Apfelwein with ginger...

[bellaruche]

Anyone have tips on this? I made a batch with Orange Blossom honey and was delicious. I want to make this same with ginger. Never used it in brewing... Any suggestions? fresh, candied, granulated, etc. Thanks for any replies! Candied would seem the most favorable, but please enlighten me. I'm the typical 5 gallon batch kinda guy.

 

[step]

I have used used about 1.5 ounces of fresh grated ginger per gallon for a ginger beer. I would think that 1 ounce per gallon of fresh chopped/grated ginger into an apple must would yield pretty good results. Just go for it and let us know what happens. Just know that brewing "flaws" show up readily in herbal beers, but time helps

 

[bellaruche]

Thanks. 1.5 oz. fresh per gallon. Will give it a whirl!

 

[dinnerstick]

no idea how much an ounce of ginger is in terms of actual ginger root (sorry- rhizome), but i would guess that if that's a good amount for ginger beer then you are going to step all over your cider with that much. in my one and only experience with fresh ginger i made a concoction of fresh apple, ginger and lemon juices which tasted absolutely amazing when fresh, fruity, appley, tart and lemony. fermented with honey and dme, and when it was almost dry it tasted like ginger. liquid alcoholic ginger. not unpleasant, mind you, just ginger. it has started to mellow as i age it but next time i will use 1/10 the amount. i guess i used about a tip-of-the-pinky sized piece per liter

 

[step]

Yeah, as with any fresh ingredient there is no real way to know to know its potency (think about different alpha hops of same variety), but since the OP is from AK I would think the ginger available is not freshest/most potent. There is no right answer and I am just giving the info from what I have tried. Good Luck

 

[dinnerstick]

agreed. i think my point is that the flavors will change so much during fermentation, and some flavors will shrink to the back whereas others will rush to the front, so not to infer too much from what the fresh juice tastes like.

portland is nice eh

 

[PSUinDC]

Not sure how much 1.5oz is, but I just made a 1 gallon batch with 3 Tbsp of sliced/grated ginger. It's still fermenting, so I can't tell you how good it is yet, but I'll let you know

 

[CidahMastah]

Yeah, as with any fresh ingredient there is no real way to know to know its potency (think about different alpha hops of same variety), but since the OP is from AK I would think the ginger available is not freshest/most potent. There is no right answer and I am just giving the info from what I have tried. Good Luck

I agree. I would opt for ground ginger for consistency in testing. I used ground ginger in Dandelion wine and it intriduced a great spicey ginger note. I should point out that the note came out after about 7 months of aging. Wish I had been more patient drinking the wine.... I only had about two of those bottles left when month 7 hit. Only one left now!

I would intuitivley be nervous about leaving fresh anything (ginger, raisins, etc) in a carboy for too long. Nervous of rot or other things, unless you have a super high alc content... That could be me thinking about bad Ju Ju; i.e. faultey logic