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Author Topic: Brewing with Fresh GingerA  (Read 1053 times)

Offline danmages

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Brewing with Fresh GingerA
« on: October 12, 2015, 09:12:51 am »
A local farm is offering fresh ginger grown in their greenhouse. I tried some the other day and it was just amazing. I am now tempted to brew with it. The first idea I had was a Tripel or possibly a Belgian Golden Strong. On the crazier side, I was thinking of adopting Stone's 12th Anniversary chocolate stout recipe by substituting some belgian ingredients & yeast and of course, a good chunk of ginger.

Any thoughts on this? What other beers would be great with this very fresh ginger?

Dan

Offline toby

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Re: Brewing with Fresh GingerA
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2015, 10:27:23 am »
Not sure what beers would go well (although I have a generic Euro pale ale recipe I use for my Christmas beer), but from what I recall I used a 6:1 ratio (fresh:dried).  You'll want to grate the ginger and treat it like a late hop addition to the boil (last 10-15 minutes).

Offline Stevie

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Re: Brewing with Fresh GingerA
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2015, 11:26:47 am »
Kona has a draft islands only ginger lemongrass blonde. It's good enough that I almost bought a growler but restrained as I don't need any more growlers in my collection. Shoot them an email to see if they will share how they go about it.

Offline reverseapachemaster

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Re: Brewing with Fresh GingerA
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2015, 07:44:37 am »
Ginger fits well with many Belgian styles and has a long history of use in saison.

Fresh ginger needs a deft hand unless you're going for an aggressive ginger flavor. If you intend ginger to be a balanced addition--what you probably want in a Belgian beer--you want to think of it like a fresh herb rather than a fruit or hop addition. 1-2 oz. for five gallons is the most you should use and a lot less would be acceptable. Farmhouse Ales cites as little as 0.7-1.2g per five gallons. Some of the full on ginger beers would be closer to 2-3 lb. ginger per five gallons.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2015, 07:51:39 am by reverseapachemaster »
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Offline Iliff Ave

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Re: Brewing with Fresh GingerA
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2015, 09:20:59 am »
I have used 1 oz freshly grated ginger at 5 min remaining in the boil for an asian themed beer. It was super aggressive in my opinion. I believe for the next attempt I used 1/2 and it was still a bit too much. I normally use ground ginger which is obviously less flavorful and potent.
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