Chocolate Ginger-root Porter Trouble shooting.

[Blackmuse]

I recently tweaked a William's Brewing Porter Kit to make a chocolate ginger root porter... Here's my Brew notes and a few questions.

5 gallons - 3 gallon boil
6 lbs of "Dark" LME (William's Kit) @ 60 min mark
Bittering Hops (William's Kit) @ 55 min mark
1/4 cup (just over) Shredded Fresh Ginger root @ 40 min mark (yes in boil)
Finishing Hops (William's Kit) @ 5 min mark
1/4 cup Cacao Sweet Nibs - added to fermenter just before yeast

Pitched Yeast (German Ale Yeast WY1007) @ 78 degrees (yes I know, TOO HIGH)

Starting OG = 1.044 (with temp variance included)

- William's Kit did not give hops names or Ounces
- Also didn't give the yeast strain temp ranges so I was not aware of Ferm. temps being able to tolerate 55 - 68 degrees!

Fermentation started sometime that night (after 10 pm) and by day 6 all bubbles had stopped. Temp range (ambient) during that time ranged from 62 to 67 until day 8 and 9 when it hit 68-69 and I brought it down stairs to 60 degree fermenter temperature (thermometer taped to outside of bucket).

On day 7 I did a quick taste test (spigot on bucket) and it was amazing!! Slight ginger taste with perfect dark chocolate aftertaste!! Very dark, mellow brew. Soooo good!

So what's the issue? Why trouble shoot?

Today marks day 13 and I did another taste test and a gravity reading...

First, the taste test:
Wicked ginger taste and smell, not horrible but definitely at the front! Yet, the chocolate aftertaste is nothing more than a slight bitterness you'd get from a piece of dark chocolate! Bummer - I had such high hopes! Not that it is bad but from my first taste I thought this was going to be killer and that a second taste a week later would only taste better!

Second, Final Gravity:
1.022! Stuck ferm? It went for 6 days and then some!
I may be over reacting as I have only taken the one FG test but I figured it would be much lower by now! It started only at 1.044... It still has a ways to go for 1/4 of the OG or is my math wrong?

So my questions:

As far as the ginger taste:
1. Did I just use too much ginger?
2. Did the high Ferm. temps cause a stronger ginger taste? (there was no fruity or harsh alcohol tastes usually caused by high ferms.)
3. Should I not have put it in the boil (it smelled so good!) but rather dropped it in a secondary fermenter for a few days instead? (I really didn't want to rack to a secondary just for the sake of ginger)

As for the Gravity:
1. Is 1.022 too high to have after nearly 2 weeks with a start of 1.044?
2. What should my FG be? (I thought 1.011)
3. Do you think it is stuck or will it drop enough?

I understand all brews take their own sweet ass time and that no bubbles doesn't mean it isn't still fermenting (it is) but I was hoping to bottle next weekend and I don't think it has dropped nearly as much as it should have. This IS only my 3rd brew and I am learning new things all the time but there still seems so much more to master!

One last question:
Could I boil some more Cacao Nibs down with my priming suger to regain some of that chocolate taste it used to have? If I did, would it be better to just add it after the priming sugar has boiled and begins to cool?


Sorry for such a long post but I was just trying to provide enough details to get some Q' answered. I realize the myriad variables.

 

[Blackmuse]

So I found out from some reading that extract brews often have a higher FG - around 1.020 so my fears are set aside there...

However, I'm still trying to decide how to combat all that Ginger taste! Here's my thoughts or plan rather, Rack to secondary on top of about 8 to 10 oz of Cacao Nibs sometime this week and let it sit at least 4 or 5 days.

couple Q's:
1. Is this a decent way of trying to subdue or "cover/blend" some of that ginger taste?
2. Is there another way to ease the taste of ginger?
3. If I do this will I be okay to rack to a 5 gal. secondary bucket or will the added chocolate kick back up some serious fermentation? I have a 5 gal. and 6.5 gal bucket so I can use either - which is best in this case?

Thanks in advance!

 

[slomo]

Adding more chocolate to secondary will increase that flavor. I am not to sure with the ginger root as i have never brewed with it. As you have noticed time changes the flavor of your beer, so i would give you batch more time to mellow out the ginger.

 

[Blackmuse]

Thanks for tips slomo. I'm going to rack to a secondary tomorrow with about 8oz of chocolate (cacao nibs) and let it sit till Sunday. I'll bottle it on Sunday and give it a month or so to bottle condition. Hopefully by then things will have blended a bit better.

 

[icanbenchurcat]

Wow, 1/4 cup boiled ginger? That's gonna make it super spicy.

I like to not heat most of my ginger, just let it sit. Gives more ginger smell.

Def following this brew - let us know how it turns out.

 

[Blackmuse]

Definitely spicy from the taste tests - hoping it might mellow out! I'll be using MUCH less next time I try this one. I also picked up a kitchen scale to keep this sort of thing from happening - Will base things off ounces from here on out.

I'm racking to secondary tomorrow on top of 8 oz of Cacao Nibs that are soaking in some vodka as we speak.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Blackmuse]

Porter sat in secondary for 7 days and total fermentation time was nearly a month. I bottled it yesterday and had a small taste of it. Ginger has already mellowed a bit and the chocolate taste returned due to the extra 8oz of nibs Tasted much more like the first taste test did but with a little more ginger. Anyway, I'd say the ginger and chocolate have blended nicely and overall I think this will be a pretty mellow porter with a nice, slightly bitter aftertaste.

I'll let them bottle condition for 2 - 3 weeks and return with the outcome

 

[Doctor_Wily]

Also following. This sounds really interesting and I want to know how the final product is!

 

[Blackmuse]

Finally, an update:

Most people ended up loving this porter while a couple thought there was a bit too much ginger... I found that some bottles were kinda gingery while others were chocolatey... Not sure how that managed to happen but it did.

Overall, I would tone down the ginger next time while using the same amount of chocolate... I'd say cut the ginger in half and use maybe only 2 to 3 ounces while keeping the chocolate about the same (maybe a bit less in the secondary)...

I loved the bottles that had that chocolate aftertaste to it and found the gingery bottles to be drinkable (not bad just not as good as the bottles that had more of a chocolate taste.