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Ginger mead

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PitBull

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 25, 2009
640
4
0
Pittsburgh, PA
Anyone try making it? How is ginger in mead?
A lot of people make mead with ginger. Ginger pairs well with peaches in mead, and with other fruits/spices as well.

How is it? It depends on one's tastes. Some people absolutely hate it. Others like it anywhere from a subtle to an overwhelming flavor.

The same peach-ginger melomel that my brother hated, was requested as the "next batch to be made" by another mead-maker's spouse during a tasting.
 

triarchy

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 28, 2010
278
2
0
WI
I put almost 1/2 pound of ginger in my Orange/Ginger mead. It was a 5 gallon batch and, to be honest, I cant really taste or smell much ginger. This is the first time Ive used it though, obviously for me I need much more. I was inspired by a ginger mead I had in Kaua'i that just oozed ginger. It was amazing. I wish I would have asked how much she used...oh well.
 

PitBull

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 25, 2009
640
4
0
Pittsburgh, PA
I put almost 1/2 pound of ginger in my Orange/Ginger mead. It was a 5 gallon batch and, to be honest, I cant really taste or smell much ginger. This is the first time Ive used it though, obviously for me I need much more. I was inspired by a ginger mead I had in Kaua'i that just oozed ginger. It was amazing. I wish I would have asked how much she used...oh well.
That is quite a bit of ginger to not be very noticeable. How did you prepare the ginger?

I used only 2 ounces of peeled, mashed ginger in the primary of a 5 gallon batch of peach-ginger melomel until the first racking, a little over three weeks. The ginger flavor is quite pronounced without being too overwhelming.
 

akueck

Certified Mead Mentor
Certified Mead Mentor
Jun 26, 2006
4,958
11
0
Ithaca, NY
Please avail yourself of the search function on the forum, as well as the main site (these are different searches). You will find lots of discussions, recipes, brewlogs, and tasting notes for just about every ingredient imaginable. Snake's blood and fish have even come up more than once.
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,443
53
48
Ottawa, ON
I made a ginger hydromel this summer (6% ABV which I bottled in beer bottles and drank like a wine cooler, check out my brewlog) and I used 1 lb of chopped ginger for 1 gallon. It comes out something like the Jamaican-style ginger beer (not alcoholic) that can be obtained at the grocery store, gingery and warm but not tongue-on-fire hot or anything... Check out Angelic Alchemist's "punch you in the face" ginger tonic, I think she uses a gallon of ginger juice for a 5-gal batch.:eek: I so have to try that one day.
 

dacj501

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jul 20, 2010
63
1
6
Syracuse, NY
I think my favorite batch that I have produced was my ginger. It really came together at about 3 years. The last bottle was consumed what seems like a long time ago now...

...mead nostalgia...:sad8:
 
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tatgeer

NewBee
Registered Member
Feb 18, 2008
59
0
0
NM
My sparkling ginger-peach was among my favorite of 4 years of batches. I used peach extract, and it turned out great. One of these days I'm going to do it with actual fruit. My notebook is packed away, but I think it was around 2 oz of fresh ginger for a 5 gallon batch, chopped very fine, in primary. I tend to leave batches in primary longer than most folks around here.

This summer I made some more, using closer to 4 or 5 oz of ginger. Just bottled it, haven't tasted the finished product, but it might have been too much. Hopefully the peach mellows it out a little.

Jeeze, it's 9 am, my mead is all packed for a move, and now I'm thirsty... thanks a lot. :)
 

dacj501

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jul 20, 2010
63
1
6
Syracuse, NY
I grated the fresh ginger into the primary and racked off it later. I think 2 oz sounds about right for 5 gallons if I remember...my logs are lost unfortunately.
 

jkane

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 3, 2010
232
5
0
SE Wisconsin
www.kane1.com
Ginger seems to be one of those spices that varies from root to root when using it fresh. It might be more consistant to make a tea after you finish making the mead and adding the ginger tea to it until you get the amount of flavor you want.
 

triarchy

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 28, 2010
278
2
0
WI
That is quite a bit of ginger to not be very noticeable. How did you prepare the ginger?

I used only 2 ounces of peeled, mashed ginger in the primary of a 5 gallon batch of peach-ginger melomel until the first racking, a little over three weeks. The ginger flavor is quite pronounced without being too overwhelming.

