ginger ale

I am contemplating a ginger ale and have come up with this for a recipe any input or thought would be appreciated.


6lb pils malt
1lb rye malt
.5lb aromatic
.5lb munich
1 cup molasses

.5oz crystal 60 min
4 0z fresh grated ginger 60 min
4 star anise 60 min
6" licorice root 60 min

1oz crystal hop 10 min


nottingham yeast

149 sach rest for 90 min

Do a search or check some of the "similar threads" at the bottom of this page. Ginger ale/beer has been coming up a lot lately.

After reading a ton of ginger topics as captain damage suggested the original ? still stands. of course the amount of ginger is cause for debate but how does the rest of the recipe look?

I'd "dry hop" for a week with 2-4 oz of fresh grated ginger, soaked overnight in vodka (just enough to cover). Add the vodka to the beer too. I've done a ginger wheat with 6 oz in the boil and 2 oz "dry hop." It came out nice, but I'd like a little more heat, so next time I'll probably dry hop with 4 oz.

i've been doing a ginger ale for a while now and am currently drinking my 5th batch. i really like some ginger heat, so i go pretty big. from my experience additions in the 15-0 min work best. i only go with a small 60 min hop addition for 15-20 ibu, mash low and use a big shot of light crystal.

last batch i did 6 oz @ 15, 10, 5, 0 and also 6 oz "dry hop". the dry hop really gives the ginger heat- its a delayed and slow burn thats delicious. a lot of the heat gets boiled away with the other additions but you are still left with great flavor/aroma.

when i added it in the primary i boiled water and stirred in a lb of honey and let the ginger steap in the honey/water in a covered pot. once it cooled down to room temp overnight i added the whole pot to the primary (when the krausen fell). you can pick up the honey aroma/flavor nicely.

i brewde my recie yesterday only a added 1oz ginger at 10 min. when it is done i will have a frame of referance and can begin implimenting some changes. all mentioned above sounds great. ty

Looks fine to me. 4 oz should add sufficient ginger taste. The last ginger beer I made had 2 oz added at flameout.

I should add that this beer had the most putrid smell emanating from it for about a week. Ginger puts out some pretty nasty sulfur gases while it's fermenting. I thought the beer was ruined, but after aging for a month in the bottle it was great.

bottled for just over a week sampled one yesterday(ok so it was 6). very delicious. almost no carbonation yet(i know takes 3 weeks or more) but i am loving the way they turned out so far.

Hope it's OK to resurrect this thread after a year, but Defenestrate's comments interest me:

defenestrate said:

i've been doing a ginger ale for a while now and am currently drinking my 5th batch. i really like some ginger heat, so i go pretty big. from my experience additions in the 15-0 min work best. i only go with a small 60 min hop addition for 15-20 ibu, mash low and use a big shot of light crystal.

Click to expand...

I would very much like to see your actual recipe. I will probably be doing BIAB, which shouldn't require any recipe changes according to the BIAB experts.

defenestrate said:

last batch i did 6 oz @ 15, 10, 5, 0 and also 6 oz "dry hop". the dry hop really gives the ginger heat- its a delayed and slow burn thats delicious. a lot of the heat gets boiled away with the other additions but you are still left with great flavor/aroma.

Click to expand...

So, your above schedule uses a total of 30 oz of ginger. I know others have said that this is an awful lot of ginger, but I accept your explanation - and I've seen that explained elsewhere.

defenestrate said:

when i added it in the primary i boiled water and stirred in a lb of honey and let the ginger steap in the honey/water in a covered pot. once it cooled down to room temp overnight i added the whole pot to the primary (when the krausen fell). you can pick up the honey aroma/flavor nicely.

Click to expand...

Is this something different than what you're describing in the previous paragraph regarding dry hopping? Are you now describing how you use ginger when you add it only to the primary - or is this simply a description of how you dry hop as in the previous paragraph? Please tell me how much water you boil into which you stir in the honey.

