Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Ginger Ale

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Wow thanks for this one! I just pitched the yeast and had to add my comments. I followed the recipie to the letter except for the hops. I couldent get Cascade localy so I whent with crystal. I tried a little bit from the sample jar before letting the yeast at it and all I can say is wow! The ginger is very forward and leaves a nice bit of heat. Not too much just enough to be pleasent. I am realy looking forward to trying this beer this summer. I might add a bit more lemon zest just to complement the flavor a little. The clover honey is a good suggestion too, I got some localy and it smelled wonderful.

I will let y'all know in a few weeks, only one quick question how much CO2 should it be under? I was thinking about a pilsner level, might be a little more "soda like"

Cheers

Wing Nut
 
Just about finished brewing it up! I've been fooling with ginger beer (soda versions) for a few months now, and this sounds fantastic. Can't wait to try it out. :rockin:
 
Thanks for the post; I adjusted a few things that seemed like they may be a bit too much (per personal preferences and prior experiences).

The malt and grains I kept the same, however I only used 8oz of ginger. The taste is fantastic, and to be frank, I don't know if I could tolerate any more than it; as there isn't anything to crazy in here the ginger is front and center (as well it should be).

I didn't use lemon pith (I wouldn't recommend using the pith in anything).

After 2 weeks the flavors were right where I wanted them, after 2 months this stuff rocks. If you like ginger, this is a great baseline recipe. Fantastic paired with Chinese food.

BONUS: I keep my fermenting tank in the bathroom (warmest room, and c'mon, the bucket is locked in). My bathroom smelled like fresh ginger for a week; SWMBO loved it.

:mug:

Rogue
 
I would love to do this one sometime. I have a question. Do you guys leave the ginger skin on, or do you peel your ginger then grate/cut it?
 
Oh hai old topic!

I'm interested in this, but would there be a better way to add the ginger instead of using so much? It's so damn expensive in the UK. Surely you could steep it in or something? Maybe steep and boil some water on its own with the ginger in, and add it directly to the brew?
 
I love this recipe. I've brewed (versions) of it twice for the summer. It's so good on a hot East Coast day. Anway, my 1st time with this was something like this:

0.5 lb Honey malt
0.5 lb carapils/dextrin
Steep grains 30 min at 150
3 lbs light LME, 3.3 lbs Pilsen LME
1 lb honey

Total of 2 lbs fresh ginger, peeled and food processed to a fine pulp.
Boiled 1 lbs ginger 60 min
0.75 oz cascade 60 min
0.5 lbs ginger 30 min
6 anise seeds 30 min
0.5 lbs giner last 15 min
0.25 oz cascade last 15 min
used Nottingham yeast. OG 1.058
Taste notes: Slight hops, slight sweetness and ginger taste. Mild ginger heat. Couldn't even taste the anise. After 2 months in the bottle, sweetness is nearly gone.

2nd time was a partial mash. Wanted more ginger flavor so:
1.5 lbs American 2 row
0.5 honey malt
o.5 carapils/dextrine
Mashed at 152 for only 15 min (should have done longer)
3.3 lbs light lme
3 lbs DME
1 lb honey
Used a total of 2.5 lbs freshly peeled and food processed ginger
boiled 4 anise seeds for 60 min
0.25 oz simcoe and half the total ginger for 60 min
0.25 oz simcoe and a quater of the total ginger for 30 min
0.5 oz simcoe and the last quarter of the total ginger for 10 min
Used Safale S-04 and threw in about 0.5 lbs of the boiled ginger into the primary. OG 1.058. Used a bit more corn surgar to carbonate, put in a whole 5 oz priming surgar package plus 2 teaspoons more.

Taste Notes: Definitely more ginger flavor, slightly more ginger heat. Anise comes through in the background. More carbonation (which adds to the ginger heat). Slightly more sweet than 1st round. Sweetness fades the longer in the bottle.

I left out the lemon/lime addition from the original, but I would agree that 2.5 lbs of ginger is spot on for this recipe. This is a great, light, and refreshing summer ale. A favorite for my friends and family. Thanks!
 
Triumph Brewery in Princeton made a ginger ale back in late September/early October. Might try this and see how it stacks up.
 
