Left Hand Good Juju clone recipe

So I recently tried Left Hand's Good Juju (a "ginger ale"), and would like to take a shot at making something similar.

Here's the description from Left Hand's website:
Style: Herb/Spice Ale
Color: Golder, 10 SRM
Body: Light
ABV: 4.50%
IBU's: 20
Plato: 10°
Malts: Pale 2-row, Munich, Light Crystal and Flaked Barley
Hops: Centennial, US Golding and Sterling

I just started brewing and don't have much experience experimenting with designs. Any thoughts on how I might put together a recipe to approximate this? Quantity of malts, and quantity/timing for hops and ginger additions? I don't have the equipment to do an all-grain, so I'd be looking to do a 5 gallon batch using extracts and specialty grains.

So I have to ask one more time - no one' s tried to make a Good Juju-like beer?

I ended up making the Ginger Ale recipe here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/ginger-ale-24326/

which I like quite well. It's definitely got more ginger bite than the Good Juju so I'll probably try it again another time with a bit less ginger (and maybe play around with the hops a bit too) but the recipe above seems like a very good place to start.

I'm surprised that there's not more conversation here. Juju is a great beer!

Came across this kit from DIY Brewing Supply, but I can't vouch for it.

I'm toying around with recipes in Beersmith for now. It's been a while since I've had Juju, so I'm kind of shooting in the dark. Should be interesting!

I am working on dialing in my equipment with a new software. I think I should have added .25 gallons to the fly sparge to reach a 6.75 gallon boil size. I am going to top off with water to hit the target OG if needed. Topping off with water can vary one's IBUs, but there are so low it won't much matter here for the little bit of water that I might add. I will update with how it tastes in a few weeks. This is based off of what Left Hand says along with what was found in other threads about adding ginger.



Good Juju Clone - American Pale Ale
================================================================================
Batch Size: 5.500 gal
Boil Size: 6.500 gal
Boil Time: 60.000 min
Efficiency: 75%
OG: 1.046
FG: 1.012
ABV: 4.5%
Bitterness: 22.8 IBUs (Tinseth)
Color: 10 SRM (Morey)

Fermentables
================================================================================
Name Type Amount Mashed Late Yield Color
Pale Malt (2 Row) US Grain 3.000 lb Yes No 79% 2 L
Munich, Light Grain 3.000 lb Yes No 80% 6 L
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L Grain 3.000 lb Yes No 75% 20 L
Barley, Flaked Grain 8.000 oz Yes No 70% 2 L
Total grain: 9.500 lb

Hops
================================================================================
Name Alpha Amount Use Time Form IBU
Golding 5.2% 0.250 oz Boil 60.000 min Pellet 4.2
Golding 5.2% 0.750 oz Boil 10.000 min Pellet 4.6
Sterling 8.0% 0.250 oz Boil 15.000 min Pellet 3.2
Sterling 8.0% 0.750 oz Boil 5.000 min Pellet 3.9
Centennial 8.7% 0.250 oz Boil 10.000 min Pellet 2.6
Centennial 8.7% 0.750 oz Boil 5.000 min Pellet 4.2

Misc
================================================================================
Name Type Use Amount Time
Ginger Root Herb Boil 1.000 lb 10.000 min
Ginger Root Herb Boil 8.000 oz 30.000 min

Yeast
================================================================================
Name Type Form Amount Stage
WLP001 - California Ale Yeast Ale Liquid 2.367 tbsp Primary

Mash
================================================================================
Name Type Amount Temp Target Time
Conversion Infusion 3.159 gal 166.397 F 154.000 F 60.000 min
Fly Sparge Infusion 4.576 gal 176.503 F 165.200 F 15.000 min

It may be a typo but your recipe says 3lbs of C20. If it's not a typo, don't do that.

I recall tinkering with the recipe because I would never really want to go over 20% Crystal malt, and that is just over 30. I believe I intended to use abot 15% 30L and increase the 2 row. They should have e-mailed my receipt to me, but I don't seem to have it. They usually ask me at check out and I say to just e-mail it. Now I have to wonder what I handed them since this was what I had in Evernote. That is where I would enter my recipies before I grabbed brewtarget.

The goal, obviously, was to get 10 SRM out of "Pale 2-row, Munich, Light Crystal and Flaked Barley."

This could be interesting. It was meant to be a light and sweet brew, but now I am a bit concerned. I don't know that it would be horrible though. I never used that much before, and the max seems to be 20% be it 10L or 120L. I do know first hand what 20% 120L will do. It's not bad in a nice big amber/red, but I am hoping this does not come close for the sake of what I was trying to accomplish.

