Whats better than gingerbread cookies? How about gingerbread cookies on a cold winter’s night with a night cap to warm the soul? This recipe that I’m posting attempts to make a beer that tastes like gingerbread cookies, but gives a bit of an alcoholic warmth during cold winter nights. Ideally, I want this brew to be malty and definitely contain a good amount of ginger; fresh grated ginger will be used as opposed to the powdered kind. All the classic spices that are found in gingerbread cookies will also be used, such as nutmeg, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and molasses – I can’t wait for this beer to be ready. I based my recipe of DmanGTR’s blog post – the Ginger beast. He’s an avid homebrewer that appears often on BA to impart his brewing wisdom.
- 8 lbs of Marris Otter malt
- 1 lb of Crystal 20L
- 0.5 lb Honey malt
- 0.25 lb Chocolate Malt
- 1 oz First Gold at 30 minutes – 23.4 IBUs
- Spices: 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp allspice, 1.5 tsp cinnamon, and 1 oz of freshly grated Ginger root. All added at 5 minutes
- 0.25 lb of Sulphur-free molasses
- 1 lb of lactose
Fermented with one dry yeast packet of Nottingham
3.8 Gallons
OG: 1.073
FG: 1.039
ABV: 4.45%
First sample coming out of the fermenter has some odd qualities that I hope will change for the better over time. Taste is sweet and the nutmeg is coming through, but ginger and cinnamon are not noticeable. Also, there is a slight toasty taste to the brew – an almost burnt-like quality. This was my first time trying honey malt but I doubt that this modified malt will give me a burnt taste; honey malt supposedly lends an intensely sweet character. I started this beer about a week ago and will transfer to my keg tonight, given time the profile hopefully will change a bit – as of now I’m not too happy with it. Another interesting note is the final gravity: 1.039. This is undoubtedly caused by the lactose added to the last 5 minutes of the boil, as I’m afraid I added to much causing the beer to finish with a higher gravity. This could be a call for an experiment: At what percentages of lactose added to the boil will finish at what gravities with a given yeast strain?
Will you be bottling or kegging?
I ask because….
You need to be careful with the molasses because it can leave a very metallic taste in the beer when it ferments out, and Ive had better luck adding the molasses to the keg and chilling to prevent further fermentation, this way you can use much less, and it provides the characteristic sugary molasses flavor and sweetness
Good call!
Now that you mention it – I made a barleywine once with 1# of molasses. It was good but there was/is a slight metallic taste. Currently the gingerbread ale is in the keg but I only used 0.25# of molasses during the boil. It’s pretty sweet right now from the high FG so I maybe I should hold off on the molasses to the keg? I could always try with a small sample.
Thanks for the comments – you’re the first!
1.039! Wow, how does it drink? In the future, I would hold off on lactose until fermentation is done, but I’m not convinced that this beer is done.
I don’t see a reason why you’d be unable to get it down another ten points. Try warming it up and rousing the yeast.
Hi Matt,
Didn’t rouse the yeast but it sat in primary for about 3 weeks and its currently in the keg. Someone else did a similar recipe (see DmanGTR’s blog in my post) and got a FG of 1.032 so I’m not surprised if the beer is done, especially when I used 1 lb of lactose for a 3.5 gallon batch. Live and learn I suppose – this was my first time using lactose. The beer is not undrinkable and I am going to be adding more spice in the secondary.
Oh my, I missed the part about it being a small batch. Maybe you could blend in a portion of a drier beer. A gallon of a high OG, peppery saison could work.
Excellent idea!
Could easily blend a 1:1 with the bitter I just made…
Thanks Matt!
Hey there. I just discovered your blog via your experiment post on BA. I have a really basic newbie question: what’s the lactose do?
Lactose is a sugar that is non-fermenatble by yeast. That is it will raise the final gravity of beer since it is not fermented out. But surprisingly lactose is not that sweet, even though its a sugar. If you taste some of the powder there is not much sweetness. It lends a smooth creaminess though since it increases body
thanks for posting!
J
Jason J Rodriguez Post-doctoral Fellow Columbia University / HHMI (lab) 212-305-7956 (cell) 917-647-9894
Sounds like a good flavor for the holidays!
Imagine a glowing fire, kids in bed, snow falling outside, soft Christmas music in the background and you slugging down 2 of 3 huge mugs of this beer in a frosty mug..
My mouth is watering as we speak!
Thanks for the recipe, maybe I’ll try it before the holidays. You know get a head start, just to make sure I get it right..
-Leslie
How did this end? Was it good?
This beer was great! The final gravity of the gingerbread winter warmer was extremely high, but it didn’t seem like it. I would less lactose next time up the attenuation.