Herb and Spice

Recipe Menu

 


                                   Ginger Beer

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     Source: (BROWN%MSUKBS.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
     Digest: Issue #221, 8/5/89

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Boil malt, ginger, and Northern Brewer hops in five gallons of water for
     60  minutes. Remove from heat and add Brambling hops. Allow to steep  10
     minutes. Force cool, and pitch yeast.

     Comments:

     This  batch  turned out pretty good. It's a light amber  color,  with  a
     light  sweetness.  The ginger comes through nicely.  Light  and  thirst-
     quenching for the summer months.



























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                                 Spicy Xmas Beer

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     Source: John Bates (bates%palmen.Colorado.EDU)
     Digest: Issue #518, 10/16/90

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Start  yeast. Boil malt extract, honey, boiling hops and boiling  ginger
     for about 1 hour. Strain. Add finishing hops and ginger. Cool rapidly in
     tub.  pitch started yeast. Ferment. Prime and bottle.

     Comments:

     This  was  based on a ginger beer recipe from Papazian's  book.  It  was
     tasty  after  just one week in the bottle. This is a light beer  with  a
     nice ginger aroma and flavor.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.049
     Final Gravity: 1.014
     Primary Ferment: 2 weeks



















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                                   Ginger Beer

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     Source: Jay Hersh (jhersh@yy.cicg.rpi.edu)
     Digest: 11/18/88

     Ingredients:



     Comments:

     This will produce a light beer with a fairly strong ginger character.




































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                                   Garlic Beer

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     Source: A.E. Mossberg (aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu)
     Digest: Issue #334, 12/29/89

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Bring 2 gallons of water to boil. Add dextrose, malt extract and garlic.
     Boil  about  16  minutes or so. Remove from heat. You  can  either  make
     super-garlic  beer  or  regular-garlic beer. For  regular  garlic  beer,
     strain  out  garlic. Add wort to fermenter with enough water to  make  5
     gallons.  Pitch  yeast. If making super garlic beer, rack  to  secondary
     after a few days, straining out garlic when racking.
































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                                   Spruce Beer

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     Source: Louis Clark (hplabs!mage!lou)
     Digest: Issue #453, 7/4/90

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Boil  malt  and boiling hops for 1 hour. In last 10 minutes  add  the  1
     ounce  of  Cascade  finishing hops and the Irish moss.  In  the  last  2
     minutes add the spruce essence. Chill and pitch yeast.

     Comments:

     My tasting notes on this say that at 2-1/2 months after bottling it  was
     "fair." This tells me that it was unremarkable. My recollection is  that
     it  was drinkable but unexciting. Perhaps the dark  extract  overwhelmed
     the  spruce  and more spruce essence should have been  used.  Where  the
     bottle says "Sufficient for 8 gallons of spruce beer" they may mean  for
     a somewhat lighter beer.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.040
     Final Gravity: 1.018

















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                                   Holiday Ale

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     Source: Doug Roberts (dzzr@lanl.gov)
     Digest: Issue #317, 12/6/89

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Mash  grains.  Add dextrin (I was out of Cara-pils), 1/2  cup  molasses,
     spices, boiling hops, and orange peel. Boil 1 hour.  Add finishing  hops
     in last few minutes. Strain into fermenter.  Cool and pitch yeast.

     Comments:

     During  the boil the spices combined with orange peel and malt made  the
     house smell really good---kind of like a beer fruit cake. After smelling
     and tasting the wort, I think I've identified one of the  secret  ingre-
     dients  in Anchor's Christmas Ale: cardamom. I'm guessing they use  1/4-
     1/2 teaspoon per five gallons.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.045













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                                Honey Ginger Beer

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     Source: Oliver Grillmeyer (topramen@ernie.Berkeley.EDU)
     Digest: Issue #101, 3/15/89

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Use  two  brew kettles. In the first, add 4 gallons  water,  honey,  and
     ginger. Maintain at 180 degrees for 45 minutes. While first pot is heat-
     ing,  add  malt extract to 3 gallons water in the second pot.  Bring  to
     boil. Add 1 ounce of Brewers Gold to boil for 45 minutes. Add 1/2  ounce
     of Northern Brewer at 30 minutes. When second pot is removed from  heat,
     add  1/2 ounce of Saaz hops and steep. Combine pots, cool, and pitch.  I
     also brewed a second batch with the same procedure, except that I used 8
     pounds of honey instead of 4, 1/2 ounce of  Northern Brewer hops replac-
     ed the 1 ounce of Brewers Gold, and 1/2 ounce of Galena replaced the 1/2
     ounce of Northern Brewer.

