Ginger beer

I know several people have made ginger beers. I've made a couple myself. I'm interested in how you added the ginger, how it turned out and what you would do next time. Also, what if any hops you used.

Both times I added the ginger to the boil at 30 minutes. I used fresh ginger root once and crystalized ginger the other time. The fresh root was better.

i added fresh ginger to my spiced pumpkin ale. 10 minutes before the end of the boil. i think i used hallertauer and tettnanger hops, but keep in mind it was a pumpkin beer. lefthand brewwings juju ginger is a basic pale ale with ginger in it. its pretty good, i know some people that love it. i think they use saaz, kent goldings, and cascade...or something to that effect.

Would you guys mind posting your recipes for the Ginger Beer?

Is this AG or Extract?

mine was a pumpkin ale so i don't know if you'd want it. it just happened to have some ginger in it. i'd use a lighter american pale ale recipe and add however nuch fresh ginger you want to use about 10 minutes before the boil ends. something along the lines of 6 lb.s light/extra light extract, centennial hops for bittering, cascade/amarillo for flavor/aroma/dry-hopping.

Thanks Dreng,
Not really sure about how much I'd want to add. Are we talking like a whole (3 inch or so) fresh ginger root?

I've done both AG and extract, but didn't like the results enough to share the recipe. I'm almost settled on my third attempt. It will be an extract recipe to minimize the grain/ginger conflict. It will use 8 oz. of fresh ginger root, 12 is too much.

[watch this space]

anywhere from 4-8 oz. would be good, i didn't measure mine, but it was only a inch piece of root probably, which i grated with a super fine grater. depends on how much ginger flavor you want. experimentation will be the only way to figure that out.

Do not use Gnome Spicy Ginger Beer flavor extract. It's terrible.

Sorry to cut in here guys but I just bottled my Ginger Beer a few hours ago...out of the secondary it has a nice mellow ginger flavor but not too much. Can't wait until its carbonated to release aromas! Check out the recipie page and I'll post...it was an all grain I converted to extract and used 1oz or so of fresh grated root during the boil. Cheers!

Duhh, this is the recipie page....

Muntons 3# LME
Muntons 3# wheat ME
8 AAU's Hallertau
1tsp moss
1oz fresh grated ginger
wyeast #1056 american ale

add malts to 2G boiling water, bring back to boil
add hops boil 0.5hr (I was short hops and used 4.5% AAU)...I had two batches going and bottling others with beverage in me already..
add moss and root w/juices (I probably added closer to 1.25oz), boil 0.5hr

once boiled, I added 2.5G ice cold water, strained into glass primary (top to 5G), and pitched almost immediately with lots of airation..it took off during the night with no starter

recipie calls for primary 5 days, secondary 7, age 2 weeks
I primaried for 2 weeks (no time to xfer), secondary for 2

enjoy....

oh yea, addapted from Brewmaster's Bible, pg.347