How much fresh ginger?

[Picobrew]

I've been considering adding a bit of fresh ginger to a belgian golden strong that I'm going to brew this weekend. I've done a bit of searching but I can't seem to find much in the way of guidelines for how much to use. My instinct would be to try about half an ounce to an ounce. I don't want it to be a dominant flavor, just a background hint.

Does anyone have experience with using small amounts of fresh ginger?

 

[Austinhomebrew]

1 oz in 5 gallons will be overbearing. Even 1/2 ounce will be too much. A background hint would be 1/8 ounce.

Forrest

 

[Dionysos911]

I've been wanting to do some brews with ginger for a while now.. How do you add them? Slice & last 10 min of boil? Boil a bit and add as secondary?

 

[Austinhomebrew]

Last 15 minutes of the boil. Slices would be fine.

 

[bbrim]

I use 1 oz in my Holiday beer and it is the central flavor of the beer. Maybe 1/8-1/4 oz for what you're doing. Slicing it up will work fine, I also peel mine first. GL

 

[stevea1210]

My ginger saison has 2.5 oz candied ginger in it. Next time I would increase the amount to at least 4 oz, but I wanted it to be a strong flavor. BTW added at flameout.

Also I used candied, not fresh, and I don't know the conversion between them.

 

[Dionysos911]

My ginger saison has 2.5 oz candied ginger in it. Next time I would increase the amount to at least 4 oz, but I wanted it to be a strong flavor. BTW added at flameout.

Also I used candied, not fresh, and I don't know the conversion between them.

Did you let them pass into the fermenter or did you strain them out of the wort?

 

[stevea1210]

Did you let them pass into the fermenter or did you strain them out of the wort?

I strained them out. They were in the wort all during cooling and racking, so half an hour or so.

 

[Picobrew]

Thanks for the tips. I think I am going to go very low, 1/4oz or 1/8oz. I'm trying to think of what else to mix with it. I don't want any of the spices to stand out, I want them to blend in.

 

[bbrim]

My Christmas beer also has cinnamon and orange peel. It is very festive. They blend well, but taste like the holidays. I'm guessing you may want to go another direction...?

 

[jamesnsw]

Hmm... I made the Vagabond Gingered Ale from The Joy of Homebrewing. I put in 3 oz of freshly grated ginger, and can barely taste it. I can barely tell it is there.

Granted, it's a stout, basically, so it's a darker beer that may cover up more of the ginger.

But I'm thinking of going bigger on the ginger next time, not smaller. 1/4 oz doesn't seem like it will have any ginger at all to me.

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I used them at various stages myself, including using them like dry hops in secondary. See my recipe "Gingembre et Pamplemousse" for how I used them if you're curious....

 

[Picobrew]

Thanks again for all the tips everyone. I think this time around ill try 0.25 ounce at 15m. Id rather have no ginger flavor than too much with this recipe. I'm also going to add black pepper and szechuan pepper. It is a simple golden strong, jamils recipe.

Brewing it in the morning!

 

[tagz]

There is a huge range of ginger use across threads, from .25 ounces to 1 pound. Anyone have any more insight into ginger amounts and timing of additions? If I want a light background flavor, will .5 oz at flameout give me that?

 

[thepartsmancometh]

I used 1 oz of candied ginger at 5 minutes in an APA. Can't even tell its there. Nada. Zip.

 

[davidpmedici]

I am making an imperial Ginger Cream Ale and I used 23.95 oz total with 2.75 oz in the secondary. I can taste the ginger but its not a GINGER BEER taste. What gives? I am thinking of adding candied ginger to the secondary and let it be for another week.