Suggestions for additions to an Imperial Amber?

[OpenSights]

One to two times a year my club has a big brew day called “firebrew” where we make one big batch of beer. 100-200 gallons. The one this spring should’ve been called icebrew because we ad freezing rain all day. My order was just five gallons, brought it home and just pitched. It came out awesome! Don’t remember what kind of beer it was, I’m going to ask tomorrow at our meeting. After fermentation we all shared what we made. There was one member who added pineapple juice, and it turned out really good! Matter of fact, there wasn’t a single beer that didn’t turn out great. One member turned one of his batches into a sour, which I don’t really care for, but still taste them to learn.

Anyhow, the fall firebrew is coming up this Saturday. I’m buying ten gallons for myself and five for a friend. I’m going to just pitch one five gallon batch and experiment with the other five gallons.

I haven’t made an Imperial Amber before and just not sure what way/added flavor/ingredients to experiment with. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

Generally I prefer dark, heavy beers, but have actually developed a taste for a wide range of styles... just not so into sours.

 

[OpenSights]

Think I just made my decision. Ginger.

Now how to add it. Safe=extract or take a chance on wild yeast ginger germ.

 

[blubrewbbq]

I actually like the ginger idea. My wonder is how much to add before the ginger heat would overpower the beer.

 

[OpenSights]

Exactly. Going with an extract, I can adjust prior to kegging, or more likely bottling... but that also brings in the aging aspect...

I made a cider once, can’t remember the fruit I added, but came out of the gate awesome! A month later it was yeasty (best way I can describe it), now, a year later it’s back to tasting great.

Beer/cider, apples/malt... I know. But all things considered...

 

[OpenSights]

Firebrew is not happening. We only had 70 gallons ordered and 9 out of 12 bodies needed to run it.

I’m still not working Saturday and spending the day brewing no matter who calls. Going to brew my chocolate cherry stout, but adding whiskey barrel chips both soaked in vanilla Jim Beam. Thinking of making my own imperial amber to add ginger too.

Have some ciders to attend as well.