Shuznuts, have you thought about dry roasting the anise first? I cook a lot of curry and every dried ingredient like that gets a quick blast in a dry saucepan until you can smell it before its added to 'boil' in the curry. Hey - cooking experience number two here :p
 
RobWalker said:
Shuznuts, have you thought about dry roasting the anise first? I cook a lot of curry and every dried ingredient like that gets a quick blast in a dry saucepan until you can smell it before its added to 'boil' in the curry. Hey - cooking experience number two here :p

I've never done that with the anise, but it sounds amazing! I wonder if it would make the anise more potent or just change the flavor profile? I was told to be careful with anise in beer because it can really dominate the flavor if used in large amounts.
 
I cook a lot of curries, and would agree that dry roasting the anise in a pan would help the complexity of the anise flavor. I will have to try this as the OP listed it soon, and I'm sure I may try it with anise not long after that.
 
I guess the worries of me doubling up on alot of the xmas style ales are ALL GONE now, seeing this thread.

Actually added 15g fresh grated, and 5g powdered, then 10g cinnamon, 5g cloves.

Shoulda made this before :D Going to be real yeasty/low carbonated beverage on xmas!

I just can never follow a recipe, always tinkering around! I gotta try this recipe out though, or a variation of it LOL.
 
Wife wanted a ginger beer, I obliged.

Minor changes in addition times, whole instead of pellets. Only 2 weeks old and drinking decent. I cannot thank you enough for the straightforward and adaptable recipe!!
DIB
 
So I overlooked the lemon in the recipe and am now boiling. Since I don't have lemons, what would substituting clementines do?
 
So I overlooked the lemon in the recipe and am now boiling. Since I don't have lemons, what would substituting clementines do?

Clementines would add a slighter sweet flavor I would guess. I would stick with the lemons though. Just get them later and add just the zest of the lemon to the fermentor after primary has slowed down and leave them in there for a week as least.
 
Hey all, first time poster here with a question:

Brewed this recipe a few nights ago and fermentation is still chugging along nicely. When and how should I remove the ginger? I assume I could scoop it out with a sanitized utensil while racking to the secondary but I would like a second opinion.

Thanks!
 
Sorry for the repost, I assume that is frowned upon here. Let my stupidity serve as a warning to anyone else naive enough to add 2.5 pounds of ginger to a brew loose...

Don't do it! Use muslin bags. Seriously, you won't be able to get it out if you don't. I ended up throwing out about 1.5 -2 gallons of brew because removing the ginger without massive aeration was just not possible. Hopefully the remaining 3 gallons will be all right.
 
No kidding about the bag...I was grating while I was boiling, didn't realize the amount I was adding even though I weighed it all out beforehand. Totally different approach next time for me!
 
I'm planning to do this beer over the weekend. Grabbed a couple of all-grain things from earlier, plus the original post. Noticed that some wanted more lemon, so I upped that to three, How does this look:

8 lbs Pale Malt
0.25 lb CaraPils

3 lb Clover Honey
1 lb Cane sugar

1oz. Cascade pellets (60 min)
1oz. Willamette pellets (10 min)

40oz Fresh Ginger Root (grated)
3 Lemons (juice,zest & rinds)
1 Wirlflock tablet

(Time remaining)
60 Min: Bring to boil and add Cascade pellets.
30 min: 2 lbs honey, lemon juice and rinds, and ~3/4 of the ginger (ginger in a boiling bag).
15 min: Cane sugar and Whirflock, remove lemon rinds.
10 min: Remaining Honey, Ginger, and zest of lemons.
5 min: Willamette pellets.
0 Min: Chill, Aerate, Pitch yeast.

What's the consensus for the lemon rinds? I'll juice and zest them, but does throwing in the rinds get any of the bitter pith flavor?
 
I brewed a batch of something similar to this last weekend. I was curious if 40 oz of ginger would knock my socks off.

I scaled it down to a 3-gallon recipe, using 16 oz ginger in the boil for 30 minutes (which scales up to about 27 oz in a 5-gallon batch). Then added 6 oz of ginger at 5 minutes (which is 10 oz for a 5-gallon batch). Total: 22 oz ginger (= 37 oz in a 5-gallon batch).

