Gingerbread beer

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moscoeb

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I am rolling around the idea of doing a Christmas gingerbread cookie beer. Take a look at this and throw out any suggestions. This will bet first venture into designing my own recipe.


5 lbs light DME
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt -40L or 60L
8.0 oz Biscuit Malt
4.0 oz Wheat, Flaked

Maple syrup- approx 1lb (whatever a bottle is)
Brown sugar- 1lb
Both added around 15min left to boil

.5oz Goldings 5min

Irish Moss

Yeast - English Ale White Labs #WLP002


Gingerbread spices:

cinnamon
ground ginger
allspice
nutmeg
ground cloves

1 tbsp in secondary



Basically I took yuri's pumpkin beer base and altered it slightly and added some gingerbread spices.
Let me know what y'all think and throw some ideas out there.
 
I think it looks pretty good. I think you have a style similar to mine where you like to make your own recipes from scratch or modify others with your own ideas and see what happens. I've just gotten back into brewing, and I've only completed one batch so far (with good enough results to get me psyched about the hobby).
Lets see... 8 lbs of sugars sounds pretty good for ballpark 7%-ish alcohol for 5 gallons. And I like the specialty grains. A few observations:
- I think you need some sort of bittering hops for the entire boil as well, or else you're not going to have enough 'beer' character (the goldings in your recipe will just add flavor/nose).
- I think the spices sounds good. How much you use would depend on whether they are fresh/powdered. Since its a 'gingerbread' ale I'd consider some fresh ginger, which I'd personally add at flame out to sterilize and just keep in the primary. Maybe some at secondary and/or bottling as well.
- Although its poo-pooed a bit on this forum, I'd consider some flavoring extract at bottling as well, if you are really going for a 'gingerbread' character to the beer as opposed to just a hint. Personally, I'm more concerned about the final product than taking 100% responsibility for the entire process. This is the 'extract' section as opposed to the all-grain section, after all.
- Maybe even consider a little lactose (1/2 lb. to start for 5 gal?) for a little sweetness since you're going for a 'cookie' sort of thing here. I added this to my pumpkin pie ale thats in secondary now, so I can't give you any feedback on final results yet.
 
more ginger like stated previously.

those spices may just end up tasting just like pumpkin pie spiced beer.


look up the Thunderstruck recipe. its nearly identical to this, minus the Maple syrup and brown sugar
 
drlars said:
I think it looks pretty good. I think you have a style similar to mine where you like to make your own recipes from scratch or modify others with your own ideas and see what happens. I've just gotten back into brewing, and I've only completed one batch so far (with good enough results to get me psyched about the hobby).
Lets see... 8 lbs of sugars sounds pretty good for ballpark 7%-ish alcohol for 5 gallons. And I like the specialty grains. A few observations:
- I think you need some sort of bittering hops for the entire boil as well, or else you're not going to have enough 'beer' character (the goldings in your recipe will just add flavor/nose).
- I think the spices sounds good. How much you use would depend on whether they are fresh/powdered. Since its a 'gingerbread' ale I'd consider some fresh ginger, which I'd personally add at flame out to sterilize and just keep in the primary. Maybe some at secondary and/or bottling as well.
- Although its poo-pooed a bit on this forum, I'd consider some flavoring extract at bottling as well, if you are really going for a 'gingerbread' character to the beer as opposed to just a hint. Personally, I'm more concerned about the final product than taking 100% responsibility for the entire process. This is the 'extract' section as opposed to the all-grain section, after all.
- Maybe even consider a little lactose (1/2 lb. to start for 5 gal?) for a little sweetness since you're going for a 'cookie' sort of thing here. I added this to my pumpkin pie ale thats in secondary now, so I can't give you any feedback on final results yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will definitely try the ginger and lactos. Do you think .5 oz of goldings for bittering? I don't want it bitter, I want it sweet like the cookie and so swmbo will like it! I'll also look into the flavor extract if it still needs a little more kick.

deggenbe said:
more ginger like stated previously.

those spices may just end up tasting just like pumpkin pie spiced beer.

look up the Thunderstruck recipe. its nearly identical to this, minus the Maple syrup and brown sugar
Click to expand...

Ya, I pretty much stole yuri's base and altered a few things. Figured it was a good start!
 
It depends on the alpha % listed on the hops packet. I would say even with a mild desired bitterness, you'd want at least 6 HBU (home bitterness units, roughly equal to the total sum alpha percentage of all hops for a 5-gal batch) or else it won't really taste like beer. The bitterness helps balance out the sweetness of the malt, so if you are going for sweet maybe try a little lower than six, but it really depends on the alpha, which varies even among different samples of the same hops.
 