     Comments:

     Six  ounces of ginger seems about right to give a nice balanced  flavor.
     The  ginger was grated in food processor, but it had to struggle as  the
     ginger  tends to break up into strands that get stuck in the blades.  (I
     did  not peel the ginger). This beer had an amber color and all  flavors
     were  readily apparent---hops, malt, ginger, and light honey. The  color
     was a medium amber shade.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.051












                                       153





                                   Ginger Beer

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     Source: Jackie Brown (brown@MSUKBS.BITNET)
     Digest: Issue #618, 6/3/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Add crushed grains to 2 gallons cold water. When mixture begins to boil,
     remove grains. Boil 1 hour with malt extracts, ginger and Cascade  hops.
     Turn off heat, add Fuggles and steep five minutes. Strain into  primary,
     add  water to bring to 5 gallons and ferment 3 days. Rack to  secondary.
     Prime and bottle.

     Comments:

     My long-term taste bud memory says this was brown, bitter, and  slightly
     sweet with a great ginger flavor and tingle at the back of the throat as
     it  went  down. It was overcarbonated (7/8 cup of priming sugar  is  too
     much!) I wish I could tell you how much ginger I used, but I remember  I
     wished it were more. Go for it! I've found nothing better to drink  with
     Chinese food.

     Specifics:

     Primary Ferment: 3 days















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                             North East Holiday Beer

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     Source: Jim Conroy (AS2JXC%BINGVMA.BITNET)
     Digest: Issue #325, 12/18/89

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Steep  crystal  malt  until boil is reached. Strain out  grain  and  add
     extract  and  boiling hops. Boil 60 minutes. Add Saaz hops,  ginger  and
     cinnamon  in last 15 minutes of boil. Cool, top off fermenter and  pitch
     yeast.

     Comments:

     This  batch  had a furious fermentation and blew the blow tube  off  the
     fermenter, losing about 1-1/2 quarts in the bargain.


























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                                Maple Syrup Stout

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     Source: Jim Kipps, reposted by Robert Nielsen (robertn%fml@sc.intel.com)
     Digest: Issue #320, 12/11/89

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Add six ounces of the maple syrup during the boil and the other 6 in the
     last couple minutes of the boil (much like a finishing hops). Total boil
     time was 1 hour.

     Comments:

     This  is a very good beer. I don't typically drink stouts, but I  really
     like  this one. I absolutely don't like Guinness, but I do like  Young's
     Oatmeal Stout and Rubicon Stout. I think the maple stout is better  than
     any  of  these. It is very smooth going down, and has sweet  but  mellow
     maple flavored aftertaste. Thanks to Jim Kipps for posting this recipe.


























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                            Sparky's After-Burner Brew

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     Source: Marc Light (light@cs.rochester.edu)
     Digest: Issue #483, 8/28/90

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Chop  up Jalapeno peppers and boil them with the wort for 30 minutes  or
     so.  Strain them out when pouring wort into primary. Rack  to  secondary
     about 4 hours after pitching yeast.

     Note: When handling jalapenos, be sure to wash hands thoroughly or  wear
     rubber gloves. You'll find out why if you are a contact lens wearer.  (I
     discovered this the hard way---making pickles, not beer.) --- Ed.

     Comments:

     The beer is amber, clear, has enough hops for me, and has a great  spicy
     (bordering on hot) aftertaste.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.020
     Final Gravity: 1.002
     Primary Ferment: 4 hours
     Secondary Ferment: 8 days
















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                                Bengal Butt Kicker

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     Source: Chad Epifanio (chad@mpl.ucsd.edu)
     Digest: Issue #816, 2/4/92

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Upwards  infusion  mash,  low-temp  conversion.  Used  water  with  high
     carbonate hardness.

     Comments:

     So far, the young beer tastes great with an unusual taste that is diffi-
     cult  to  describe. I hadn't seen mention of using fennel before,  so  I
     thought I'd mention it. The beer has a dark orange color.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.070

     IBU: 35--40















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                                   Garlic Beer

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     Source: Louis Clark (hplabs!mage!lou)
     Digest: Issue #580, 2/13/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Steep  crystal malt and roasted barley for 30 minutes in two gallons  of
     water. Strain out and discard spent grains. Add malt syrup and bring  to
     a  boil.  Add  Perle  hops  and garlic and boil  for  1  hour.  Toss  in
     Willamette hops in the last two minutes. Pitch yeast when cool.

