full mash ginger ale

[Stone Cold]

Hello all...

Last few weeks the Golden Valley brew master has coming in to the pub where I work for the odd pint on a nice day or when delivering a firkin,
I made him try my beer and he said it very good but has a slight home brew smell, so he said he would bring me over some proper brewers yeast.
My boss told him about my ginger beer which I think is more like ginger alco-pop to be fair,
it was this recipe
1kg ginger
2.5kg sugar
4 lemons
2limes
table spoon cream of tart
top up to 5gallons
He tried this on sunday and sees potential in it, he has said hes going to bring me a sack of grain to play with it in a full mash ginger ale and then we will run a big batch through his brewery to be sold this summer.
so any ideas are welcome in designing the recipe,

I was wondering if lager malt would be better as I think it should not be a very malty drink at all and ideally should be very pale. or extra pale ale malt. do you know of any extremely pale malts? any thoughts on wheat?

I am planning on making a sweet wort from the malts then add the ginger, lemons, limes to the copper. Im not sure if I should add hops at all?? I have been thinking of using wine yeast as it works well in the simple recipe and gets the fg down to about 1005 and doesn't need sweetening in my opinion, nobody has said its a bit dry as where when i made it with champagne yeast it was to dry for anyone.
I would like it to be around 5% rather than the whopping 9% that the simple recipe makes

anyone got any input on this ?

Ollie

 

[luckyeddie]

I've got a few thoughts on this.

The benchmark ginger beer is Crabbie's, purely because that's the one that is commercially available and people see it in supermarkets. I tried a bottle of this last summer and found it to be pale, insipid, lacking much body and very little or no hop profile. It seemed mouth-puckeringly dry, which I assume originated from lemon or lime zest, but there was a bit of spiciness which I thought might have been cinnamon as well as ginger. Overall, it wasn't a totally unpleasant experience, because it was quite refreshing.

Malts which would be suitable for this sort of beer would possibly be pale malt or pilsner malt, with just a touch of crystal to give it a little bit of complexity and colour. If you want to retain some sweetness, mash a couple of degrees higher than usual. The danger with wheat malt is clarity - always.

You will need to be careful with your hopping so that you don't mask the ginger taste too much - possibly a noble hop like Saaz or Hallertau so you get a nice aroma, added late to the boil.

As for when to introduce your ginger, perhaps it would be worth considering making a ginger 'tea' from root ginger and introducing it at the secondary fermentation. If you want to add root ginger during the boil, then it wants to be ground up or minced and introduced as late as possible to retain the pungent spiciness.

I would definitely consider adding other spices as well as ginger - cloves, cinnamon and chilli would go very well. You will also need to give it a fruity zestiness - lemon, lime or even grapefruit zest might be worth considering.

I wouldn't use a champagne or wine yeast because I would be frightened of it being too dry and tart. Just Nottingham yeast for me on this.

 

[simonranson]

Blandford Fly is more of a beer with ginger. Grab a few for research

http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk/beers/badgerales/blandfordfly.asp

 

[snail59]

I agree with Luckyeddie the Crabbies is CR#P. Williams Brothers do an all grain Ginger Beer and in my opinion it is far far better than the Crappies sorry I mean Crabbies

WILLIAMS BROTHERS

I have tried to do this myself which was not a great sucsess. MY GINGER BEER S.G.R

When I try this again I will not use Crystal just Pale and Wheat. Would double the Ginger to 2kg and add all the Root Ginger into the boil for the last 15 mins just like a late addition hop and would leave it to steep a while after boil has finished. I would leave the Ginger syrup out.

 

[SamWise72]

I don't think Crabbies (which I quite like) is a beer at all; I don't detect any malt. I make ginger cider, and I boil the grated ginger in the apple juice for about 30 mins, which gives a nice feeling of body, at the back of the mouth, and a good ginger flavour. So far, that's been far more successful than my sugar, ginger and lemon concoctions, but I've got another of those on the go with raisins, some nutmeg and ground ginger, plus it's made with 50/50 brown and white sugar. Blandford Fly is good stuff, but very much a beer with ginger, compared to anything else I've tried.