Experimental Small Beer - Ginger, Honey, Molasses

All,

Given that it is summer (and HOT), I was considering making a "small beer" using molasses, honey, ginger, and lemon.

For five gallons, 60 minute boil, I was thinking:

40 oz ginger juice
80 oz fresh lemon juice
4 lbs honey
2 lbs light molasses
2 lb dark molasses (for nonfermentables - would you think brown sugar instead?)

Warrior - 1 oz @ 60 m
Cascade - .25 oz at 30
Cascade - .25 oz at 15
Cascade - .50 at 10

What do y'all think about this? And what would you use as a yeast for a GF beer?

That is a lot of molasses...I used about 8oz of molasses in my dunkel and the flavor comes through. it isn't overpowering but I know it is there. 4lbs of molasses...maybe use 2lbs and 2lbs dark brown sugar.

One: this is gonna take FOREVER to ferment.

Two: this is gonna taste like alcoholic gingerbread; New Planet uses molasses in their pale ale and it really comes through as a cookie-like flavor, and they use just a small bit. With 4 lbs of molasses, the flavor is gonna be HUGE.

Three: 1 oz of Warrior is a lot, and I don't expect it to play well with the molasses.

My suggestion would be to replace at least half the molasses with raw sugar (not brown sugar!), and use a gentler and/or cleaner bittering hop...Columbus would be my go-to, but Magnum or Nugget would also probably work well. It wouldn't hurt to replace at least half the honey with rice syrup, either.

I had the same thought with the Warrior. I just brewed a beer with 1 oz of Warrior at 60 and I got a TON of bitter. It was balanced well with that particular recipe (See the Citra IPA thread), but it would be easy to overpower this recipe with that much Warrior.

A kindler, gentler, small beer....got it....

Still no recommendation on yeast - thoughts on that?

Okay, how's this:

30 oz ginger juice
40 oz fresh lemon juice
3 lbs rice syrup
2 lbs honey
1 lb raw sugar
.5 lb dark molasses

Columbus - .50 oz @ 60 m
Cascade - .25 oz at 30
Cascade - .25 oz at 15
Cascade - .50 at 10

I'd use Fermentis S-33 or S-04. Don't let the belgian descriptor of S-33 fool you; it's the old EDME strain, it's all British.

Also, I didn't mean you should replace, like, ALL the light molasses. I know the early American settlers brewed molasses beers quite commonly. It's gonna be a rather striking flavor, but it seemed like that's what you were looking for.

Maybe like this:

30 oz ginger juice
40 oz fresh lemon juice
1.5 lbs rice syrup
1.5 lbs honey
1 lb raw sugar
1.5 lb light molasses
1 lb dark molasses

If you're going more for historical accuracy, you could also leave the rice syrup out entirely and do it like this:

30 oz ginger juice
40 oz fresh lemon juice
1 lbs honey
2 lb raw sugar
2 lb light molasses
1.5 lb dark molasses

And for this latter, I'd also suggest using English hops, like 1 oz of Challenger for bittering and then replace the Cascade hops with Goldings. Or if you're really adventurous, leave out the hops and use dandelion (whole plant, or leaf and root) and burdock root. If it were still spring I'd suggest nettles, but it's too late for that. Maybe some lemon balm or lemon verbena as a late addition.

Igliashon,

I think I will try the latter - I was going for closer to colonial small beer! And thank you for the yeast rec...!

--Jonathan

One more question, all - anyone converted powdered ginger into concentrate / juice before?

jawats said:

One more question, all - anyone converted powdered ginger into concentrate / juice before?

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Don't do it! It's bad business, man. Totally different (and inferior) flavor. Get some fresh roots, puree in a blender, and strain, or look for bottled ginger juice from the Ginger People if you can find it.

igliashon said:

Don't do it! It's bad business, man. Totally different (and inferior) flavor. Get some fresh roots, puree in a blender, and strain, or look for bottled ginger juice from the Ginger People if you can find it.

Click to expand...

Igliashon,

CHECK! Warning taken. I will grind and filter fresh.