     Comments:

     Next time I make this I'll probably use more crystal and more hops.


























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                        Legendary Mike Brown's Spruce Ale

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     Source: Mike Ligas (LIGAS@SSCvax.CIS.McMaster.CA)
     Digest: Issue #733, 9/27/91

     Ingredients (for 6 gallons):



     Procedure:

     Place Crystal and chocolate malts in 1 gallon cold water and raise temp-
     erature  to 158 degrees and immediately strain into the brew kettle  and
     sparge  with 2 cups of 158 degree water. Add malt extracts and water  to
     bring volume to 6 gallons. Add boiling sprigs when boil begins and  boil
     for  60 minutes. Add finishing sprigs and boil for 3 minutes. Chill  via
     wort  chiller. Pitch yeast at 68 degrees. Single stage ferment in  glass
     for 14 days then bottle using 1 cup corn sugar to prime.

     Comments:

     I  didn't like this beer at first because I felt that a  spruce  essence
     was lacking in the flavour. However, two months in the bottle cured that
     problem  and  the  beer was exquisite and "sprucey"  and  improved  with
     further aging.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.046
     Primary Ferment: 14 days















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                                     Xmas Ale

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     Source: Phoebe Couch (ithaca!amber!phoebe@uunet.UU.NET)
     Digest: Issue #750, 10/29/91

     Ingredients (for 4 gallons):



     Procedure:

     Add  all the grain and malt into the water and boil. After it starts  to
     boil,  add Northern brewer and spices. After about 45 minutes, turn  off
     heat, add the Cascade. After 20 minutes, filter into carboy. Pitch yeast
     when cool. Clarify and bottle in a week.

     Comments:

     I  had  a party and everyone liked this brew (1 month aging.) It  has  a
     medium head, a pleasant hint of spices (not strong but very  noticeable)
     and smooth taste.

     Specifics:

     Primary Ferment: 1 week


















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                                     Xmas Ale

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     Source: larryba@microsoft.com
     Digest: Issue #734, 9/30/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Use  Papazian's Step mash technique: 30 minutes at 130 degrees. 30  min-
     utes at 155 degrees. Sparge with 175 degree sparge water. Collect  about
     6  gallons. Boil wort for one hour. Add 1/2 ounce. of Williamatte at  15
     minutes. At 30 minutes add: 1/2 ounce Williamette, ginger, orange  zest,
     cloves, allspice, and cinnamon. Cool. Pitch yeast.

     Comments:

     I  kept  the hop rates pretty low given that the spicing would  be  best
     with a sweeter flavor.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.068
     Final Gravity: 1.017
     Primary Ferment: 36 hours at 74 degrees
     Secondary Ferment: 4 days at 67 degrees













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                            Indian Summer Gingered Ale

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     Source: Jerry Gaiser (jerry@jaizer.intel.com)
     Digest: rec.crafts.brewing, 10/25/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Crush  crystal  malt,  add to 2 gallons water and  bring  to  about  170
     degrees.  Remove grains, add dry extract, 3 ounces ginger, boiling  hops
     and  boil for 1 hour. During last ten minutes add finishing  ginger  and
     hops. Chill. Pitch yeast.

     Comments:

     Wonderful color and smells delicious. Should be in the bottle next week-
     end and I'll report on how it turns out.


























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                               Bob's Coriander Ale

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     Source: Bob Murphy (heisch@zen.radiology.arizona.edu)
     Digest: Issue #753, 11/1/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Steep  crystal  malt at 160 degrees for 1 hour.  Sparge  grain  and  add
     extract.  Bring to a boil and add Cascade hops. (boil for  60  minutes.)
     Add 1 ounce coriander at 30 minutes and the final ounce for the last  10
     minutes. Strain off the hops and coriander seed when transfering to  the
     primary.  Leave  in  the primary for 5 days, and in  the  secondary  for
     around 10 days.

