My Hard Ginger Cider recipe

[Asgard]

Well, I've been coming here for a while for advice and thought I'd share my 'work in progress' Ginger Cider recipe. I really like the way it is now, but if anybody has suggestions or advice I'm happy to continue tweaking it.

Target Volume: 5 gallon
Target ABV: 7.5%

Ingredients:
6.2 lbs sugar
2.5 lbs honey (I just use nice cheap Clover honey)
2 oz. Cascade Hops
6 cups Ginger juice
5 Campden tablets
1 tsp. yeast nutrient
Wyeast 1056

Procedure:
* Start with 6 lbs of sugar in brew kettle, add water to 5 gallons total
* Bring water to a boil
* 15 min: 1 oz Cascade hops
* 5 min: 1 oz Cascade hops
* Chill to <90F
* Add ginger juice, campden tablets, and yeast nutrient
* Wait for 24 hours before pitching yeast to allow campden tablets to off gas

* ~2 weeks in primary fermentor

* Rack to keg.
* Back sweeten with 2.5 lbs of honey.
- I've generally had the best luck by taking equal parts cider and honey and putting them in a small container that I can shake vigorously until it makes a honey syrup and then adding that to the keg. Otherwise I often get a layer of honey at the bottom of the keg.

* Allow to condition in the keg for at least 2 weeks. This really mellows the hops and honey and results in a nice smooth cider; if you drink it right away it'll be harshly bitter followed by cloyingly sweet.

Thoughts? As I said, I'm a big fan of this recipe already, but I'm always looking to experiment.

 

[HopSong]

Whoa.. 6 cups of ginger juice.. that would take 20# of ginger root. I guess I don't know what ginger juice is. For my 2.5g batches, I thinly slice a knob of ginger root and add it to my secondary for a few weeks. Adds some nice zip.

 

[Asgard]

For my ginger juice I figure ~1lb / cup. It's probably a little more, 1.1-1.2lbs/cup. I just take a ginger root, wash it well, and run it through a vegetable juicer. I've had great luck with both centrifugal and masticating juicers. If you're going to work with large quantities of ginger, go find your local asian food store. They'll have fresher product and lower prices than anybody else. When it's in season I can buy it for $2 / lb.

 

[HopSong]

Still confused.. are you talking 1# ginger will give you 1 cup of juice? I'd never think there was very much juice in the root.

 

[Asgard]

Yes, through a good vegetable juicer I am able to extract roughly 1 cup of juice from 1 pound of root. This is also roughly the estimate of the juice yield I've seen elsewhere such as:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Homemade-Ginger-Beer-357980

 

[WVMJ]

You could also just chop up your ginger and add it to your boil for the last few minutes and not have to go thru the work of juicing it. I like this recipe, we really get into ginger, can you still taste the apple cider thru this much ginger? Thanks, WVMJ

 

[Asgard]

Well, you'll notice the recipe doesn't call for any apple......the only 'fruit' juice is the Ginger. I have considered trying the recipe with a boiled Ginger instead of a raw juice. Generally I've found that cooking the ginger dramatically changes the flavor or it, most notably taking the edge off of the heat. That said, I haven't tried it since I first started playing around with 'Ginger Beer' (the soda) a few years ago. It might be worth giving it a go in this recipe.

The only reason I'm boiling the water, in fact, is to bitter the hops a bit. I've tried the recipe with nothing but dry hopping, but it lacked the depth that I like from my hops. I've also tried it with a full 60 minute boil on the first hop addition but without the heavier body of a beer behind it that was overpowering.

 

[Renoun]

Generally I've found that cooking the ginger dramatically changes the flavor or it, most notably taking the edge off of the heat.

When I've made my strong (Seattle resident eats a wide variety of Asian food at places where I'm the only white guy strong) ginger soda and ginger syrup I've not had issues with flavor when steeping or simmering sliced ginger in ~150F water. I've avoided boiling it but hot water seems fine and makes a nice ginger tea. I've actually gotten a bit more ginger juice by running the steeped ginger through a juice extractor attached to my KitchenAid. When possible I try to use fresh young ginger from an ethnic market rather than dried out mature ginger from a grocery.

 

[WVMJ]

Why in the world are you calling this cider? You are just making a ginger mead with hops, nothing even close to a cider by any means. If you freeze your ginger before juicing you can get more juice, or just add more ginger, nice big fresh plump roots, you shouldnt have any problems with lack of heat from them. Good luck, WVMJ

Well, you'll notice the recipe doesn't call for any apple......the only 'fruit' juice is the Ginger. I have considered trying the recipe with a boiled Ginger instead of a raw juice. Generally I've found that cooking the ginger dramatically changes the flavor or it, most notably taking the edge off of the heat. That said, I haven't tried it since I first started playing around with 'Ginger Beer' (the soda) a few years ago. It might be worth giving it a go in this recipe.

The only reason I'm boiling the water, in fact, is to bitter the hops a bit. I've tried the recipe with nothing but dry hopping, but it lacked the depth that I like from my hops. I've also tried it with a full 60 minute boil on the first hop addition but without the heavier body of a beer behind it that was overpowering.

 

[Asgard]

Well, it's certainly not a mead as the honey is only added post fermentation to back sweeten. I call it cider for lack of a better term and because everything about my method is derived from cider making. Also the end result to my pallet most closely resembles a cider. There are lots of non-apple ciders, after all (pear, peach, apricot).