ginger root in beer? yum? or abomination!

[zorak1066]

was talking with a guy at work about saisons. he mentioned some of the things he has seen in them, and I got interested in poking around the net. I saw that some brewers add ginger root to their saisons. having recently made my own ginger ale, I can see no place in beer for ginger root. a saison is complicated enough on its own.

so: yay or nay? would you ever stick ginger root in your beer on brew day?

[FedoraDave]

I think something like that can easily be overdone, so it would have to be approached with caution and circumspection.

But it wouldn't be the prevailing flavor; it would just be something lurking in the background to give it a little kick. It may not even be perceptible, but without it, the beer would somehow be lacking.

I doubt I would do it myself, but that's mostly because I'm not real big on putting non-grain adjuncts of any kind in my homebrew recipes right now. But I'd definitely give a taste to one if offered.

[Dawg LB Steve]

I used it sparingly in my Mid-Summer Xmas Ale, and I have tried Royal Jamaican Alcoholic Ginger beer. It was interesting, thought maybe the spicy bite I was getting was maybe they used Rye for the base malt, but after reading up on this one in particular it was from the ginger.

[Crazy Climber]

Ginger definitely has a place in beers, IMO, but with caveats. It must be used sparingly. And it must complement the base beer.

It seems to me that ginger could muddle a Saison. There's already a lot going on, flavor-wise, in a Saison. They tend to already have spicy/clove-like flavors from the yeast, and the spiciness of the ginger root would potentially be overkill, I think.

One of my beers that gets the most positive comments from friends is a very light pale ale with ground ginger root. It's an old Mr. Beer recipe (Horse's Ass Ale - they might still sell it) that I tweaked a bit. Got a good score in a competition last year with it, as noted in this thread. I used a half-ounce for an LBK-sized batch. Again -- it was used sparingly, and given a role in a beer where it can add to the overall presentation.

[mashani]

I made dandelion ginger saison with sorachi ace once. That beer was done with Belgian Saison yeast.

I used a ginger/sugar tea mix with what amounted to 24g of ginger in a 2.4 gallon batch if I remember right. At first the ginger overpowered the nuttiness from the dandelion candi syrup, and the lemon vibe of the sorachi and it muddled up the bubblegum esters from the yeast. It was drinkable but not what I really had intended.

With age the ginger mellowed to the point where those flavors started to blend in more and it became quite delicious. But it would have been better much sooner if I had used less ginger. The longer it aged the better it got. I think I drank the last bottle of that batch at 18 months and that bottle was pretty close to "what I had wanted" in the first place.

So I am not going to say "don't' do it". Because it did actually taste quite good once it mellowed. But I will say "do it with only a little bit". I'd use at most half as much ginger if I did it again. 1/4th as much is probably enough. And I'd use a lot more Sorachi then I did. If I did it again I'd dry hop about 2oz of Sorachi to really get the lemon I intended.

[monsteroyd]

Yeah I've done Ginger in a Saison. It would be better with Sorachi Ace (Thanks Mash for the idea), but it works ok in a saison. I liked mine. I basically did a dry hop with ginger root. But I didn't use very much maybe 10g (a third of an oz about?)

Monty

[Texas Dan]

I used 10 grams of ginger root 5 minutes (shredded) in a hop sack in a 3 gal batch. Hardly noticeable but worked fine. If I do it again I might increase it to 20 grams but not more..

[Rebel_B]

was talking with a guy at work about saisons. he mentioned some of the things he has seen in them, and I got interested in poking around the net. I saw that some brewers add ginger root to their saisons. having recently made my own ginger ale, I can see no place in beer for ginger root. a saison is complicated enough on its own.

so: yay or nay? would you ever stick ginger root in your beer on brew day?

Yay! I have brewed a Saison with ginger recipe 3 times. Tastes great! Last time I served some up, the ladies were fans of it, the guys were into the IPA I had brought. 21 grams of shredded ginger (5gal batch), added in the last part of the boil; starting at 22 minutes till last 7 minutes.