     Comments:

     Each batch has been a bit different, but good. The coriander isn't  real
     strong,  but is noticable. Some people have a hard time identifying  it.
     For  some reason they all seem to lack much head, maybe the oils in  the
     coriander?  Lack  of head is not a problem any of my other  beers  have.
     Overall a nice slightly spicy light beer. Probably good for lawn  mowing
     if  I had a lawn. Good right away but seems to get better after 3  to  4
     weeks in the bottle. The flavors blend together a bit more with age.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.040
     Final Gravity: 1.012
     Primary Ferment: 5 days
     Secondary Ferment: 10 days












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                            Gak & Laurel's Garlic Beer

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     Source: Richard Stueven (richard.stueven@corp.sun.com), Issue #757, 11/7/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     The  procedure is the same as for any simple extract beer. Chop  up  the
     garlic and throw it into the boil for the full 60 minutes. If you  don't
     want  quite  so much garlic flavor, strain the garlic  bits  out  before
     racking  (we didn't). Add 2 ounces of Cascade hops at begining  of  boil
     and again in the last ten minutes. Cool.  Pitch yeast.

































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                           Phil Fleming's Christmas Ale

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     Source: homer@drutx.att.com
     Digest: Issue #747, 10/24/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Christmas  beer:aleSimmer spices and honey (45 minutes). Boil  malt  and
     hops (50 minutes). Add finishing hops and boil (5 minutes). Cool, strain
     and pitch yeast. [Note: It's not made clear, but the honey/spice mix  is
     added to the wort just before cooling, they're not boiled together.]

     Comments:

     Note: This recipe appeared Vol.2, #10 of The Wort Alert, the Hop  Barley
     & the Alers newsletter from Nov. 1990, entitled "Anne's Choice Christmas
     Ale",  and also appeard in a Zymurgy special issue. There was a  lot  of
     discussion  relating  to the additional 3 pounds of  malt  extract.  The
     final word is that this is the correct recipe.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.069
     Final Gravity: 1.030
     Primary Ferment: 14 days at 61 degrees










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                                Zulu's X-mas Lager

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     Source: Mike Zulauf (zulauf@orbit.Colorado.EDU)
     Digest: Issue #743, 10/18/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Steep crystal malt in brew pot. Remove grains before boil. Add  extracts
     and  honey  and bring to a boil.  Add 2 ounces Cascade at  beginning  of
     boil. Add ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, orange peel, and Irish moss in  last
     10 minutes. Add 1 ounce of Cascade hops two minutes later. Add 1/2 ounce
     Cascade in last 5 minutes and the last 1/2 ounce in the last 2 minutes.

     Comments:

     This  recipe makes a golden, rather than dark, Christmas beer. With  the
     proportions  of hops and spices used, you get a complex mix  of  aromas,
     with none of them being too dominant. Other than being a lager and using
     various  temperatures, this is a very easy brew to make. If anyone  else
     tries it out, I'd be curious to hear the results.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.071
     Final Gravity: 1.018
     Primary Ferment: 12 days at 50 degrees
     Secondary Ferment: 30 days at 40 degrees
     Lager: 30 days at 30 degrees





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                                    Spiced Ale

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     Source: Ken Weiss (krweiss@ucdavis.edu)
     Digest: Issue #743, 10/18/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Steep  crystal  and chocolate malt in hot, but not  boiling,  water  for
     about  1/2 hour. Strain out grains, sparge with hot water. Add  extract,
     stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil and add all the Hallertauer  hops,
     the  ginger and the cinnamon.  Boil 1 hour. Chill the wort, transfer  to
     primary,  and  add  Saaz hops. Pitch the yeast.  When  the  fermentation
     slows,  transfer to secondary fermentor. Prime with 3/4 cup  corn  sugar
     and bottle when fermentation appears complete.

     Comments:

     Really  nice  balance of flavors. The dry-hopped Saaz blended  with  the
     ginger and cinnamon aroma really well, and the ginger flavor is perfect.
     The  cinnamon didn't contribute much flavor, and seems to have led to  a
     muddier beer than I usually get. Probably would have been better to  use
     stick  cinnamon  instead of ground... The color is much lighter  than  I
     would have expected.


















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                          Old-Time Jaspers Gingered Ale

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     Source: Peter Glen Berger (pb1p+@andrew.cmu.edu)
     Digest: Issue #765, 11/21/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Add cracked crystal malt. Remove as water comes to a boil. Add all  fer-
     mentable sugars.  Add 1 ounce of Hallertau. Add half (3 ounces I  think)
     of  the  ginger  and half of the orange peel. Add spices.  Boil  for  60
     minutes. In the last ten minutes of the boil, add the remaining  ginger,
     orange peel, and Irish moss. Cool. Pitch yeast.

