Gingrbread winter beer

[Parksy]

Hi folks. Very new to this so im hoping some experts, or anyone with greater knowledge than me can lend a hand.

I'm a kit brewer and wanting to do a winter dark ale with a mainly gingerbread but hint of christmas spice taste potentially. I'm not sure if there are kits already like this.

I'm thinking about buying the Muntons Winter Warmer kit but then adding the Starbucks gingerbread syrup that they use for the red cup gingerbread latte's near the festive period. Would this work as a cheat? Would I add it at the start of the ferment or towards the end?

If theres a better kit or easier way of doing things I am open to suggestion.

Thanks for any help

 

[MyQul]

You'd need to add it at the start of the fermentation to ferment out the sugars in the syrup.

You could also use it at bottling time but you'd need to be careful because of course the sugars would ferment along with the priming sugar and possibly cause bottle bombs. However if the sugars content is on the bottle (which I'm sure it probably is) you could possibly use it instead of priming sugar

 

[HarrowBrewer]

I've made a nice gingery ale by boiling up some root ginger and cloves and adding towards the end of fermentation.

 

[Parksy]

Thanks for the help. I'm really tempted into giving it a go.

 

[Racinsnake]

Might give this a go too, with the ginger and cloves.
Tried a recipe from another site, Geordie mild, cloves, cinnamon and raisins soaked in brandy. Don't know what I did but :mrgreen: Mingin!! what a waste

 

[MyQul]

Might give this a go too, with the ginger and cloves.
Tried a recipe from another site, Geordie mild, cloves, cinnamon and raisins soaked in brandy. Don't know what I did but :mrgreen: Mingin!! what a waste

I'm not surprised it was "mingin" I think you need a nice big beer with a highish OG to carry all thise strong spice flavours

 

[dad_of_jon]

Hi folks. Very new to this so im hoping some experts, or anyone with greater knowledge than me can lend a hand.

I'm a kit brewer and wanting to do a winter dark ale with a mainly gingerbread but hint of christmas spice taste potentially. I'm not sure if there are kits already like this.

I'm thinking about buying the Muntons Winter Warmer kit but then adding the Starbucks gingerbread syrup that they use for the red cup gingerbread latte's near the festive period. Would this work as a cheat? Would I add it at the start of the ferment or towards the end?

If theres a better kit or easier way of doing things I am open to suggestion.

Thanks for any help

I've found using syrups in beers that a lot of the flavour aroma is fermented out by primary fermentation , the problem is working out the abv if you added syrup after primary fermentation, so I just load a lot of syrup at the start so that at least some flavour aroma will remain.

sterile, anti-bacterial non sugar additions can be added after primary fermentation has occurred for best flavour/aroma.

 

[HarrowBrewer]

Agreed, I've tried fruit syrups as an addition and they've not worked so well. I recommend frozen ginger, I've used it for ginger beer and as an addition to beer, much easier than peeling and shredding root ginger and the taste is identical.

 

[Racinsnake]

Thanks MyQul the majority opinion was it was a good recipe, goes to show how bad some peoples taste buds are lol.

 

[MyQul]

Thanks MyQul the majority opinion was it was a good recipe, goes to show how bad some peoples taste buds are lol.

I'm definately no authority on this type of beer but all the recipes I've seen are quite high OG definately small beer like a mild. Especially with that amount of different spices, in particular cloves which have a very strong flavour so I think you would need to be particularly careful with them

 

[rodabod]

You might think this sounds nuts, but you might get away with chucking a loaf of gingerbread in it, towards the end of the boil.

 

[Bad_Gerbil]

Just finished making my Ginger Beer.
In addition to dry hopping 5 days before bottling, I sliced up (quick boil to sanitise) one finger of raw ginger, orange peel and a few Cardamom seeds and added these at the same time.
Quick taste before bottling - definite ginger flavour, no hint of the orange or cardamom. Will have to wait a few weeks for conditioning.
I did try adding ginger to the boil in an earlier batch, but all the flavour seemed to get lost.
BG

 

[Bad_Gerbil]

Just tried a sneaky bottle, a week after bottling and the ginger's fresh smell and taste is all there (despite my cold). So for me, dry hopping with raw ginger slices a week into the fermenting is the way to go. I won't be going back to adding the ginger to the boil.
BG