Ginger Beer

[DREADSKIN]

no mate, never had an ovaltine. however the brew smells great at the moment. i forgot to stick the raisens in, but might do it tomorrow. i need to stick another gallon of water in with it too. all the grated ginger has floated to the top, just as what happens to the bramleys in my cider. ginger looks ALOT more fiberous than apples so was wondering if it actually will sink to the bottom.
when did you lot know when it was ready then? did i read about three weeks for this one?

[arturobandini]

I checked it with a hydrometer and the tried and trusted no more air lock bubbling. The ginger did indeed sink as I recall and it was a bit of a bugger stopping it flying down the syphon tubing but it was all good.

[DREADSKIN]

i know its far to early but i tasted it anyway, and its seriously thin. i still havent stuck any rasiens in yet but i think im going to go for double the amount and stick a kilo in. i hope to hell this works out well as ive been drinkin loads of that jamican fiery ginger beer stuff and was lookin forward to my own.

[arturobandini]

Mine tasted very thin in the fv too but once it got carbonated it really lifted the entire drink. I got very good fiery jamaican style flavour though from the recipe I trialled.

[jjbull]

what about a little dried chilli in it to add a little heat to your ginger beer, i put a bit in home made ginger biscuits and cakes and you cant taste it but it does pep it up

[DREADSKIN]

there is plenty of heat in the drink as is, just tastes watery thats all. i will wack in the rasens and see what that like after a week.
all the ginger has now fallen to the bottom of the big bucket tho.

[jjbull]

think i might have a go at making this i like ginger beer and i like alcohol so i should really like alcoholic ginger beer

[TC2642]

My sister wants me to make a ginger beer for her around 4.5%, can anyone give me a ball park figure for how much ginger to substitute for hops for a 90min boil? Any help would be much appreciated.

[arturobandini]

TC2642 you devil. You're going to brew a beer and sub the hops for ginger eh? That would sort out the sweetness and body problems people have been having. Perhaps if you use bittering hops and then some chopped ginger in the last 15 minutes for aroma and heat and then some ginger "dry hopping"? I'd be tempted to knock up some test batches so as not to waste hops and grain and try and get it just right before commiting to a big batch.

This thread just keeps getting more and more interesting.

[TC2642]

TC2642 you devil. You're going to brew a beer and sub the hops for ginger eh? That would sort out the sweetness and body problems people have been having. Perhaps if you use bittering hops and then some chopped ginger in the last 15 minutes for aroma and heat and then some ginger "dry hopping"? I'd be tempted to knock up some test batches so as not to waste hops and grain and try and get it just right before commiting to a big batch.

This thread just keeps getting more and more interesting.

Yes, I've thought about knocking up a one gallon TC version just to get some idea of what sort of heat I can expect off the ginger. Although I was thinking about a wheat beer with a low alpha acid hop at the start and then adding ginger (as you said) in the last 15mins. As Sherlock Holmes would say, "this is a three pipe problem".

[arturobandini]

Yeah definitely worth finding out your heat scale. I would say do what I did and boil it up as it sanitises the root ginger and you're also replicating the process you would do in a boil. My ginger beer was quite delicious but lacked body and sweetness whereas your plan sounds like a malty winner. Definitely let the people know your findings! For my next trick I was going to steep some crystal in the ginger boiling pan to extract some malt sugars and hopefully and some residual body and sweetness.

[DREADSKIN]

please explain fully. im lost but very interested

[arturobandini]

Dreadskin,

He's talking about making an all grain beer but instead of using hops for flavour he's going to add ginger. So make up the beer as normal and add hops at the start of a 90 minute boil. These are the bittering hops and will add no real hop flavour to the beer but will had that characteristic bitterness. The malt he's made from mashing the barley grains will give all the sugars required and will hopefully leave unfermentable sugars and body to the drink as it's a beer. Normally a brewer would add some hops at the end of the boil (with about 15 minutes left) to add hop aroma and flavour. These hops are boiled for such a short time as to impart only the aroma and flavour and little, if any, bitterness. Instead of adding aroma hops he intends to add some chopped/grated/whatever! ginger to add aroma , flavour and delicious spicy heat. If all goes to plan he should have a beer that is full bodied, bitter, not too dry, carbonated and gingery.

It's definitely a worthwhile enterprise but perhaps out of the reach of non all grain brewers. Though having said that you could use spraymalt instead of mashing grains and make an extract ginger beer. If you have a large enough saucepan you could boil the spraymalt, water, hops and ginger (or just ginger) on your hob and then brew as normal.

[DREADSKIN]

right, and is it 500grams of spray malt per gallon?

[arturobandini]

If you...

1. Dissolve 500g packet of spraymalt (available in different colour grades to suit) in a gallon of water
2. Bring to the boil
3. Add hops for bittering if desired (depending on the AA content of the hop you would have to work out how bitter you wanted it so as to know how much to add.)
4. Boil for 45 minutes
5. Add how much chopped/grated you can stand
6. Boil for 5 minutes
7. This is where it gets hazy (boom boom!) as I never brewed extract not sure the need for adding irish moss/whirlfloc/protofloc in these beers to avoid cloudy proteins being transferred into the demijohn resulting in a cloudy beer.
8. Cool and pitch an active yeast.
9. Once fermentation is finished bottle, prime, cap and condition one week in the warm before a week or two cold conditioning.
10. Enjoy!

Does that sound somewhere in the right area for an extract ginger beer style type whatever?

An alternative method would be to dissolve the spraymalt and bring to the boil, then add the ginger (herbs, spices and whatever you like, then simmer it for a while before diluting with cold water in to the right gravity,transferring to a demijohn then pitching yeast.