Ginger Ale

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dylanphelan

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So, we have our annual homebrew festival coming up and I want to brew a Ginger Ale inspired by this one:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/ginger-ale-3rd-place-2009-hbt-bjcp-comp-141080/

I didn't really want to copy the recipe exactly, nor did I want to spend too much cash on the honey which is rather expensive here... the beer will all be given out on the day (for free)...

2 ideas

I have some honey malt, so I was thinking maybe brew a kind of blond, leave out the honey, mash low... Something like this:

5.53 kg Pale Malt (5.0 EBC) Grain 1 90.5 %
0.34 kg Honey Malt (49.3 EBC) Grain 2 5.5 %
0.24 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 3 4.0 %
13 g Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 18.5 IBUs
5.00 g Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 5 -
100.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins) Herb 6 -
26 g Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 6.8 IBUs
(or maybe cascade?)
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 8 -

Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.3 %
Bitterness: 25.3 IBUs
Est Color: 11.6 EBC


2nd option would be to use 1kg of honey, adjust the recipe a bit. Something like this one:

3.50 kg Pale Malt (5.0 EBC) Grain 1 66.7 %
0.45 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 2 8.6 %
0.28 kg Honey Malt (49.3 EBC) Grain 3 5.4 %
15 g Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 23.6 IBUs
5.00 g Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 5 -
100.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins) Herb 6 -
26 g Sorachi Ace [12.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 7.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 8 -
1.01 kg Honey (2.0 EBC) Sugar 9 19.3 %

Est Original Gravity: 1.047 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.6 %
Bitterness: 31.2 IBUs
Est Color: 9.7 EBC


What do you think?

I thought the Sorachi Ace could add an interesting touch and a bit of a lemon taste, otherwise maybe do it with Cascade and add a bit of fresh lemon.

I haven't really thought about the ginger additions - I am thinking about juicing it, then throwing the juice and pulp in. I'll throw more in along the way if it isn't coming through enough.

Another option I considered was to drop the honey, use a higher % honey malt and add a bit of sugar so that i get down to about 1.005
 
I ended up brewing it like this

4.00 kg Pale Malt (5.0 EBC) Grain 1 67.8 %
0.55 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 2 9.3 %
0.31 kg Honey Malt (49.3 EBC) Grain 3 5.3 %
16 g Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 24.7 IBUs
5.00 g Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 5 -
200.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins) Herb 6 -
30 g Centennial [9.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 6.7 IBUs
20 g Summit [15.80 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 8 1.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 9 -
1.04 kg Honey (2.0 EBC) Sugar 10 17.7 %

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.0 %
Bitterness: 33.0 IBUs
Est Color: 10.5 EBC

I juiced the ginger and added it throughout the last 10 mins
 
Brewing this again a year later with some slight changes. Less honey, more cara pils, more hops & a little sweeter.


3.52 kg Pale Malt (5.0 EBC) Grain 1 64.7 %
0.73 kg Cara-Pils/Dextrine (3.9 EBC) Grain 2 13.4 %
0.39 kg Honey Malt (49.3 EBC) Grain 3 7.2 %
11 g Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 17.1 IBUs
1.22 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 5 -
200.00 g Ginger Root (Boil 10.0 mins) Herb 6 -
30 g Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 7.2 IBUs
20 g Summit [15.80 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 7.5 IBUs
30 g Summit [15.80 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 9 2.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 10 -
0.80 kg Honey (2.0 EBC) Sugar 11 14.7 %

Est Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.006 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 %
Bitterness: 34.3 IBUs
Est Color: 10.9 EBC
 
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