I guess I'll plug it into a homebrew calculator and see if I get around 6 to 10 HBUs. Thanks for advice I'll try to get working on this in the next couple weeks.
 
If you are going for a authentic gingerbread flavor, I would recommend adding a few ounces of molasses. It will add to the flavor.
 
Mb2658 said:
If you are going for a authentic gingerbread flavor, I would recommend adding a few ounces of molasses. It will add to the flavor.
Click to expand...

In addition to or instead of the maple syrup?
I figured maple syrup would be easier to get than molasses. I'll have to pay attention next time in grocery store.
 
I don't think that the maple syrup will get you the gingerbread flavor that you are looking for. I would cut the maple syrup, up the brown sugar if you need the sugar to dry out the recipe and add a half cup of full flavor (not blackstrap) molasses. I made a spiced ale today with 7 g ground allspice, 2 g of cinnamon, 2 grams of nutmeg, 1 oz fresh ginger and about a half cup of molasses at flame out. Even my wife who isn't a big beer fan smelled the sample that I took and thought that it was a dead ringer for gingerbread. Now this is all admittedly very preliminary but I have used maple syrup in a maple nut brown and did not get the same level of aroma. Take it for what it is worth.
 
In Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing (A great book), he has a gingerbread ale as one of his 12 beers of Christmas. He does not give a recipe, but advises to just take your favorite brown ale recipe, specifically a soft brown with no pronounced hop aroma, and add spices at the end of the boil. He does say that the spices require a specific balance, but you'll have to get the book to get his recommended ratios.
 
Mb2658 said:
I don't think that the maple syrup will get you the gingerbread flavor that you are looking for. I would cut the maple syrup, up the brown sugar if you need the sugar to dry out the recipe and add a half cup of full flavor (not blackstrap) molasses. I made a spiced ale today with 7 g ground allspice, 2 g of cinnamon, 2 grams of nutmeg, 1 oz fresh ginger and about a half cup of molasses at flame out. Even my wife who isn't a big beer fan smelled the sample that I took and thought that it was a dead ringer for gingerbread. Now this is all admittedly very preliminary but I have used maple syrup in a maple nut brown and did not get the same level of aroma. Take it for what it is worth.
Click to expand...
Sounds good, I will do that, thanks.

AndrewD said:
In Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing (A great book), he has a gingerbread ale as one of his 12 beers of Christmas. He does not give a recipe, but advises to just take your favorite brown ale recipe, specifically a soft brown with no pronounced hop aroma, and add spices at the end of the boil. He does say that the spices require a specific balance, but you'll have to get the book to get his recommended ratios.
Click to expand...
Have to run up to book store and check that out. Thanks
 
Mb2658 said:
I don't think that the maple syrup will get you the gingerbread flavor that you are looking for. I would cut the maple syrup, up the brown sugar if you need the sugar to dry out the recipe and add a half cup of full flavor (not blackstrap) molasses. I made a spiced ale today with 7 g ground allspice, 2 g of cinnamon, 2 grams of nutmeg, 1 oz fresh ginger and about a half cup of molasses at flame out. Even my wife who isn't a big beer fan smelled the sample that I took and thought that it was a dead ringer for gingerbread. Now this is all admittedly very preliminary but I have used maple syrup in a maple nut brown and did not get the same level of aroma. Take it for what it is worth.
Click to expand...

How did those spice ratios turn out?
 
I haven't had a chance to brew this yet. I still have a pumpkin ale I have all the ingredients for and just need to brew. This will be the one after that.
 
Flaviking said:
How did those spice ratios turn out?
Click to expand...

It is still in primary. I'll check on it in a few days and let you know my opinion.
 
The ginger has come through nicely. In the future I would up the other spices a little bit more and possibly bottle with some molasses.
 
Update: After being in the bottle for a few weeks, the spices are really starting to shine through. I think that for the recipe that I put together, the spicing levels are good. The spices are noticeable but not overwhelming.
 
I used an Oktoberfest kit and added 3oz sliced fresh ginger at 60 min, 3oz sliced ginger and 2 tblsps Pumpkin Pie Spice at 30 min, and 1 cup of blackstrap molasses at 5 min. It smelled great through most of the boil, but when I added the molasses, it was like, YES! This smells just like gingerbread. I will let mine ferment out for about 3 weeks in primary, then go straight to bottling.
 
Goodness, I never got around to this and completely forgot about it!! :)
May have to try it this year.
Hope yours turns out good, let me know.
 

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