I peeled it, sliced it thin, boiled it in a bit of water with my orange peel for around 20 minutes, and added the water, ginger and orange peel (in a mesh bag) to my primary where it sat thru the entire primary fermentation (maybe 2 weeks?). I do live in Wisconsin and my wife probably got it at the local Pig, so take that into account ;D (thats Piggly Wiggly, perhaps the worst grocery chain name ever). It was fresh though and not woody at all. Tasted and smelled nice.
 

PitBull

NewBee
Registered Member
Nov 25, 2009
640
4
0
Pittsburgh, PA
I peeled it, sliced it thin, boiled it in a bit of water with my orange peel for around 20 minutes, and added the water, ginger and orange peel (in a mesh bag) to my primary where it sat thru the entire primary fermentation (maybe 2 weeks?). I do live in Wisconsin and my wife probably got it at the local Pig, so take that into account ;D (thats Piggly Wiggly, perhaps the worst grocery chain name ever). It was fresh though and not woody at all. Tasted and smelled nice.
Since you incorporated the boiled water into your melomel and the ginger flavor was still weak, you may have just happened to get a really mild root. I purchased my ginger root at the local "Big Bird" market (that's Giant Eagle, maybe the 2nd worst chain name).

I'm consuming a bottle of my peach-ginger melomel as I type this. It's two weeks short of a year old and I'm quite happy with the results. The ginger has mellowed nicely, but the peach flavor is just beginning to wane. Next time I'll try cling peaches instead of the free-stone variety.
 

triarchy

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 28, 2010
278
2
0
WI
This may be getting a bit off topic, but my plan is to use ginger again in one of my next mels. I will increase my amount to about 1lb (for a 6 gallon batch) and I will use a blender with a little water until it is paste like. Im thinking I will do this in my blackberry mel al la monsterbronc's Blackberry/Ginger II. It was his method for the ginger as well and that should really bump up the potency. Copycat ftw :D
 

EbonHawk

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 24, 2014
491
0
0
Dothan, AL, USA
Yikes! Pounds, and cups, oh my! And a 5 year necro!

I just came into a few gallons of honey and wasn't sure what to do with it..... Oh, who am I kidding? I love honey, but my #1 favorite thing to do with honey is make alcoholic drinks with it. Just made 7 gal of honey based beverages yesterday, and I'm still staring at several bottles of various honey varietals. My hands are covered with the remnants of about a dozen spices from making tinctures out of them with 50% grain alcohol, and the house smells lovely from grinding up allspice berries, grains of paradise, cinnamon, and cloves. My nose is all tingly from drinking a couple of bottles of an amazing cyser that's dated 1/15/15. Life is grand.

I have a small ginger root I'm about to grate into fine powder and throw into a gallon carboy with the remaining honey. Thinking about tossing in some pomegranate juice, one of the best juices on the planet, no matter what anyone says.
 

willowhix

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 18, 2015
46
0
0
28
Glasgow, Scotland
Please avail yourself of the search function on the forum, as well as the main site (these are different searches). You will find lots of discussions, recipes, brewlogs, and tasting notes for just about every ingredient imaginable. Snake's blood and fish have even come up more than once.

After reading this, I had to look it up myself, and I certainly was NOT disappointed. Haha!
 

EbonHawk

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 24, 2014
491
0
0
Dothan, AL, USA
And... I did it. Can't wait to see how it comes out. Even threw in another of my favorite spices: grains of paradise.

This pic is a bit off on the color, it's definitely more purple than it shows here..
 

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mercuriusrex

NewBee
Registered Member
Jan 14, 2012
17
0
1
Tokyo, Japan
I recently used ginger in a cyser, slicing and putting into secondary. 2 large rhizomes sliced into 5 liters in secondary for over a month. The taste came out as if I was slowly sucking on a piece of ginger at the sushi shop, fairly mild. What I was hoping for in taste was something more like a spicy ginger, like in those 'old time ginger ales' you see now and again. Getting a hot spicy out of ginger, would this happen only if the mead were dry and not sweet? Or is it based on the amount used? I thought I put more then enough i
 

EbonHawk

NewBee
Registered Member
Apr 24, 2014
491
0
0
Dothan, AL, USA
I spiced mine with a tablespoonful of grains of paradise, so I'm hoping to get a peppery zing of ginger in the final product. Not sure, but I think the drier the mead the more noticeable things like spices are; for me anyway.
 
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