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Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale (GF)

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Z

Zem

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Sep 14, 2005
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I've been thinking about something to use up that Sorghum Malt Extract I picked up for the ABC and I've been wanting to do this for a while.
There was a SNAFU in my initial process, which I think I corrected. The changes I made are marked in red.

RECIPE: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale
~ 1 C Sorghum malt extract (enough to balance the gravity to 1.045 at 1 gallon)
1 lb fresh ginger root (yes a whole pound)
1/2 oz Saaz pellet hops
11 g Nottingham Ale Yeast (Lallemand)
Water to 1 gallon.

Process:
My initial process was a guess and was a bit flawed.

Miixed water and sorghum to ~1.045 SG
Chopped up ginger into slices (easy to filter out)
Added ginger to sorghum water and brought to boil for about 20 minutes.
At boiling I tossed in ~1/4 oz of Saaz pellet hops
5 minutes before I tuned off the heat I tossed in another 1/4 oz of Saaz pellet hops
Cooled over night in a 1 gallon jug with airlock.

Then I found out that in order to add the bittering effects of the hops that I desired I needed to boil the hops for around an hour. Most of the hops that I put in the night before was floating in the 1 gallon jug (I only poured the wort through a tea strainer to catch the ginger) so I pured it back into my brew kettle and boiled for almost an hour. If I'd saved the other half of my hops I would have added it at the end for aromatics, but the ginger does that wonderfully already, se la vie.

Once it cools I will pitch in rehydrated Nottingham Ale yeast.
I plan on bottle conditioning, hopefully it will be ready to drink by May 4th.

This is my first time using malt (other than the ABC) Ale yeast (other than the cyser experiment) and hops (nope. never used 'em.) Maybe a start in to GF beer making is still in the cards for me.

I assume since ale yeast has been shown again and again to breach 9-12 % alcohol that Ales are supposed to finish off at 1.000 and be bottle conditioned yes?

Wish me luck! :icon_pirat:

/Wolfie
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

sounds interesting!

Actually, with most ales and lagers the final gravity will still be well above 1.000 because barley malts leave some unfermentable residual sugars. I've never used sorghum malt before, but I'd assume it's the same way. But yes, the yeast will east throung all of the fermentable sugars, then you can add some more to bottle-condition.

I've never made a 1-gallon batch of beer though, so I'm not sure how much to tell you to add. For 5 gallon batches, I add either 3/4 c. corn sugar or 1-1/4 c. DME mixed into 1 pint boiling water just prior to bottling.
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

Sorghum actually ferments pretty dry. When I used it in my GF recipe, I added raw grains and molasses to up the FG. Can't really say how much that affected things, but you'll find out. ;D

I've done 1 gal beers; I prime them with roughly 3/4-7/8 oz (weight) of corn sugar--if you collect the whole gallon. Try to estimate the volume you'll be able to bottle and scale the priming sugar accordingly. Since you're working with small amounts, you can really over/under prime by simply having too little/much finished beer.
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

Let me know if this idea is way off--can I just put a 1/2 tsp. of priming sugar in each bottle?

If this comes out anything like I'm hoping a 5 gallon batch for June will definitely be in order. Perhaps with sprouted grain. ;D

Btw-6 hours after pitch 14 bpm "iT'S aLIIVE!!"
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

You can, but again the problem is proper measurement. A slightly full or slightly less than full 1/2 tsp can result in very different carbonation levels. The larger the quantity you're measuring, the less effect a small error will have. Personally I would prime the whole batch before you bottle. At least each bottle will be equally wrong, if you screw up. :laughing7:
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

Do you generally stir or add nutrients to ales?

(24 hours in, 64 bpm! ;D)

I need to go back to the brew shoppe anyways to get a new hydrometer, I'll pick up some corn sugar while I'm there.
According to the lallemand info Nottingham Ale yeast is a very fast fermenter, some times as little as four days.
At that rate I might be able to figure out what I like about this one and get another batch going to be ready for May Day! (Ambitious perhaps?)

By the by AKueck, I recently learned of some friends of friends who are getting into brewing and have big plans for GF beers. I hope to connect with them and see if our collective stuff can make something really good.
I'll post it all here if anything comes of it. :icon_pirat:

Thanks for the info.
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

Never had to stir beer, or add nutrients to it, but then again I only make 5 gallon batches.
They mostly ferment so actively I don't see why you would need to stir them.
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

Stirring is generally not needed unless you've got a high OG beer and a yeast that likes to flocculate. Then you might need to stir it up towards the end. Otherwise you should be fine. I've used Nottingham several times to good effect. 4 days might be an overestimation. ;) Do leave it sit for a week-ish after things calm down before you bottle though; the yeast needs to clean up after itself (orgies are messy).

