Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[denimglen]

Yeah, has been I whiled since I brewed anything sub 1050, mainly due to a lot of failures on beers that finished under 4.0%. I'm hoping my luck (and experience) has turned.

[Martin Bridges]

I'm planning an experimental beer which will involve ginger. I'm looking for a ginger presence in the palate, but not overwhelming. I don't want this to taste like ginger beer. Two questions therefore:
- should I be using fresh or ground ginger? I'll be adding at the end of the boil.
- how much should I be using in the traditional 20 litre batch?

Cheers,

Martin

[Chris Banks]

Definately grated fresh root ginger its a lot smoother and more aromatic.
Quantity wise its very very much a personal preference (I love ginger)
I make a gingered ale (20 litre batch) which has 1.2kg of root ginger - It has a good healthy bite and a nice ginger aroma but not as much as you would expect for the quantity!
Back to the subject I imagine it depends on the base beer but maybe 120g for a bit of presence?

[Dougal]

Interesting... Can't help you with the amount, but I did read an article a while ago about big breweries experimenting with ginger and more especially galangal (the thai ginger with the camphor taste you find at markets sometimes). They were adding amounts so small you couldn't really perceive an overt flavour, but the warming characteristic allowed them to make lower alcohol beers that were more "satisfying".

Who knows how good the result was, but could be a similar idea to what you're after. They were definitely using it fresh.

[Dougal]

This discussion is worth a read too: link

[bart]

I have used fresh grated root ginger in a few brews. If I'm making a specifically 'alcoholic ginger beer', I use about 800g per 20l. This is enough to have a strong ginger flavour and a fairly pronounced spicy ginger bite. If I am adding ginger to a regular beer, and just want more subtle ginger flavours, I add around 250g-300g fresh grated root ginger for the last 10 mins of the boil. Of course it depends on the brew style, with ginger notes being more readily detectable in lager or pilsner styles as opposed to ales. I would reccomend to start with around 250g-300g and see how it goes. At this level the ginger spicyness is not overwhelming. Ginger taste will not be overboard and will leave you room to increase the quantity if you decide to do another ginger adjunct brew.

[Martin Bridges]

Thanks guys, really helpful

[Stu H]

A dry-hopping question fellas:

I've going to put down the recipe below tomorrow - an American Brown Ale, somewhat based on a John Palmer one.... I really enjoyed the first one, but thought I'd do some dry-hopping... I'm not really sure what would go well with this recipe, but I'm pretty sure you hop-heads out there would have a better idea...

So I've got these hops in stock:

Nelson Sauvin
Target
Czec Saaz
Columbus
Imp. Nugget
Tettanger
NZ Willamette
Simcoe
Amarillo
Pacific Jade.

In some cases I've got stuff all (about 10g each of columbus, simcoe and amarillo,) but everything else a reasonable amount.... Would it be bad to combine some in the hop-sock?

Here's the recipe anyways...


Kingsland Brown II
10-C American Brown Ale
Author: Stu
Date: 25/09/10

Original Gravity: 1.052 (1.045 - 1.060)
Bitterness: 31.4 (20.0 - 40.0)

Ingredients:
4.8 kg Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt
0.65 kg Crystal Malt 60°L
.16 kg Chocolate
13.0 g Imperial Nugget (12.2%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
17.0 g NZ Willamette (6.4%) - added during boil, boiled 30.0 min
17.0 g NZ Willamette (6.4%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
1.0 tsp Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 10.0 min
1.0 tsp Finings Gelatin - added dry to secondary fermenter
1.0 ea WYeast 1272 American Ale II

[Chris Banks]

Personally I would continue with the NZ Willamette theme as a dry hop not sure on quantitys but maybe 1gram per litre would be a start?

[MrC]

I agree with Chris. I'd stick with the NZ Willamette theme and 1g/L is a good place to start for dry hopping.

However, if you really want to get some American hops in there I'd go for Amarillo. Maybe even a 50:50 split of Amarillo and Willamette (10g of each)???

Also, I'd recommend dry hopping for 5 days, I find it starts getting a little grassy & not so 'uplifting' after that.

[Stu H]

Sensible suggestions! Thanks dudes! I'd never heard of the 1g/L thing before, cool!

[Stu H]

Cool, dry hopped 50/50 Amarillo, NZ Willamette just then. After 5 days it's going in the PET bottles for le case swap.