Hmm. Of course, this just distracted me from getting back to work, and I had to look into this. It would seem Zymurgy and BYO had a recipe with 30% crystal with 1 pound of each 15L, 40L and 75L. The recipe has even been kicked around here before. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/st-rogue-red-ale-recipe-critique-69310/ The SRM would almost be doubled there, as would the caramel flavor. I am a little less worried now, which is nice since all I can do is wait. This would not be the first time I threw conventional wisdom out the window and wound up pleased. It seems in this scenario, quite a few others were. At the very least, it should have some nice mouthfeel to it while being a little sweeter than anticipated.

I think that the biggest question is how much ginger to use and when. Juju is a very ginger-forward beer, but is not particularly spicy. I wonder if a good way to replicate that flavor would be to add thinly sliced fresh ginger after primary fermentation. I did that with a gingerbread ale recipe that I created once, and it lent a very solid ginger flavor after a few (3-4) weeks. I doubt it's what Left Hand does, but still...

JordanKnudson said:

I think that the biggest question is how much ginger to use and when. Juju is a very ginger-forward beer, but is not particularly spicy. I wonder if a good way to replicate that flavor would be to add thinly sliced fresh ginger after primary fermentation. I did that with a gingerbread ale recipe that I created once, and it lent a very solid ginger flavor after a few (3-4) weeks. I doubt it's what Left Hand does, but still...

Click to expand...

Haven't played around with this really (I've never tried dry hopping with ginger), but from reading other ginger beer threads the word is that putting ginger in earlier in the boil gives ginger character but not spiciness, whereas putting ginger later or in the boil or dry-hopping gives potentially much more spiciness.

fosaisu said:

Haven't played around with this really (I've never tried dry hopping with ginger), but from reading other ginger beer threads the word is that putting ginger in earlier in the boil gives ginger character but not spiciness, whereas putting ginger later or in the boil or dry-hopping gives potentially much more spiciness.

Click to expand...

I think it's the other way around. While I have only made a couple brews with ginger, I have been making fresh ginger tea for years, and it always requires lengthy steeping in the hot water to extract the pungent spiciness of the root. I would assume that this would hold true for wort as well, since the only real difference between wort and water is the malt sugars. Low contact time (i.e. late addition) or contact at lower/room temperatures (dry "hopping") will result in less spiciness, exactly as hops added at those times do not contribute significant bitterness.

Btw, you started this thread in 2012. Did you ever try brewing a clone? I would love to hear how it turned out!

JordanKnudson said:

Btw, you started this thread in 2012. Did you ever try brewing a clone? I would love to hear how it turned out!

Click to expand...

I never found a clone recipe so I brewed the beer from this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/ginger-ale-24326/

Which has considerably more ginger going on than Good Juju but is definitely worth a try if you're a ginger fan (I've brewed it twice). Lots of discussion in that thread about timing of ginger additions as well.

Took a read through that thread. You were right, the thread starter was saying that boiling the ginger longer creates less spiciness. This is completely counter to my experience in making ginger tea, but perhaps fermentation strips the spiciness. I will have to try it.

The recipe I posted is a pretty good start. It under attenuated just a bit for WLP001 because I think I did wind up handing the malt bill I posted to the shop instead of the corrections I made later and never seemed to record. I did just about hit the 4.5% target though (4.46%). This beer is GREEN right now, may even drop another gravity point, but pretty on target for taste from what I can recall. I have not had Good Juju in a year except for once this Spring where I couldn't even taste the ginger. I have to wonder if that was an old keg or something.

It does taste a little earthly and spicy right now, but I am hoping that fades. I will report back in about 2.5 -3.5 weeks with some final thoughts. Its low ABV enough that it should condition nicely by then.

I happened to find some Good Juju in a sixer this weekend, which I never have before. I always had it from the keg. Anyway, I couldn't wait much longer to compare. The recipe I posted is spot on as far as taste and color. The main difference was that I have bit more ginger in the nose, and just a hint more spice at this point. The earthiness from earlier is gone. It may have had something to do with laziness and not peeling the ginger. It is a hell of a lot of ginger to peel.

I used a food processor to grate the ginger, but I might just use it to slice it in the future for easier siphoning. I do not think it should be a problem as long is its real thin. I have made ginger syrup for cocktails that way in the past, and it had plenty of flavor.

So, in conclusion, you might want to up the 2 row and use less of a higher lovibond rated crystal, but I personally won't look to change that should I make this again. The amount of ginger and the timing is perfect.