Ginger beer

Someone mentioned ginger beer in another thread so I wanted to throw this out there before I forget. I made a delicious alcoholic ginger beer using most of the normal general brewing methods. I'll post the recipe later.

I tried to emulate the ginger beers (carbonated soft drink) I have had here in Florida, which are a much spicier version of ginger ale. 2 things I learned...

1. Ginger gets spicier as it gets older; so when you buy it at the grocery store, the ones with thin yellow skins will be mellow while the ones with thick brown skins will be spicier.

2. Commercial manufacturers of the soft drink add capsacin to them to get them spicy.

I'll post another thread with the recipe in case anyone is interested. Although it's not as spicy as I wanted it's still a very enjoyable drink with big ginger flavor (Asian kind of flowery flavor).

I'd be very interested, the other half loves ginger. Do you have the recipe to hand?

danlad said:

I'd be very interested, the other half loves ginger. Do you have the recipe to hand?

Click to expand...

I do not, but I'll try to post it later. It was a complete experiment and did not come out as intended, but it's a lovely drink.

I'll add that storing extra ginger root in the freezer is a very bad idea. Lost most of a pound, turned to nasty mush. It's better off at room temperature.

Have a small test batch of a gingered cream ale in ferm. Unfortunately, it seems stuck at the moment at 1.020, so I can't say that the recipe is 100%. Amylase only knocked it down .002. However, a taste of the wort from the last reading seemed promising if I can get it thought the knothole. Ginger seemed to me like a good addition for sorghum-based brews.

david_42 said:

I'll add that storing extra ginger root in the freezer is a very bad idea. Lost most of a pound, turned to nasty mush. It's better off at room temperature.

Click to expand...

I have extra ginger root stored in the freezer that is over a month old. If you grate it while its frozen it works fine (for cooking anyway, haven't tried brewing with it yet).

sorry

Noontime Ginger Beer

4.5 lbs Amber Agave Nectar (45 min)
3 cups white sugar (45 min)
5 frozen, thawed, mashed bananas (45 min)
7 oz grated ginger (flameout)
2 tsp cinnamon (5 min)
1/2 tsp clove (5 min)
.2 oz nutmeg (1 bean) (5 min)
4.35 oz Lactose (30 min)
4.1 oz Maltodextrine (30 min)
1 oz Summit hops (16.7% AA) (45 min)
Safebrew WB-06

45 minute boil.
Used strainer bag at boil and transferred everything to primary.

SG 1.052

10 days later SG 1.014, transfer to carboy, added another 2oz of ginger

3 1/2 weeks later bottled with 6oz corn sugar