Your experience brewing with ginger

[StoatFloat]

I am really interested in making something along the lines of a ginger stout. I would love to hear what anyone's experiences have been using ginger in any home brew recipe, especially how much the spicyness came through, or just your opinion on using ginger as an additive. Hopefully some of you out there have used ginger to flavor a beer at some point, cause I'm eager to hear stories!

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I sometimes take EdWort's Haus Ale and add some ginger to it. I just slice up some ginger root and make a tea on the stove and then add it to the boil after removing the root.

 

[BrewerinBR]

I have used both ground ginger and whole fresh ginger. For my Christmas Ale I used 1 teaspoon of ground ginger in the boil at 5 minutes remaining, along with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 1/2 nutmeg and 1/2 clove. After 21 days of fermenting I took 6 cups of water and 1/4 ounce of Cascade hops and 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon clove and boiled down to 4 cups, cooled and strained and added to fermenter, 7 days latter I bottled it. Was very good Christmas Ale. The spices came through but did not over power. I have also made a black lager with whole fresh ginger, used 1 ounce of ginger root, the peel of one grapefruit, and 2 full cinnamon sticks, put all in a blender with 1 cup of water and pureed then added to the boil at 30 minutes. The beer was good but the ginger was a little to strong.
For any spice use in moderation, things in late boil are more subdued than spices added to the fermenter as part of dry hopping. Experiment and go with what your tastes are.
Good Luck and Happy Brewing!!!

Edit: A ginger stout, that does sound rather good.... keep us posted.
Recipe Search: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/ginger-oatmeal-stout-178911/

 

[November]

I kicked a keg of ginger beer that I made. Tonight I put a keg of oatmeal stout on tap. I cleaned the keg lines that had the ginger beer and thought it was gone but sure enough the stout came out with a ginger flavor. At first, I was angry but then I realized it was really good. Even the slight amount of ginger in the lines came through very well. Good luck.

 

[madcow_number_6]

Just bottled an AHS Ginger Ale today. The recipe only called for 1oz of dried ginger @60min, I added another 1oz @15. after a week in the carboy I couldn't even taste the ginger So I Picked up a pound of fresh, chopped it up real small, covered it in boiling water then dumped the mess into a spare carboy and racked my beer onto it.

The half glass I drank today was kick a$s! I cant wait until it carbs up

 

[madcow_number_6]

Warning.. If you do it the way I did find some way to strain out the ginger bits on they're way to the bottling bucket so they don't clog the holy bejeezus out of your racking cane and spigot

 

[Hellfish76]

With dark beers the malt will cover up the ginger quite a bit. I'd recommend at least 6 oz fresh grated ginger for a mild ginger flavor. If you really want a ginger kick, go for 12-16 oz.

A quick tip I've found to be really helpful is to freeze your ginger before grating it. It makes the process much smoother. Also if you have a micro grater (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00151WA06/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) it grates the ginger amazingly fine and you shouldn't have problems with your racking.