CHECK! I will make the juice myself or get it from the Ginger People.

As a new member I hope you don't mind me adding to the discussion. I have some experience using nettles as part of an herbal tea (for gas) and lemon balm in making extracts and lip balms as a natural remedy to quicken the healing of cold sores. However, I never though of using these in a brew recipe...awesome stuff! I think I saw a book on Amazon about the use of herbs in beer and after seeing this post I think I'll go searching for it. I'll be looking forward to how this recipe turns out. I have found that I like the pure sorghum molasses over the molasses found in the typical grocery store, but I haven't sampled these at the same time so maybe there really isn't much difference? Anyway, thanks for the great info and good luck!

I've never heard of 'small beer' but I'm really intrigued. Is it like alcoholic ginger beer with a hoppy flavour? Really want to try something like this, keen to hear how you go about it and how it turns out.

Griddle,

It's a very historic beer brewing method - http://www.nerve.com/news/politics/george-washingtons-personal-beer-recipe-surfaces - in America. See also - http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/...eer-recipes-potatoes-spruce-beer-history.html.

--Jonathan

Brilliant stuff - thanks Jonathan - I'll definitely be having a go at this. How long are you expecting it to take to ferment? Few weeks?

Griddle,

Thank Igliashon, especially. He's the guru here!

--Jonathan

Griddle said:

Brilliant stuff - thanks Jonathan - I'll definitely be having a go at this. How long are you expecting it to take to ferment? Few weeks?

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I'm going to do a 4-week ferment, then check the gravity.

Okay, here's what I ended up with:

3 gallon boil (4 gallons total)

1 lb dark molasses
2 lbs light brown sugar
2 lbs raw sugar
1 lb rice syrup solids

1 oz challenger - 60 m.
.5 oz US Golding - 30 m.
.5 oz US Golding - 15 m.
1 oz US Golding - 5 m.

OG - 1.07

Safale S-33

igliashon said:

Don't do it! It's bad business, man. Totally different (and inferior) flavor. Get some fresh roots, puree in a blender, and strain, or look for bottled ginger juice from the Ginger People if you can find it.

Click to expand...

(I saw that you already brewed this, but for posterity...) Powdered ginger adds much more heat than fresh ginger does. I made the ginger beer recipe here, and added some powdered ginger in addition to the fresh ginger. It was pretty strong when fresh, I aged it about 6 months in bottles and it was fantastic - a perfect blend of ginger bite and flavor.

Anyways, let us know how it tastes!

Adamsmasher said:

(I saw that you already brewed this, but for posterity...) Powdered ginger adds much more heat than fresh ginger does. I made the ginger beer recipe here, and added some powdered ginger in addition to the fresh ginger. It was pretty strong when fresh, I aged it about 6 months in bottles and it was fantastic - a perfect blend of ginger bite and flavor.

Anyways, let us know how it tastes!

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Adamsmasher,

Greetings from a fellow Hoosier!

I could still add the powdered ginger at secondary, I would think. I was considering adding another pound of honey, and could work it in with that.

Thoughts, anyone else?

Do you want more heat in the brew? The powdered ginger will add that, but not a lot of good flavor. Why are you considering another pound of honey? Your OG was 1.07, that's already WAY high for a "small beer". Another pound of honey and you're gonna have something seriously BIG on your hands. If what you want was a summer quencher, adding more fermentables at this stage is not a good idea.

igliashon said:

Do you want more heat in the brew? The powdered ginger will add that, but not a lot of good flavor. Why are you considering another pound of honey? Your OG was 1.07, that's already WAY high for a "small beer". Another pound of honey and you're gonna have something seriously BIG on your hands. If what you want was a summer quencher, adding more fermentables at this stage is not a good idea.

Click to expand...

Iglia:

As to part one - I wouldn't mind a bit more heat.

Part two - I usually like higher gravity brews. I was thinking, too, to add a bit of sweetness to balance the heat.

Final Gravity at bottling = 1.00

ABV = Approx. 9%.....

Bottled using 4.5 oz of honey.