Sunday 21 November 2010

The Ginger Tom

I've shared my space with a cat from an early age. Very early. In fact, there was one in the house when I was born. So, my next brew is in memory of him....and he was real ginger tom. 

Well that's not true really, but it made a better opening to the post than 'I'm going to try ginger beer'!

I want something like non-alcoholic ginger beer, (but alcoholic)perhaps something like the stuff my mom used to make in summer. For this she used a 'ginger plant', and it struck me that this tee-total woman was secretly brewing beer, like women of the Black Country and elsewhere, in days past. Granted, alcohol content was very low - we drank it sweet, only partly fermented (hence exploding bottles), and I am sure all the sugar killed the yeast after a time anyway. Still, it was good!

No, wanted something sweetish and gingery, but still wanted to use malt and hops. Did a bit of research. Looks like maltodextrin and lactose do not REALLY do a lot re sweetness, just give the beer body. However, if I used crystal malt, which you can now get light (think GB needs to be yellowish!?), that should sweeten it. Also, I need to drop the smallest amount of hops in - may even dry hop. And finally, you use a low attenuating yeast i.e. it doesn't ferment all the sugar.

So, here's what I came up with!! Oh, I also think I'm going to give bottling a crack with this one too, just to make it more complicated!

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