Want a refreshing beer for the spring? The ginger comes through and the citrus notes in this ale complement the wheat. Moderately hopped and low ABV make it an easy drink to watch the sun set! If you're a fan of the soda, give this a try.
Oh - I'm also assuming you have a basic understanding of brewing and the general equipment needed. This is also a mini-mash/partial mash recipe. Y'all all grain people can probably make the recipe by converting the liquid malt extract to your choice of grains. I'll make a post about all the steps later on, but in the meantime give the Podcast "Homebrew Bound" a listen as they go into all the steps as well (I know they're on Spotify...not sure about the other podcast libraries).
Oh - I'm also assuming you have a basic understanding of brewing and the general equipment needed. This is also a mini-mash/partial mash recipe. Y'all all grain people can probably make the recipe by converting the liquid malt extract to your choice of grains. I'll make a post about all the steps later on, but in the meantime give the Podcast "Homebrew Bound" a listen as they go into all the steps as well (I know they're on Spotify...not sure about the other podcast libraries).
Shopping List
- 3.25 lb Maris Otter Liquid Malt Extract
- 1.25 lb Wheat Liquid Malt Extract
- 13 oz Caramber/Crystal
- 13 oz pilsner 2-row
- 13 oz torrified wheat
- 5 oz Caramed/Crystal Malt-10L
- 1oz Hallertau Hersbrucker Hops
- .5 oz East Kent Golding Hops
- .25 oz Hallertau Hersbrucker Hops
- 55 grams dextrose (corn sugar - this is NOT table sugar)
- 1 lemon zest (and juice from 1/2)
- 1 orange zest (and juice from 1/2)
- 4 TBSP dried ginger root
- 150 grams honey (I used wildflower)
- Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast
Make It!
- !!!!!SANITIZE EVERYTHING!!!! I use Beer Brite to clean, and StarSan to sanitize and that combo has done well.
- Take your yeast out, and if you're using Wyeast there is a "smack pack" inside so put it on your counter and give it a couple good smacks.
- In your brew kettle/pot (I use a 5 gallon stainless steel pot), bring 2 gallons of water up to 163*F/73*C
- Add the grains to your mash bag and let them soak in the pot. You're looking to keep the temperature around 155*F best you can. One of the biggest things that can affect your final product is your ability to keep this mash temperature at 155 +/-5*F. The higher the temperature, the more unfermentable sugars are extracted which leads to a sweeter, fuller bodied, lower ABV beer. The lower you are on the temperature, the more fermentable sugars are extracted which leads to a drier, higher ABV beer. When I say higher or lower ABV, I'm not talking going from 10% to 5%, it's within a percent or so, so don't sweat it. HOWEVER, if you're above about 170*F, you release "tannins" which make your beer really bitter so if you are starting to get a little warm try to get that temp back down as quick as possible.
- Keep your temperature as close to 155*F as possible for one hour.
- In the meantime bring 2 quarts of water up to 170*F in a separate pot. This will be what you sparge - or "rinse" the grains with when they're done mashing.
- Take out your grain bag from your brew kettle/pot and let them drain without squeezing your bag. (lol) I use a large colander with handles that just about perfectly straddle the diameter of the kettle and put the grain bag in there. So the sugars from the grains are draining back into the kettle.
- Take your 2-quarts of water and slowly pour it over the grains (that are, for me, sitting in that colander I mentioned earlier) and let it drip for a little while.
- Bring all that water to a boil. You should not have any grain in the water (with the exception of a few small pieces that may have slipped by the grain bag and colander). Be careful not to have boilovers! I've had a few and they're not great to clean up :(
- Once it's up to a boil, take the kettle off the heat, and add your 3.25 lb of Maris Otter Liquid Malt Extract and 1.25 lb of Wheat Liquid Malt Extract. Stir the heck out of it while you're adding those so the sugars don't stick to the bottom of your kettle and scorch.
- Put your kettle back on the heat source and bring back to a boil and stir every so often so sugars don't stick to the bottom of your kettle.
- Add 1 oz of Hallertau Hersbrucker Hops and set your timer for 60 minutes. From here until the end of the boil, you want to keep your wort at a gentle rolling boil without boiling over (still awful to clean up).
- With 45 minutes left on your timer, add the zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange and 2 TBSP of dried ginger root, as well as the juice of 1/2 the lemon and 1/2 the orange.
- When your timer shows 30 minutes, add 1/2 oz East Kent Golding Hops
- With 15 minutes left on your timer, add the following: 1 whirlfloc tablet, another 2 TBSP of ginger root, and .25 oz of Hallertau Hersbrucker Hops
- Last, when your timer shows 5 minutes, add the 150 grams of honey and 55 grams of dextrose/CORN sugar
- When your timer goes off, take your kettle and put it into an ice bath and let it cool off until the wort reaches about 80*F
- Once everything is at 80*, pour it into your sanitized Ale Pale/fermenter bucket. Take some ice cold water and top it off up to about 5.25 gallons then put the sanitized lid on it and shake the everlivin heck out of it. We're oxygenating the wort so the yeast will be nice and happy when you add them in the next step. Also, take a hydrometer reading at this time. It should read around 1.056 (or at least mine did).
- Sanitize your Wyeast 1056 container and open and dump it on in.
- Put your sanitized lid on the sanitized bucket full of wort, and pop in your sanitized air lock filled with sanitizer solution.
- Keep your brew at about room temp (if it's cool because this yeast best ferments 60-72*F) for 2-3 weeks to ferment or until your final hydrometer reading is about 1.014. If it's too much above this and you're bottling you could have bottle bombs. You've been warned.
- Bottle or keg it up and enjoy!
I bottled this using about 4 oz. of CORN sugar and after 2 weeks it was great, although I wanted more ginger flavor. Now, after about 2 months of it being in the bottle, it's just about right and the ginger flavor has really come through!