At yesterday's sample tasting, the ginger was definitely there, but it was more subtle than I expected and I kinda wish I'd added more. I'm gonna toss in 1 oz fresh ginger infused in vodka for another week, then bottle it.

Fermentation note: after 6 days, the batch was already 4 points below target FG and is still bubbling. Whoops. Sample tasted dry. Based on personal preferences, I'm gonna experiment with back-sweetening it with lactose when bottling day comes. It's a discovery process.

Anyway, just wanted to say, if the prospect of 40oz ginger sounds scary, I'm here to tell you it's definitely not. Go for it!


Recipe (which I don't necessarily recommend - just for reference):

Batch size: 3 gallons

Original Gravity: 1.057
Final Gravity: 1.016
ABV (standard): 5.35%
IBU (tinseth): 35.49

Fermentables:

5 lb Pale 2-Row (I get 64% brewhouse efficiency - ha ha, still learning)
1 lb Carapils (Dextrine Malt)
0.75 lb Honey - (late addition)
0.25 lb Honey Malt

Mashed at 154 degrees for 60 minutes.

Boil/hops/additions:

0.85 oz Cascade (60min)
16 oz Fresh ginger root, food processored (30min)
5 Tbsp Lemon juice (30min)
5 Tbsp lemon juice (10min)
4 oz Fresh ginger root, food processored (5min)
0.57 oz Willamette (2min)

Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

Secondary:

1 oz Fresh ginger root, food processored and soaked in vodka 2 days prior to adding (7 days)
 
I made the recipe in the OP over a year ago, with one exception, no cane sugar. I used turbinado sugar. Like it said for more heat, I put ginger in the secondary. My total weight in ginger was 40 oz.

The heat and spiciness is overwhelming. It's like drinking liquified ginger. Hot, spicy liquified ginger.

The ginger flavor is certainly there, and also overwhelming. Seriously, may as well chew on ginger roots.

And the carbonation is through the roof. Room temp or ice cold, a good bit of each bottle goes to foam waste. And that's the ones that don't foam up completely.

Age has done nothing to mellow anything in this beer.

For me, this beer is undrinkable. I have found only one person who likes it, and I should say, he likes it a lot. He also says it's very hot and spicy, but that's what he likes about it.

But hey, I'm no Master Judge. Maybe what is not too hot and spicy to some is way over the top to others. And maybe I goofed something. If I use ginger again, it will be way, way less than 40 oz.
 
Brewed this last week. Going to transfer to secondary today. I'm not looking forward to shredding the ginger again, that was such a pain in the ass. The sample I took was amazing, but I forgot to note the og.
 
I decided not to add the extra ginger, it was not needed. I may have screwed up this batch my readings came in at close to water...I'm going to let it sit in secondary for a while to see what happens.
 
Love this beer. A few tweaks to the recipe, but delicious during the summer nonetheless.

image-2781331322.jpg
 
Like it said for more heat, I put ginger in the secondary. My total weight in ginger was 40 oz.

The heat and spiciness is overwhelming. It's like drinking liquified ginger. Hot, spicy liquified ginger.

The ginger flavor is certainly there, and also overwhelming. Seriously, may as well chew on ginger root.

And maybe I goofed something. If I use ginger again, it will be way, way less than 40 oz.

How much ginger did you put in the secondary? Anymore than an ounce or two will donkey punch you in the mouth. Skip the secondary heat, and enjoy a solid ginger brew first.
 
I entered this in the St. Paul beer dabbler and won in the fruit/vegetable/spice/herbed category. Everyone that tried this told me to make it again. So its next on the list. Thanks for an awesome brew.
 
I followed the original recipe with a few mods (Nottingham yeast, 4.5 lb light LME instead of 3.5 lb extract + 1 lb sugar to get more malt character). Fermented in the primary for 18 days (10 days at 60 degrees, then raised to 65 for last 8 days). I'm bottling today and it tastes incredible!

40 oz ginger added per the original recipe seems perfect, good ginger flavor and a tiny bite but no burn. Entirely personal preference, of course, but I think "dry-hopping" with ginger would be overkill. Wasn't sure how the lemon would turn out but there's a nice lemon taste in there as well, complements the ginger well rather than overpowering it. Can't wait to taste it in a few weeks once it's carbed up!

