Curbside Claw Ginger Beer

An all-grain ginger beer experiment with a layered spice approach — boil additions, a late ginger/chilli charge to the fermenter after fermentation, and a sweetener adjustment. The base beer was built to support rather than compete with the dominant ginger character.

Grain Bill

A light, clean base: equal parts Gladfield Light Lager and American Ale Malt (36.7% each) for neutral fermentability, Gladfield Wheat (16.7%) for body and slight haze, Golden Oat (6.7%) for softness, and a touch of Toffee Malt (3.3%) for a hint of warmth and colour.

Ginger & Hops

Nectaron provided background bittering at 15/15/30 g across 60, 30, and 10 minutes — its tropical fruit character is subtle at these rates and complements the ginger rather than fighting it.

The main ginger charge: 820 g fresh ginger (chopped) and 200 g crystallised ginger added at 10 minutes. A separate extraction was recirculated through the hop basket to filter solids before transfer. 250 g brewing sugar also added at 10 minutes for fermentability.

Post-fermentation additions at day 15: 5 g chilli powder, 5 g ginger powder, and sweetener dissolved in vodka for a direct fermenter addition.

Fermentation

LalBrew Windsor pitched at 18°C — chosen for its malt-forward, fuller body profile, leaving some residual sweetness appropriate for a ginger beer. Fermentation was very fast: day 3 gravity was already at 1.018. Temperature raised to 20°C around day 5.

Packaging & Tasting

Mixed packaging on day 19, carbonated to 3.0 vol CO₂ (higher than usual, appropriate for the style). Tasted one day before packaging: strong spicy ginger and chilli character from the late additions. The artificial sweetener choice left a less-than-ideal flavour — maltodextrin noted as a better option next time.

Key lesson: Late fermenter spice additions delivered more aroma and bite than boil ginger alone. The sweetener choice is the main variable to improve.