ginger and hops

Ingredients
1

I do an “asian inspired” blonde ale with ginger and green tea (I know it’s weird). In my two previous batches, the ginger was way too strong. I am using finely grated fresh ginger at 5 minutes remaining in the boil. My first question is regarding amount. The first attempt was 35 g and the second attempt was 14g. Both were too much. I am thinking 4 g for the next batch?

Also, any recommendations on hops that might compliment the ginger? IBUs will stay at or below 20 but I would like to get a bit of flavor/aroma out of them.

2

My top choice would be Motueka - I mainly get lime zest and lemongrass with some noble-type herbal/spicy notes in the background. Sorachi, Amarillo and Centennial may be OK. I think citrus is good, as long as you don’t have too much of that bitter white grapefruit (i.e., Cascade) thing going on.

3

erockrph is right on the money.  I was going to mention most of the hops that he did.

4

Agreed on the hop suggestions.

Question though: how are you grating the ginger? I find that my Microplane gives a much more assertive flavor/aroma than a regular grater. I have to be really careful with that thing while grating ginger/garlic!

5

It’s been a while since I attempted it last. I think I used the fine grate on a normal stand up cheese grater but I may have used a microplane as well which I use for lemongrass in another beer.

6

I just had a beer with ginger and pacific jade, which is ‘orange marmelade -ey’. They went well together.

7

I think some spicy, earthy noble and noble-like hops could also work, and wouldn’t overpower the ginger like some of the more citrusy hops.  Saaz, Styrian Goldings, maybe Crystal.  Dial back the ginger first, though.  4-6g is a good starting point.

8

Start low and if you want more you can add more to the fermenter.

9

I don’t know. adding fresh ginger to the fermenter might well result in biological activity that you did not intend. Lots of critters living on/in ginger.

10

You can always soak some freshly grated ginger in an ounce of vodka and just add the vodka.  Nothing nasty can live in vodka, and it soaks up flavors like a sponge.  I use vodka for all sorts of different spice additions.

11

I buy on, but in? I added a pound of peeled ginger to a fermenter once and didn’t see new biological activity. Took a year for the ginger to mellow out though.

12

well there you go. I guess if your careful peeling and don’t contaminate the peeled ginger too much it might be fine.

13

Thanks everyone. I think I will stick to adding ginger at the end of the boil since it has worked well for me. Still undecided on the hops. I don’t have any “exotic” types so I am thinking about some centennial and amarillo maybe. Also thinking about using a bit of lemongrass as well.

14

I’m not particularly concerned about bugs coming from the peeled ginger for largely the same reasons that I don’t worry about dry hopping.  However any ginger added to the fermenter can be grated and put in some boiling water and then added as a tea.

15

For reference I used a pound and a half of ginger for 310 gallons of beer and ginger is noticeable at that level.

16

Seems like that works out to about 1/4 oz for a 5 gallon batch. Thanks for the point of reference.