Anyone mashed ginger root? Apparently it has a large quantity of alpha-amylase, which will break down the starches in the root into maltose and such. After mashing, you should be able to sparge and utilize the resulting wort to make a spicy golden ginger ale or an alcoholic ginger beer.
I didn’t mash it, but I did make ginger ale. It turned “meh”. I am curious now about mashing it. I’ve been wanting to make ginger brandy. Seems like it would take a ton to mash it though.
The problem is that it’s like cider and always finishes dry without intervention. Interesting you should mention ginger brandy. I was considering some old bottles of high test ginger brew to convert over.
Does it really convert to maltose? If so, maybe a wine yeast may be an option to keep it from fermenting bone dry.
IIRC if you mash corn with malt enzymes it turns to maltose. Someone correct me if I am wrong.
Interesting topic about the ginger being mashed. I use a lot of ginger, mostly all at knock out and whirl pool. One thing I have seemed to notice with ginger is the longer you boil it the “spicier” (IOW hotter) it becomes. I am planning on doing some actual tests on that soon to see how rue it is.
I just brewed a honeyed ginger ale with lemon rind a few weeks ago and it is pretty tasty, though perhaps a little over the top on the ginger.
I did an ale where I substituted ginger for all the hop additions, then dry gingered afterwards. Very spicy, very tasty.
How many additions, and how much did you use?
Yes, barley malt amylase enzymes will favor maltose.