     Comments:

     This  brew  is  just barely sweet, at the  threshold  of  perception.  A
     strong, heavy body follows, the ginger and orange blending together  and
     taking  you through from the middrink to the aftertaste. The  finish  is
     incredibly  long,  both the high alcohol content and  the  ginger-orange
     aftertaste lingering for a full 8 or 9 seconds after swallowing.

     Note:  In  retrospect, this could have used a  stronger  bittering  hop;
     after  aging the ginger asserted itself more and drowned out  what  hops
     there were. It was still great, though.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.071
     Final Gravity: 1.019
     Primary Ferment: 6 days
     Secondary Ferment: 6 days
     Aged: 1 month






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                               Debbe's Garlic Beer

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     Source: Douglas DeMers (dougd@uts.amdahl.com)
     Digest: rec.crafts.brewing, 10/4/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Separate  and  peel  the cloves from four entire  bulbs  of  garlic  and
     lightly score the surface of the garlic cloves to increase surface  area
     during  the boil. Add the extract, half of the garlic, and 1/2 ounce  of
     hops. Total boil of 60 minutes The other half of the garlic goes in  for
     the  last 15 minutes along with the final 1/2 ounce of hops.  After  the
     boil,  chill  the wort and strain the cooled wort into a  6-1/2  gallon
     primary.  After three days of vigorous ferment in 6 1/2  gallon  primary
     (w/blowoff tube) I racked it to a 5 gallon secondary.

     Comments:

     The wort tasted very sweet and definitely *GARLIC*! Lethal stuff! I mean
     it  was  stomp-on-your-tongue  rip-the-back-of-your-head-off   _GARLIC_.
     Three weeks later my tongue still remembered the assault and was  braced
     for  a  similar  attack, but the attack was not  forthcoming.  There  is
     absolutely no pronounced garlic taste! There is only a hint of something
     reminiscent  of garlic. I purposely made the brew a little light on  the
     hops,  so  the hops don't shine through either. To me, it  is  a  fairly
     well-balanced, heavy beer and everyone who has tried it has really liked
     it.  Next time, I think I'll leave the garlic cloves in the  primary  to
     see if I can get a more pronounced garlic taste in the final product.

     Specifics:

     Original Gravity: 1.060
     Final Gravity: 1.018
     Primary Ferment: 3 days
     Secondary Ferment: 2 weeks










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                                   Spruce Juice

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     Source: James P. Buchman (jpb@tesuji.dco.dec.com)
     Digest: Issue #598, 3/18/91

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     Bring  extract and 1 1/2 gallons of water to boil. Add Cascade hops  and
     boil  for a total of 45 minutes. Rinse spruce cuttings, then tosse  into
     the wort for the final twelve minutes of the boil. Cool. Pitch yeast.

     Comments:

     I  tasted the sample which I took to measure the SG. The pine taste  and
     smell were definitely present but not excessive; they added extra sharp-
     ness  to  the  brew on top of the hops. Hard to say more  from  a  flat,
     sweet, yeasty sample only halfway fermented.


























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                                 Honey Basil Ale

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     Source: Bryan Gros (bgros@sensitivity.berkeley.edu)
     Digest: Issue #825, 2/17/92

     Ingredients:



     Procedure:

     I  did my partial mash, then boiled the wort with the honey and DME  and
     the  Mt Hood for 70 min. I then turned the heat off, added  the  Cascade
     and Basil, and covered and let sit for 30 min.

     Comments:

     The  basil I added may be a lot; it was about 1/3-1/2 of the  "bunch"  I
     bought at the grocery store. I talked to the brewmaster at the pub where
     I  had the original Honey Basil and he said they used four "bunches"  in
     800 gallons. So we'll see.

     Now it is fermenting, and is a pretty murky brown color. I didn't  think
     that  much  40L  Crystal would make it this dark;  much  darker  than  I
     wanted. We'll see what happens when it is done---looks like I'll need to
     add  the gelatin this time (I've had good luck with this in  the  past).
     I'll let you know what it tastes like.

     And I hope the hops are light enough to let the basil and honey through.
     I think I have a pretty heavy hand with hops usually.














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