Monday Night recap: Less Joel means less ginger
The rain held off, we had a great crowd, and we brewed a (potentially) great beer. Last night we brewed another Belgian witbier, though we used about 40% less fresh ginger. If Joel had been around we probably would have ended up using more ginger without Jeff’s knowledge, as Joel is what we call a “Ginger Fiend.” This was a popular beer last time we brewed it, so we’re excited to see if we can’t make it even better this time around.
A huge thanks goes out to Sir Melvin Pants (we’re trying to come up with a nickname for him since Melvin Van Peebles was already taken) for helping us figure out our fancy new chilling setup. Expect a more detailed post on that once Joel stops slacking. Until then, please enjoy this artsy shot of one of our fermenters, courtesy of Jeanine.
In other news, we kegged our Eye Patch Ale and drained the yeast off of last week’s barleywine, which is attenuating nicely. And I also think Jeff did some stuff with a spreadsheet. But that’s not really new… just boring. Thanks to all who came out, hope to see you soon!
Riveting video footage from last night’s brewing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fESQ2TrYmVQ
Can’t say I’ve ever tried a ginger beer. Is it spicy?
Great looking PBR hat in the video. It really shows the inclusiveness of MNB.
PBR is a past Gold Medal Winner.
It’s not spicy… but it IS delicious. A little ginger goes a long way.
What hops do you use in this one? I recently made a witbier using persian limes, coriander and Saaz hops which was rather well received (ask Mark Stewart about Limelight!!). I am playing with the idea of messing with the recipe when I make it again in August, adding some root ginger and perhaps bittering it with amarillo hops and using the saaz just for flavour and aroma – any thoughts?
We use German Hallertau for both bittering and flavor, with no aroma addition – not too different from Saaz, really. You could certainly use Amarillo for bittering, but be careful as they can have pretty high AA%. Do you know what kind of IBU range your first batch was? I can go either way on an aroma addition – on the one hand, it’s nice to let the ginger come through in the nose, but I’m always up for something a little more complicated, too!
According to Beertools.com the IBU was about 15 – I am not a huge fan of hop bombs to be honest, but I love the grapefruit flavours of amarillo, so I would go fairly easy on it just to get enough in there without going nuts.