Ginger in the Rye

Origin Story

"Making this beer was definitely one of the top three worst brew days I have ever had. Something like 20 hours. I specifically remember being more angry that day than I have ever been. I have always been reluctant to use rye malt without a lautering aid in fear of a stuck mash. I went ahead and brewed it anyway and got myself into a seriously stuck mash. The rye seemed to work like a giant glue stick in the mash tun. I thought if I proceeded really slow, I could cheat the inevitable "stuck" mash, but I could not. I tried everything. No method, other than waiting for gravity to pull the slow trickle of sweet wort from the grain bed, would suffice. I had to rig up a special heating unit under my sparge water tank to keep it warm through the duration of the slow transfer of liquids. I was hungry, tired and ornery as hell. Eventually, I cut off the flow of wort into the kettle and boiled it hard and long. With all the tricks I tried to free the mash with, all I really did was dilute the sugar extraction, hence the long boil. So there I was, late into the night, with a kettle half full of beer and a day I felt was wasted on a ton of ingredients with undesired results. For this beer to be worthy of the series, it had to be a certain strength. That is why this beer is batch numbers 262 and 263. I had to make two of them. This bastard of a beer did have a fruitful fermentation once I finally got it into the fermentation tank. I used the Weihenstephan yeast strain, which happens to be the most preferred yeast for making wheat beers by German Brewers. It was the first time this yeast strain had entered our facility. I thought it would work well for the rye and Munich malts I used. At this point, the beer was developing quite well, considering what a pain in the ass it started out to be. Toward the end of fermentation, lots and lots of ginger was shredded and added to the fermenter. Ginger is a magical rhizome, rich with healing powers, that has been used since ancient times. The volatile oils and phenol compounds are the active components, which are great for relief of nausea and motion sickness. It was also used as a cough suppressant and digestion aid. It is one of the earliest spices known in Western Europe, said to be a spice used against the plague. Nineteenth century bars and taverns kept small containers of ground ginger available for sprinkling into beer. I find it adds a nice spice and balance to the beer, giving it a pleasant finishing "zing" complimenting the character of the beer as a whole. I think you will too." - Joe Short