Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Ginger Ale - 3rd place 2009 HBT BJCP Comp

[Damoxemus]

Thinking about doing this again but with a tweak or two-

use a bit more malt:
1-2lbs of pale malt
4-8oz of honey malt.

Lower the honey addition to to about half or 2/3.

Anyone have any opinions on honey malt? ie - amounts to use an how it might taste in this brew?

 

[zzzzzzzzz]

I left out the honey and the lemon and doubled the late addition of Ginger. I basically started with a blonde and named her Ginger. I did not skin the ginger and chopped it finely. I have had 2 large group tastings and all the IPA people loved it! The skins I believe add some bitter to it as well. The bitterness mellows with age (ginger skins) so you may hop it up a bit. I was kinda hoping for a little ginger hot/spiciness. there wasn't any so may try maybe one small pepper in next to cheat! LOL
.
This was a very well received modified version of the Ginger beer (no honey no lemons). Up on second brew day from now as was pretty yummy!

 

[docrw]

How old was this at tasting? What was the citrus level like from the ginger? I have this on the docket to make soon, so need to make adjustments for a good benchmark.. thanks

This was a very well received modified version of the Ginger beer (no honey no lemons). Up on second brew day from now as was pretty yummy!

 

[d-usa]

Brewed a 1 gallon batch today. Upped the Ginger just a little bit, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Now the 6 week wait begins...

 

[jerlexico]

Gonna brew this one tomorrow, with some modifications to the hopping and up the ginger some too. Trying to decide whether to mince the ginger or stick it in the food processor...

 

[rwgaro]

Maybe use a grater?

 

[d-usa]

I used a grater for mine, and it worked pretty good.

Bottled my first attempt today:

The rest of the beer is in regular glass bottles, but I wanted to bottle one in plastic so that I could take it curling with me

 

[zzzzzzzzz]

How old was this at tasting? What was the citrus level like from the ginger? I have this on the docket to make soon, so need to make adjustments for a good benchmark.. thanks
QUOTE]

The tasting was about 4-5 weeks later. Man it was awesome. The ginger wasn't over powering and seems to have added a bit more bitter but a nice bitter! May skin some ginger and add as bittering to other beers rather than hops. Was much less astringent. Let me know how yours came out, please

 

[bolus14]

For anybody that has brewed this how close is the orignial recipe to Ginger Ale soda, Vernor's specifically if you've had it?

My wife is wanting me to brew something for her and she's primarily coming up with desert like beers, like Carrot Cake Ale, Peach Cobbler Ale, and Apple Crisp Ale, all of which I've found recipes for but am waiting for feedback from others on before I want to dabble in that market.

She loves Vernor's ginger ale so I was hoping this could fit the bill. She doesn't care for many beers, she like Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy, Sam Adams Porch Rocker, and a few others lke that for summer drinking. Any thoughts on whether this would fit or if any modification would help, like more lemon zest, more or less ginger, etc?

 

[d-usa]

Tried my first bottle and it had a good ginger taste, but it also had somewhat of an astringent taste as well. Hoping that will mellow out with time.


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[bolus14]

Tried a hydro sample today and not what I was expecting. The ginger is there but I was expecting more sweetness, lemon and honey like character. Not sure if I will like this how it is.

Does the flavor change at all after carbonating and cooling?

 

[zzzzzzzzz]

For anybody that has brewed this how close is the orignial recipe to Ginger Ale soda, Vernor's specifically if you've had it?
?

This isn't anything like a ginger soda is a pale ale/blonde with ginger taste, but the spicy/hotness didn't seem to come thru. If she likes food with ginger and a light beer she will like it, I would think.

 

[bolus14]

Good to know, that's pretty much what the hydro sample tasted like. Not sure that it's my thing though. May bottle it this weekend and drink them as a "light beer" on warm days or thinking of what could be added to change it more to my liking. Anybody have any suggestions for what might be good to add and change the flavor profile, maybe some mint and lime? Maybe like 2-3 oz of orange zest for a few days?

 

[bolus14]

So after a lot of searching for what pairs well with ginger and the options for adding things I have decided that I'm going to add the zest and juice from two limes. I don't think the juice will add much since the sugar will ferment out, but hoping that will add to the taste, the zest should mostly add to the aroma. I still think this will allow the ginger taste and spiciness to be present, but will be more refreshing for a spring/summer beer.

 

[jerlexico]

Been drinking this bad boy for a little over a week and it hits the spot. Thanks again for the recipe. We ended up grating the ginger and it has the taste AND the bite. Pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Damoxemus]

Making this again today but this time doing AG with a few tweaks:

I am using 6lbs of 2 row, .25# of honey malt and 1# of carapils. only going to use about 1.7lbs of honey and will mash around 154.

Sorachi is going in as the aroma addition.

 

[remman4]

I found sorachi ace to work well in this recipe


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[bolus14]

I could sorachi working well in this.

The lime that I added to my batch is a nice compliment. Adds a nice compliment to the ginger and makes it more drinkable, IMO.

 

[Damoxemus]

So, I bottled this last week and had a sneaker bottle about 8 days in and it tasted pretty damn good. I am going to enter this into a comp and I am wondering what I should enter it as. If I enter it as a 21a but should it be a Ginger Pale Ale or a Ginger Blonde Ale? Or since it has a bit of honey should it go into the Specialty Category?
Thanks for any advice.

