhere near what I wanted to produce. I think the used too much of the Ginger Cordial and not enough Root ginger. Next time I will make a Pale Beer and add a ginger tea after. Here is the brew day post. Have a look and see if you can pick out any good bits for your own. S.G.R

 

[Hawks]

Well I had a go at this last week, decided not to gamble with 40l, and I have 2 empty baby cornies, so split the beer into 2 halfway through

35l @ 1.052

Pale Malt 7000
Crystal 250
Caramalt 250

Mash 90 mins at 65C

Challenger 30g 60mins

At 30 mins remove 12 litres and move to stock pot

to remainder add:

50g Challenger for 30 mins
100g EKG at 10 mins

to get 26l of ale..

to stock pot add
275g root ginger for 25 mins
1/2 tsp dried ginger for 25 mins
275g root ginger for 10 mins

to get 9l of ginger beer

Both fermented with S-05

No brewday pics, as running from garage to kitchen with boiling pots each end and additions, coolers, finings etc was not the best made plan I decided :shock:

But the colour is right, the smell was great when boiling and during ferment, and it goes into cornies late this week. If it works, I will tweak as needed and make a bigger batch next time.. :thumb:

 

[Darcey]

I have trawled the internet for an AG recipe that actually uses GINGER in a ginger bitter/beer not just cordial. Let me know if it works.. mmmm ginger...

 

[Hawks]

Well, kegged this today - the ginger beer part was disappointing albeit very early days, I'll leave it alone for awhile and see if things improve.

I think its going to end up too dry, maybe S05 was not the best choice due to the high attenuation ( as it is prone to do and is why I like it in summer beers ) and maybe the bittering hops were not needed at all.

In anycase it was a worthy start - it's certainly nicer than my last fiery ginger beer was before sweetening as it has some body and is not dry enough to cave your face in.... Hoping a few weeks conditioning will bring it together more and if all else fails a little sugar syrup could solve it... we shall see :wha: