Comments on: Cardamon Cauliflower Soup with Hitachino Ginger Beer

By: Beer & Nosh » Blog Archive » Cooks & Kegs: The Alembic

Beer & Nosh » Blog Archive » Cooks & Kegs: The Alembic — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:42:42 +0000

[...] a big fan of Hitachino Nest Beer, although I had yet to try this particular sake barrel aged offering. The [...]

By: Kiuchi Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Brew Review | Beer 47

Kiuchi Hitachino Nest Real Ginger Brew Review | Beer 47 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:02:58 +0000

[...] Beer & Nosh – Cardamon Cauliflower Soup with Hitachino Ginger Beer [...]

By: the wicked noodle

the wicked noodle — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:02:42 +0000

This sounds like one amazing meal. You’ve got me craving soup and a cold beer!

By: Arun

Arun — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:42:33 +0000

Last summer I made a hopless ginger beer. I substituted mugwort for hops. It was different, not quite a hit with most of my friends. I thought it was pretty nice for the hot September/October nights, and it goes very well with Indian curries. I only have a couple bottles left.

I agree with Sally that you should make your own infusion or tincture. I used cheap vodka. All the ginger I added during the boil may have contributed some body to the flavor, but there was little spice left when I took a sample after primary fermentation had completed.

By the way, I live nearby, on San Bruno @ 24th.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:42:10 +0000

interesting… It sounds like your experiences line up very much with a combination of mine and brian’s – where mine had good funk, and his was less so. I have had the espresso stout, and that showed no signs of infection.

Thanks for the brewing hints – I think a ginger beer is next on my list. I have been playing around with wild bugs (i have two kegs – a golden and a red, fermented with White Lab’s Sour Mash, WLP655) but for this experiment, I think I’ll stick to something a little more straight forward. Although If i were to bottle a few, they could get spiked with some bugs…

By: Andy Waer

Andy Waer — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:24:22 +0000

Years back (2006-ish) this beer was quite a simple ale with ginger. Sometime in 2008, I started noticing a change in HN Ginger: it became increasingly wild, with a profile closely resembling that of XH. I began to wonder if they had begun aging the ginger brew in the same sake barrels they use for XH (a side-by-side tasting was remarkably similar). In any event, the barnyard funk, mild tartness, and increased bitterness all enhanced the ginger character, transforming a good beer into something remarkable.

That is, until I tried an Espresso Stout a few weeks ago that unfortunately showed the same signs. Soon to follow (last week), I tried a HN Ginger (gusher) that was over-the-top fruity/jam-like and downright sour, lacking the barnyard character.

I wonder if their playing around with bugs in XH has brought an infection to other beers. It’s become a crap shoot as to whether a bottle of HN Ginger will be good or not.

As to brewing with ginger, I recently brewed a clone of this beer. It’s a pretty hard one to clone, unless you’re playing with bugs, but I at least took a shot at the base beer. It turned out quite delicious and I think I’ll give it a re-try someday with brett and a small addition of toasted oak chips.

For the ginger addition, it’s best to peel and juice fresh ginger. I used an Omega 3000 for juicing. It kicks ass. Strength of ginger depends on variety and freshness, so you’ll have to do a test batch with a beer that somewhat approximates the base beer you’re brewing.

* Weigh out 1oz of peeled fresh ginger and juice it
* Measure the volume of ginger juice that 1oz of ginger gives you
* Add small, measured amounts of juice in 1/4tsp (or less) increments to a pint/0.5L of your chosen beer
* When the ginger level is right, scale up, based on the amount of juice you got from 1oz of ginger and match the test batch ratio to your full batch volume. For me, this worked out to the juice of 4oz of fresh ginger for 5 gallons of beer to give an assertively gingery brew.

I added my ginger just before pitching my yeast starter, before primary. Adding the ginger after primary fermentation is also fine. Take note that pitching before primary will likely give more subdued aromatics, due to some of the volatile compound blowing off with the CO2 during fermentation.

Hope that helps. Cheers!

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:53:33 +0000

Nice recipe. I love cauliflower soup. And one of my favourite beer snacks is cauliflower florets covered in spice (any real, curry, paprika, etc) and roasted – it’s like healthy popcorn! I’ve tried it with cocoa powder too to go with a stout and that’s pretty cool, earthy, savoury and sweet!

By: Brian Yaeger

Brian Yaeger — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:29:28 +0000

I’m hoping the second bottle of Hitachino Ginger I bought is better than the first. Otherwise, my money’s on Laughing Buddha’s Ginger Pale every time. (But I’ll take the soup!)

By: Sally J.

Sally J. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:02:50 +0000

I can’t help you with the brewing question (sorry) but I highly recommend infusing your own ginger brandy. Recipe: Peel and cut up a hand size chunk of ginger for two big jugs o’midprice brandy. The finer the cut, the quicker it’ll be ready. I call it Winter Survival Tonic. A quick online search found me a bar (biking distance from my house, no less) that carries Hitachino Ginger. Woo hoo! Thanks for the tip and the yummy soup recipe.