 

[zzzzzzzzz]

never entered na comp, but friends have. Very important to read and understand all the nuances and rules meanings etc. Says have to declare style of underlying... I'd say 10A American pale ale...also says vegetable must have aroma etc... mine didn't really don't know how to interpret that bit. The specialty is for beer that don't fit elsewhere...friends say seems like suicide as if judge thinks it fits anywhere else you're dead.
just my thoughts as a non competitor

 

[drumuglyknuckles]

This recipe makes me happy

I made ginger ale the other day, and all my friends were shocked it didn't have any alcohol in it. Maybe I'll make this and really blow their minds

Could you share your NA version?

 

[z-bob]

Has anyone tried using dried ginger (the powdered stuff) for the first addition to the boil? I'm not sure what the conversion rate is, but it looks like a good place to punch it up rather than adding *pounds* of ginger later.

Also, do you add a little simple syrup to the glass when you drink it? Or is it not supposed to be sweet?

I'm adding this to my brew list. It might take a while to get to it tho', cuz it's already a long list.

 

[jdubdvdt]

I brewed up this recipe on Tuesday. I modified it slightly with when I added the honey and the amount of ginger. I cut the ginger up pretty thin and then put it through the food processor until it was very fine.

I will be post up my modifications. Did a 5 gallon batch, used the same base grain and 3 lbs of honey... I also did no sparge since most of the sugar comes from the honey and not the grain.
OG- 1.053

 

[punkrawkgeek]

I put together a batch of this last night. 6 gallons. Used dry pils extract. Same ginger and honey. Man, smells good. Took a little taste before I pitched the yeast, and it had a wonderful ginger flavor and bite. I am looking forward to kegging it up! As I sit here watching my airlock bubble away.
Thanks!

 

[jdubdvdt]

I brewed up this recipe on Tuesday. I modified it slightly with when I added the honey and the amount of ginger. I cut the ginger up pretty thin and then put it through the food processor until it was very fine.

I will be post up my modifications. Did a 5 gallon batch, used the same base grain and 3 lbs of honey... I also did no sparge since most of the sugar comes from the honey and not the grain.
OG- 1.053

I will be taking it out of primary and throwing it in a keg today, if the FG looks decent. I will do a quick taste test to make sure it has a moderate ginger flavor before considering a secondary with added ginger. Will update this with more details this evening. I even named my variant of the beer "Bad Juju" which has nothing to do with another beer.


FG- 1.009
Grinding the ginger like I did is sufficient. I will not be doing an addition in a secondary. Although, there seems to be something missing with this beer and it isn't aging.

 

[dylanphelan]

I don't really want to spend too much on the honey as i'll be dishing this out for free... and i have some honey malt which needs to be used.

thinking about brewing something along these lines... adding more ginger along the way if needed (am thinking about juicing the ginger)


5.31 kg Pale Malt (5.0 EBC) 90.5 %
0.32 kg Honey Malt (49.3 EBC) 5.5 % (maybe go a little higher)
0.23 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) 4.0 % (alot lower than OP as Im not using honey)
12 g Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 17.8 IBUs
100.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins)
26 g Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 6.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)


Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.1 %
Bitterness: 24.7 IBUs
Est Color: 11.2 EBC


What do you think?

 

[jdubdvdt]

5.31 kg Pale Malt (5.0 EBC) 90.5 %
0.32 kg Honey Malt (49.3 EBC) 5.5 % (maybe go a little higher)
0.23 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) 4.0 % (alot lower than OP as Im not using honey)
12 g Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min 17.8 IBUs
100.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins)
26 g Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min 6.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)


Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.009 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.1 %
Bitterness: 24.7 IBUs
Est Color: 11.2 EBC


What do you think?

On my second iteration I did:

~ 3.175kg (7lb)- US 2row (70%)
~ 0.68 kg (1.5lb) - DE Vienna (15%)
~ 0.454 kg (1 lb) - White Wheat (10%)
~ 0.113 kg (0.25lb) - C10 (2.5%)
~ 0.113 kg (0.25lb) - Honey Malt (2.5%)

~ 28.3 g (1oz) Cascade @ 60'
~ 170.1 (6oz) finely chopped (food processor) Ginger root @ 30'
~ 1.25g (1/4 tsp) Irish Moss @ 15'
~ 113.4 (4oz) finely chopped (food processor) Ginger root @ 10'
~ 28.3 g (1oz) Willa @ 2'

1 envelope of Safale US05 yeast

Est OG: 1.051 (75% efficiency)
Est FG: 1.010 (5.4% ABV)
Bitterness: 25IBU's
Est Color: 4 SRM



Currently fermenting, but OG was 1.051 (75% brewhouse efficiency)

I tried the product before pitching and was surprised with the flavors. The honey malt was very prevalent even at 2.5%, but I am looking for a lawnmower beer with some malty flavor. You may like increasing the honey malt. I might suggest instead of the Carapils, using C10.

 

[jdubdvdt]

I don't have my brew notes, but I can safely say that my recipe posted above is way more to my liking than the first. The ginger and malt balance well.

 

[drumuglyknuckles]

Sounds nice, dues it taste like a ginger ale or beer with ginger flavor?

 

[bolus14]

Beer with ginger flavor. Its nothing like ginger ale soda. Would be interesting to try using some honey malt and some low crystal malt to get a little more sweetness though. But that's all personal taste.