I'm looking for some ginger flavor, but I also want a little heat. There's a non-alcoholic ginger ale called Red Rock Ginger Ale bottled in Atlanta, Georgia. It is definitely NOT your stomach virus ginger ale. If you inhale any bubbles are you're bringing it to your mouth, it will make you sneeze. There is a very noticeable "heat" after you swallow that goes from your mouth down thru your chest.

Thanks,
Keith

:rockin:

kzimmer0817 said:

Hope it's OK to resurrect this thread after a year, but Defenestrate's comments interest me:


I would very much like to see your actual recipe. I will probably be doing BIAB, which shouldn't require any recipe changes according to the BIAB experts.


So, your above schedule uses a total of 30 oz of ginger. I know others have said that this is an awful lot of ginger, but I accept your explanation - and I've seen that explained elsewhere.


Is this something different than what you're describing in the previous paragraph regarding dry hopping? Are you now describing how you use ginger when you add it only to the primary - or is this simply a description of how you dry hop as in the previous paragraph? Please tell me how much water you boil into which you stir in the honey.

I'm looking for some ginger flavor, but I also want a little heat. There's a non-alcoholic ginger ale called Red Rock Ginger Ale bottled in Atlanta, Georgia. It is definitely NOT your stomach virus ginger ale. If you inhale any bubbles are you're bringing it to your mouth, it will make you sneeze. There is a very noticeable "heat" after you swallow that goes from your mouth down thru your chest.

Thanks,
Keith

Click to expand...

i've changed this beer a lot- i've since brewed it about 15 times. i totally got rid of the ginger in the boil, the spicy heat just doesn't survive the boil/primary ferment IMO. i'm not able to get my full recipe right now, but this is it roughly.

75% basemalt (plain 2 row is fine, but recently i've been using golden promise)
10% wheat (i use dark wheat, white is fine)
5% honey malt
10% honey (added with the ginger after primary, usually add it @ 7 days)

i've used up to 15% honey, and it really comes through nicely...i use pretty dark local honey. 10% IMO is the minimum that you need to have to get some residual flavor/aroma and it definetely helps to add it in the bucket vs the boil.

i usually mash this at 156 to get some malt character- the honey will really dry this out if you mash too low. but if thats what you are going for, great even mashing at this temp FG is around 1010, and after adding the honey its about the same.

i've done a lot of experimenting with the ginger amounts, ginger treatments, etc and i will agree with some of the other posts, 4 oz in the bucket per 5 gallons is perfect for a very gingery beer. 2 oz will give you a very suble lingering heat, but not much aroma/flavor. when adding 4 oz i generally leave it in the fermenter for 3-4 days, which is about as long as it takes the honey to ferment. i then crash and keg- i turn this beer very quickly. when using 2 oz i've left the ginger in the bucket for over a week with no ill effects.

i'm not very exact when adding the ginger/honey in the pot- but i would say its around a qt of water. boiled, cooled to 170 or so, honey dissolved then ginger added. will let it sit for about 15 minutes to kill any bugs in the ginger then into the bucket. i dont want to add the honey at too high a temp becuase it keeps the aroma in my experience.

apologies if thats too long winded but hope it helps! i love this beer and can't brew it enough. its called ginger beer for a reason!

I did the recipe found here: http://www.strongwaters.net/ with the exception of yeast. I used S-04 and was thoroughly pleased with it. I'll be doing a similar recipe again but convert it to AG.

I recently added some grated ginger as an experiment to some IPA that didn't fit into my secondary fermentor.

I added the ginger to the bottling bucket. I put the grated ginger into the water for my bottling sugar and boiled it for a few minutes before adding priming sugar and dumping into the bottling bucket. I was very happy with how it came out but I do like some ginger bite. I'm sure the bottles have some ginger particles in them but they settle out with the yeast at the bottom of the bottle.