Comments on: Brew Day #15 — Ginpel

By: Bathtub Brewery » Tasting # 15 — Ginpel

Bathtub Brewery » Tasting # 15 — Ginpel — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:02:20 +0000

[...] a year and 3 months ago, we brewed the Ginpel; a Frankenstein of a beer, inspired by Ray pouring a shot of Dogfishhead’s Jin into our [...]

By: Mel

Mel — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:27:05 +0000

A tea would be a great way to extract the spice flavor without altering it. I did that when we made the Oatmeal Chai Stout, Boris the Spider. Check out this post:
http://www.bathtubbrewery.com/2010/06/22/brewing-chai-tea-extract-part-ii-%E2%80%94-remembering-where-you-put-things/

You’ll see that I cold brewed the tea extract: this is CRUCIAL. Hotbrewing and then throwing into a room temperature liquid (that will later be chilled) can end up in a woody, stale flavor. Preserve the freshness of the juniper berries by maybe giving them a little cracking with a mortar and pestle (don’t grind them though) and then adding cold water and brewing for 12 hours before adding to the fermenter or bottling bucket.

By: Ray

Ray — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:46:03 +0000

We didn’t bother to sanitize our spices (juniper, rosemary, etc.) because the beer had such a high ABV. I think it finished in the 9-10% range. Nothing bad tasting can live in that. :P

For a pale ale, though, I honestly don’t know. I’ve heard of people using sanitizer on their spices, but that idea doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, personally. You could also try boiling your juniper berries for about five minutes to sanitize them, but that would almost certainly change their flavor and boil away some of the aroma. Perhaps make a tea of them in a French press?

By: Erika

Erika — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:53:06 +0000

Hey – I’m currently working on a very light pale ale that I want to be a light gin and tonic like ale. I used Norther Brewer as the flavoring hops (I wanted that minty, pine-like flavor). I want to dry-juniper berry it (it’s in secondary) and was wondering if you boiled or did anything to sanitize your spices before adding? I may also consider rosemary since it sounds like others have had success with that as well. Thanks!

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 09:59:35 +0000

It came out great, actually! We also used fresh rosemary off of a plant. It’s definitely noticeable, but the biggest flavor profile is the juniper.

By: hoptical_allusions

hoptical_allusions — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 06:36:28 +0000

I’m curious about the outcome of your rosemary beer. I brewed one similar to a pale ale with perhaps about 30-40 fresh rosemary spines of a hearty bush I had, which I was afraid wasn’t enough in a 10 gallon batch. I shouldn’t have feared, since the rosemary nearly overran the hops! It was an interestingly refreshing beer with boldly spicy pine-like notes and a thick mouthfeel. I brewed it for a party and was able to ask a bunch of people what they thought. (Mind you, these folks were all beer nerds.) Everyone liked it, and that batch actually kicked first of the bunch. The people I asked couldn’t figure out what the “secret” ingredient was. The point being that it should taste great! If the rosemary isn’t prominent, find a bush somewhere and take it straight off the plant because the flavor is much more intense from those. I also boiled my spines for about 2-3 minutes right before I chilled the wort.