So thanks for the awesome recipe! If you like ginger you've got to try this one, and I'd recommend giving the original recipe a shot (subbing malt for sugar) before tinkering with the ginger bill. I'll post again when it's carbed up.
 
I've now bottle carbed this and have to say that the bubbles definitely bring out more of the ginger "bite." I still like it a lot, but will admit that it's pretty strong (still a bit tamer than Reed's Ginger Beer, but without all the sugar to mask the ginger flavor). Others I've shared it with think it's a bit much. So next time around, I might try 30 oz of ginger, or maybe move most/all of the late addition up to earlier in the brew to mellow the bite out a bit while retaining the ginger flavor.

Having said that, thanks again for sharing a tasty and unique recipe! I look forward to tweaking and brewing it again next spring.

I followed the original recipe with a few mods (Nottingham yeast, 4.5 lb light LME instead of 3.5 lb extract + 1 lb sugar to get more malt character). Fermented in the primary for 18 days (10 days at 60 degrees, then raised to 65 for last 8 days). I'm bottling today and it tastes incredible!

40 oz ginger added per the original recipe seems perfect, good ginger flavor and a tiny bite but no burn. Entirely personal preference, of course, but I think "dry-hopping" with ginger would be overkill. Wasn't sure how the lemon would turn out but there's a nice lemon taste in there as well, complements the ginger well rather than overpowering it. Can't wait to taste it in a few weeks once it's carbed up!

So thanks for the awesome recipe! If you like ginger you've got to try this one, and I'd recommend giving the original recipe a shot (subbing malt for sugar) before tinkering with the ginger bill. I'll post again when it's carbed up.
 
Just sampled this, been 3 weeks in the bottle and followed the recipe pretty closely and I think it turned out great! Very little burn at all but tons of ginger flavor. "Dry Hopped" about .75 lb of thinly sliced ginger for 3 days before bottling and I feel it could have used more ginger or more time. I was hoping for a little burn.:) Put the rest of the ginger in the boil. I love it! Wife loves it and said to put on the list to do again! Thanks for a wonderful, "different" recipe! :ban:
 
Bottled 5 gallons of this last night. This is only my second beer and I was wondering if 2 Weeks is long enough to bottle condition it? The first beer I did was a hefeweizen and 2 Weeks seemed to do the trick.
 
Bottled 5 gallons of this last night. This is only my second beer and I was wondering if 2 Weeks is long enough to bottle condition it? The first beer I did was a hefeweizen and 2 Weeks seemed to do the trick.

Today one of my bottles exploded so I geuss two Weeks might be a little much...
 
Today one of my bottles exploded so I geuss two Weeks might be a little much...

Bottle conditioning for long periods doesn't cause bottles to explode (I've still got some bottles of this that I brewed many months ago sitting at ambient temp in my basement without mishap).

If you're getting bottle bombs that means either a) fermentation wasn't complete when you bottled or b) you added too much priming sugar. Either way there's too much fermentable material left in the beer so fermentation is continuing in the bottles and you're getting dangerous carbonation levels. You can look back at your process to see which one you think was the problem, but be very careful with the remaining bottles -- glass grenades are dangerous!
 
I opened some of the other bottles and they were not overly carbonated. I think that one must have contained excess priming sugar due to uneven mixing of the priming solution and beer in my bottling bucket
 
damlamb said:
I opened some of the other bottles and they were not overly carbonated. I think that one must have contained excess priming sugar due to uneven mixing of the priming solution and beer in my bottling bucket

I definitely had that problem in early batches (not exploding bottles but some way too foamy and some almost flat). So even though many people think its unnecessary I now give a slow (to avoid oxidization) but thorough stir when I add the priming sugar and maybe a time or two during bottling, and I haven't had uneven carbonation since.
 
I definitely had that problem in early batches (not exploding bottles but some way too foamy and some almost flat). So even though many people think its unnecessary I now give a slow (to avoid oxidization) but thorough stir when I add the priming sugar and maybe a time or two during bottling, and I haven't had uneven carbonation since.

Good suggestion I will definitely do this next time.
 
Back
Top