Ginger Pale Ale Experiment

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Bopper

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Hi All,

I'm considering an experimenting with a 5 gallon Ginger Pale extract/steeping grain recipe. I put together the following draft in Beer Alchemy. Could you please critique? Appreciate it!!

Light Crystal - 8oz
Caramel 10L - 4oz
Extra Light DME - 6lbs

Chinook - 1.5oz @ 60mins
Cascade - 0.5oz @ 30 mins

1oz Grated fresh ginger added in last 15 minutes (might increase the ginger...not sure as I haven't used ginger in brewing before. Any suggestions?)
1tsp irish moss

WLP 001 - Cali Ale

Expected OG 1.054
Expected FG 1.012
5.5%abv


Cheers :mug:
 
I would change the hop times and types of hops....

Chinook 1oz oz for 60 minutes
Cascade .25oz for 15 minutes
Centinneal .25oz for 10 minutes
Cascade .25oz at flame out
Centinnel .25oz at flame out

Also use light LME instead of extract light and maybe instead of light crystal use victory malt. some pale ales also use a little bit of wheat but its not really neccesary....use a little wheat if u like it but if u don't not a big deal
 
I would change the hop times and types of hops....

Chinook 1oz oz for 60 minutes
Cascade .25oz for 15 minutes
Centinneal .25oz for 10 minutes
Cascade .25oz at flame out
Centinnel .25oz at flame out

Also use light LME instead of extract light and maybe instead of light crystal use victory malt. some pale ales also use a little bit of wheat but its not really neccesary....use a little wheat if u like it but if u don't not a big deal

Thanks for your help! I actually originally had a hop schedule similar to yours (minus the centinneal) but changed it. I was going to go with 1oz Chinook @ 60, then .5oz cascade @ 45, 30, 15, & knockout. The reason I changed it was I want the ginger to come through more in the nose. When I increased the Chinook to 1.5oz, I thought it probably didn't need another half oz of cascase at 45 minutes but now that I look at it, 1.5 oz bittering and only a half oz flavor might bitter it too much... Still not sure...The main reason I changed it was because I don't want the hop aroma to overpower the ginger.

I was also thinking about the wheat but decided against it...I want to keep this one as clear as possible.

Can anyone comment on the amount of ginger to use? I'm not sure if 1 oz is sufficient.


Thanks!!!
 
maybe at bottling time, steep 1 oz in some water and add a small portion and taste (do this before adding your priming sugar). Adjust from there. REMEMBER to go little by little.
 
it really depends on how gingery you want the finished product, the current ginger ale I'm doing used about 5 oz of fresh ginger per gallon, with 1 oz of that in secondary, cut into disks. I added the grated ginger at flameout, and once the liquid was pitching temp I strained all the ginger out of the wort. I was really going for a VERY gingery brew however, as I love the taste and I plan on using it as a sort of stomach cure-all. If you just want a little ginger flavor but mostly smell, I suggest putting it in secondary. For more of the muted, back pallet ginger heat, primary, at flameout. ymmv.
 
it really depends on how gingery you want the finished product, the current ginger ale I'm doing used about 5 oz of fresh ginger per gallon, with 1 oz of that in secondary, cut into disks. I added the grated ginger at flameout, and once the liquid was pitching temp I strained all the ginger out of the wort. I was really going for a VERY gingery brew however, as I love the taste and I plan on using it as a sort of stomach cure-all. If you just want a little ginger flavor but mostly smell, I suggest putting it in secondary. For more of the muted, back pallet ginger heat, primary, at flameout. ymmv.

Very interesting. Appreciate your advice. Since I really do enjoy the taste of ginger, I might add more than 1 oz - maybe 2 or 3.

I'd be interested to know what your hop schedule was. As mentioned above, I want to be sure that the ginger nose is not overpowered with hops. However, with all the ginger you are using, I'd imagine you could use more hops and still have the ginger nose. Maybe that's what I should do...up the flavor/aroma hops as well as the ginger. This might solve my concerns about too much bittering hops (I don't want to cut back on those as I need the IBU's to stay within the Pale Ale style)
 
Add the ginger late in the boil so you don't drive off all of the good stuff. Last 5 minutes or less.

+1. boiled ginger has more of a muted, back-pallet heat. Fresh, non-boiled has the early ginger tip of the tongue bite, which is much harder to get.

I actually didn't use any hops, as I was really going for a classic ginger beer feel, for bittering I used lime and lime zest
 
+1. boiled ginger has more of a muted, back-pallet heat. Fresh, non-boiled has the early ginger tip of the tongue bite, which is much harder to get.

I actually didn't use any hops, as I was really going for a classic ginger beer feel, for bittering I used lime and lime zest

Thanks! - It's very helpful talking to someone who has used ginger before.

I think I'll add the ginger at flameout and then maybe "dry-hop" with it in secondary, depending on how it tastes after primary. If I think it needs more I'll secondary with it. Hopefully, this will give me the tip of the tongue bite that I'm looking for.

Thanks again for your help :mug:
 
ur might need to brew this two or three times before you get it right. I think the balance between the hops an ginger is what will make or break this beer
 
Laughing Buddha Brewing Co. here in Seattle makes a wonderful Ginger Pale Ale. They use a very small amount of Noble hops. (Basically just enough to get TTB label approval).

From their website Ginger Pale Ale Ingredients: Munich malt, crystal malt, victory malt, two row barley, ginger, galangal, Mandarin orange peel, noble hops.

I personally would take the same approach and go VERY light on the hops.
 
I have used ginger before. I used eith 1 oz dried ginger or a half an ounce fresh. That way it is balanced with the hops. If you use too much it will taste like Listerene.
Forrest
 
We just kegged a ginger brown ale two weeks ago in which we used 3oz of grated ginger in the boil at 60 min. The beer itself is going to need some time to mellow out, since it has lots of roasty toasty grains, but we all felt that the ginger was just about right in terms of being noticable but not overwhelming. With less malt notes, I could see using a bit less.

Also, be aware that ginger is very fibrous. We spent quite a long time trying to get our boiled wort out of the kettle. It clogged the dip tube, so we switched to the autosiphon which also got clogged and finally probably ruined. We were basically pumping it out at the end and finally ended up just dumping from the keggle into the fermeter via a funnel. Part of the problem was that we were using whole hops for the first time, which didn't help either.

In retrospect I'd probably slice it up into thin discs or something instead of grating.
 
I personally would take the same approach and go VERY light on the hops.

Do you think I'm going too heavy on the hops with 2 oz's? I could go lighter but I wanted to get the IBU's into the pale ale range. I'm I believe I'm at about 30IBU's with the recipe as is. Maybe I could cut it back to 1.5 ounces
 
I've experimented with ginger with three or four batches. The best flavor is when I use a piece of ginger that has been frozen then thawed...I usually add a piece towards the end of a boil (if added midway it's easy to scoop out one or two chunks)...mostly I like the aroma so I only use a small portion...I have a current batch where I added some ginger and a bit of coriander at the end of the boil...it is still fermenting though so I don't know how it will turn out. I used BM's Centennial Blonde recipe. Seemed like a good recipe to tweak - not too much IBU, or ABV.
 
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