I'll be doing a GF stout hopefully mid-April. I'll keep you posted.
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

Okay, it's slowed down to 5 bpm with what mus tbe 2-3 inches of trub at the bottom. Do I treat this like a wine and rack it off to clear for a week before I prime and bottle?

I noticed your comment in the coffee stout post--definitely keep me informed :) I hope to get more into GF beer this summer.

`wolfie
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

I wouldn't rack it yet. Let it finish (1-2 bpm) first and the yeast will clean up the byproducts (like diacetyl). It will probably start to clear on its own (Nottingham does a good job of dropping out). If you give it time to clean up and drop out, you don't need to do a secondary. You're bottling priming so you don't need it to be super-clear before you bottle anyway. Funky dead yeast flavors won't hit you for a few months, so no need to worry yet about those either.
 
Re: Prince of Theives Nottingham Ginger Ale

AKueck said:
...If you give it time to clean up and drop out, you don't need to do a secondary...Funky dead yeast flavors won't hit you for a few months, so no need to worry yet about those either.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I needed to know.
At some point in time I'll probably start taking some of this brewing over to some more beer-centric forums (not that I wouldn't still post here, of course) but for starts it's really great to have a place where people can relate to my understanding of mead knowledge and help me translate it to beer knowledge.

Thanks a lot everyone.

`Z
 
Racked once just to make bottling easier and primed with 2.5 Tbs honey dissolved water to 1/2 C, SG 1.140 (just over 32 Brix).

After priming SG was 1.002 (whats that, about .5% PA worth of residual sugar to carbonate?)
I likes it, ginger is pretty damn potent, bitters and aroma are nice, but just as I remember from the commercial sorghum beer I had, sorghum malt doesn't have a whole lot of body. This would probably be better with a little more residual sweetness, I know some grains have more unfermantable sugars but I don't really know how to do that with GF grains.

I've got 9 bottles. Baring dire warning, I'll be leaving these until the first Sunday in May. I hope the carbonation (and a good chilling) will help to bring that little extra something. It's almost there, I think I'll be tweaking this batch and making a larger version later in the summer.

Wish me lucks!

/wolfie

**If you wonder where I got that measure: A forum search over several threads said that most people use 1 1/4 C DME or 3/4 C corn sugar for a 5 gallon batch, since honey had more water (and I want high carbonation) I went with 1 C honey for 5 gallons or .2 C of honey for 1 gallon. .2 C honey = 47 ml = 3 Tbs, I've got under a gallon so.... :P

Well I hope this works anyway...
 
notes and review

When I first tasted this I wasn't sure if it wasn't missing something and a second hops addition to the boil for aromatics came to mind, however when chilled this comes out pretty spot on to what I was looking for. Most peoples reaction was "this is alcoholic?!?" yes, it's 6.5 abv :)
The carbonation is high, if I open a bottle between 1/4 and 1/3 comes out in foam, I discovered however that doing a "proper pint" pour alleviates this entirely.
The ginger is not too much, which almost makes me worry (if 1 lb to a gallon isn't overdoing it for me what is?) though high ginger was also a deliberate consideration in the construction of this recipe.

All in all I think I'm satisfied with it. I'm not sure what I'd need to do to make it shine a little better at room temp. but I was originally thinking of a chill brew that you drink on a hot day. I will make the carbonation lower next time round.

As a side note, for this particular batch I used recycled beer bottles (crown cap not screw on) but they seem to leak if left on their side (say I put a couple of bottles in a bag and took them to a friends house...) any one else with experience/suggestions about this?
 
I've had crown-capped bottles on their sides for months at a time without leaking. One thing I have learned to do after capping is to press up on the caps with my thumb. If they move around (or come off entirely), the seal is bad and they need to be recapped. I've had several bottles wind up flat-ish due to a bad seal, but since I've started double-checking them right after bottling things have been swell. :icon_thumleft:

I have been meaning to do a ginger beer. I'll add this one to the list for the summer. How much heat does the ginger give you?
 
I've never had a problem with it using the bottles from the LHBS. I think the issue was that I used a case of returnable bottles instead this time. These seem to be a little taller and skinnier at the top, they may have a slightly smaller mouth. The caps do come off very easily, but they sure didn't have a problem carbonating--I over carbonated this one for sure, there is a small foam volcano each bottle that I open.

I'd quantify the ginger as a pretty strong kick, which it's supposed to be. All of the interesting parts of the body and flavor of this drink come from the hops and ginger because sorghum has always been a little sweet and boring to me.

Have you ever had a Reeds Ginger Brew? Try the one with the red cap, those are the strongest. The ginger in this kicks like these, maybe a bit more. But I love a spicy ginger kick.

I only have 4 bottles left and they're almost all spoken for so I'm opening these slowly while gettin the last input I'll want for the 5 gallon version of this brew.
 
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