Punch you in the Face Beer with Ginger

[smallbatchhomebrew]

This is my first Ginger beer and I wanted to feel the burn, so I've used 300g of bashed up root ginger (for a 12 litre batch)

Thoughts???

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http://smallbatchhomebrew.co.uk/batch-11-malt-beer-ginger/

Homebrew Batch 11
Brew day 20th April 2014
Starting Gravity: 1042
Final Gravity: 10??
ABV % = ??% (SG 1042- FG 10?? x 0.13)

Ingredients (makes 12 litres)
500g Pale Dried Malt Extract and 500g Pale Dried Malt Extract
317g fresh grated ginger, skin removed.
10g target start of the boil ~20 mins
10g amarillo hops, zest of two oranges and caragheen ~10 mins to end of boil
270g Carahell for steeping (30 mins at 66*C)
340g honey
160g golden caster cane sugar


Method
00:00 Mins: Add Steeping grains to 2 litre water and heat to 66*C, then put the lid on, turn the heat off and leave for 30 mins to steep, occasionally stirring.
00:05 Mins: Heat 5 litres of water in a large pan until hot but not boiling (not the copper)
00:30 Mins: Add steeped mixture to the copper through a clean sieve. Use a clean jug to rinse through the sieved mixture with the hot water from the pan into the copper. Do this with all the water from the pan.
00:35 Mins: Add all of the Dried Malt Extract and all of the bashed up ginger to the copper and stir until dissolve whilst heating to a strong rolling boil.
00:45 Mins: At the point of boil add the first 10g batch of target hops and stir [START OF BOIL]
00:55 Mins: Add 10g of target hops, zest of two oranges and caragheen and stir and replace the lid (to sterilise inside).
01:05: Mins Add 20g of amarillo hops and stir, then 5 more mins boiling then turn the heat off (END OF BOIL) and transfer the copper immediately to a water bath with the lid on.
01:35 Mins: After 20 mins or so in 10*C tap water the wort should now be about 40*C.
*** SG was only 1032 so I Boiled 1 litre of water for a few minutes with the hop, ginger solids with honey and cane sugar and then sieved mixture into the fermenter then added 1 litre of cold water through the sieve*** SG was 1042.

01:35 Mins: Pour the wort into the fermenter through a sterile sieve.
01:35 Mins: Add 5/6 litres of tap water in a sterilised jug into the fermenter through the hops mixture in the sterilised sieve. This will extract all the remaining hops flavours from the hops sediment.
01:40 Mins: You should now have 11-12 litres of 20*C wort. Take sample of the wort and measure the Starting gravity in a trial jar with a hydrometer.
01:45 Mins: Using a sterile metal whisk vigorously stir the wort to add as much air as possible, then sprinkle the 6g packet of yeast on top of the aearated wort.
01:50 Mins: Attach the sterile gromit and airlock containing 1/3 sterilisation solution and attach the lid of the fermenter, leave somewhere warm (20*C-25*) for 5 days until the airlock stops bubbling and Final gravity is constant below 1014.Useful calculator for mixing different volumes of wort/tap water at different temperatures ot reach 12 litres at 20*C http://www.onlineconversion.com/mixing_water.htm

 

[smallbatchhomebrew]

So, I had a taste of this after 5 days in the fermenter before I casked it and it was AWFUL. It was very acidic, painfully acidic with little ginger taste and sweetness.

I've casked it anyway and I'm hoping it will improve in time.

Do you think it's normal for a ginger beer made with boiled root ginger to taste bad before secondary/priming?

 

[Fil]

Im sure it wil mature into a good drink, and its about right on the quantity of ginger, and as long as u pulverised it and didnt just bruise it

So far my Ginger beers have been unhopped, and made with lme.

I have grated root ginger 500-750g for a 23l batch with 2 x 1.5kg tins of lme and 6 lemons.
boilled the lme ginger lemon juice and scratched shells for 20-25mins before straining onto cold water into the fv. to the fv i added 1 heaped tablespoon of dry ginger powder and 1 teaspoon of chilli powder. tho 1st time i screwed up n added a heaped tablespoon of chilli and that was a bit too much ..

I used lactose to sweeten the first couple but now have started using tesco budget artificial sweetener..


Adding hops would add a further dimension to the mix, but how they would get on with the lemons???

 

[smallbatchhomebrew]

Artificial sweetener is a good call, didn't think of that one :)

How long did it take your beer to mature before it was drinkable?

Yeah I bashed up the ginger with a rolling pin to release all the flavours/juices.

How gingery did your batch turn out? Could you feel the burn of the ginger or was it just a mild flavour?

 

[Fil]

Due to the dry additions in the fv its both gingery with a kick, the ginger flavor seems to all come from the powder (but in sure the root ginger adds depth n backing to the taste?)..

my limited experimentation around the recipe tells me..
good additions - Honey. really works well with ginger..

Bad additions - mollases in anything other than the odd spoonfull, as its so overpowering a flavor

and dont be tempted to embelish a coopers ginger beer kit i did and the sweet sickly stuff took over 13 months to empty a cornyfull, think more went into fruity curries than a glass for drinking

the one time i added a heaped tablespoon of chilli the result was nice, but drunk neat would leave your mouth tingling for an hour before going numb
however when mixed 50/50 with citrus juices (tesco breakfast orange n grapefruit) = WOW was a real summer cooler/quencher..