Danny's Ginger Tonic

Submitted by De.Bonis on Sun, 03/30/2008 - 15:50.

I've got my organic IPA dry-hopping and I am planning my next brew. I am taking a stab at a "radical" beer. I am making an overboard ginger ale with cherries.

I am going to modify a "Cream Ale" extract kit from Northern Brewer by cutting down on the hops and adding 3 lbs. of Oregon Fruit cherry puree and 2.2 lbs. (!) of fresh ginger. This beer is not going to be for everyone. All the recipes I see never call for more than 4 oz. of ginger, but I like it spicy. I am actually basing this beer on a soda I really like: Reed's Cherry Ginger Brew. It contains around 20 grams of freshly pressed ginger per bottle, which how I calculated a kilo for my batch. I am looking into what other spices/fruits go into his ginger ale like cinnamon, clove, lemon, lime, etc.

Anyone ever had anything like this? Do I need to worry about using so much ginger? Is anyone else brave enough to try it?

None
Login or register to tag items
»

A friend of mine brewed some

Submitted by cluetis on Fri, 04/04/2008 - 03:31.

A friend of mine brewed some of Papazian's Christmas Cheer, and the 1 ounce of ginger really came through. I think if you use more than that your other spices won't come through. Two pounds of ginger would mask all the flavors and make the beer so hot its undrinkable. My guess is that the soda works because of all the sugar. Your beer won't have the residual sweetness needed to mellow out the spice. I would start much more conservative, but that's only my opinion.

Cheers!

Thanks! Yeah, I realize its

Submitted by De.Bonis on Fri, 04/04/2008 - 13:51.

Thanks! Yeah, I realize its all the sugar in the soda that allows them to use so much ginger. I have been thinking about how to match that in my beer; adding more sugars and using a low flocculating yeast.

That said, I just got my supplies today and hope to brew this weekend. It came with Wyeast American Ale which is probably too aggressive to leave much sweetness behind. So, I will probably tone down the ginger, but I am open to ideas for making the beer sweet.

What can I do to end up with a high final gravity aside from adding unfermentable sugars (maltodextrin, lactose)?

You can render the yeast

Submitted by cluetis on Sat, 04/05/2008 - 07:10.

You can render the yeast inactive with sorbate after fermentation and maybe follow with a super cold lagering period or a fine filtration at 35 degrees to crash everything out. You can add sugar later, but you would have to force carbonate and keep things very clean. (!Beware of Bottle Bombs!) Some Belgians dose their Flemish beers with saccharin after fermentation to increase sweetness without going through all the trouble. In fact, you could dose with ginger, too, until you get the appropriate balance. Weigh out a bunch of ginger, grind it up, and soak it in grain alcohol overnight until you have made a ginger extract. Weigh out some beer, and dose it with the extract until you have the quality you desire. Keep good notes, do some calculations, and you should know how much fresh ginger to use for the next batch. Good luck!

Sorry I don't have advice,

Submitted by tfuchs on Thu, 04/03/2008 - 12:38.

Sorry I don't have advice, but you really need to hit Birreria Paradiso. They've got Williams Bros. Ginger Kyte Ale on Cask right now. It was good, but not quite my style. Sounds like you'd love it though.