Ginger

Hootch · Post by **Hootch** » Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:18 pm

I've read that one can add ginger to a grain mash to help convert the starch to sugar, but I've never read anything about what the mash temp. should be at the time. Does anyone know about this?

junkyard dawg · Post by **junkyard dawg** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 5:47 am

I've read that too, and tried it twice, with no success. It did make a low yielding very funky corn likker...

Hootch · Post by **Hootch** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:54 am

I've been thinking about trying it, but without more info I guess I'll pass.

junkyard dawg · Post by **junkyard dawg** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 1:39 pm

It may convert some starch, but If you wanna use grains, go with good old 6 row malt. Beano and amylase powder from the brewshop don't do a complete job IMHO...

Hootch · Post by **Hootch** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 2:52 pm

I do use 6 row, but I'm only abe to get about 1.040 SG. without adding sugar. I'm looking for a way to convert more starch.

junkyard dawg · Post by **junkyard dawg** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:14 pm

hmmm, how closely are you following the mashing times and temps? I had better luck with grain mashing when I used cracked corn, and ground my own wheat, rye and barley. I grind the wheat and rye and barley pretty fine. Everything but the barley gets a good long boil and when it starts to get too thick and starts to stick to the pot I turn it off and cover it up and let it soak for a while. When I started doing this my yields went way up. The mash that took off on its own a couple days ago was 1.07 and 1.065

Watershed · Post by **Watershed** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:39 pm

From what I've read it's not the ginger itself but a fungus that lives on/in the ginger. If that's the case a simple mash wouldn't do - you'd need to get the fungus growing like you would for Koji in sake making ( I still can't find a source of that over here ). Putting pieces of fresh ginger into boiled rice and keeping it warm ought to do the trick - but it's a bit high risk as you can't be sure that what grows is what you want.

Apparently banana skins have amylase too.