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Ginger Tipple Gets Ahead

Ginger Tipple Gets A Head

One of the criticisms of Ginger Tipple, especially from Belgians, was that there is no head, no foam, no froth, no Belgian lace, therefore it cannot be a beer.

Appearances are important, even before one tastes or smells the beer, and while Ginger Tipple scores high on the flavour, aroma and colour, the froth disappeared within seconds. Even though plenty of lambics and geuzes do not have foams, but they are part of Belgium’s beer psyche. Ginger Tipple is not yet there.

This is about to change!

Ginger Tipple with a headWe carried out an experiment with some bottles of our new beer, the soon to be launched Tipple Hop. We double dry-hopped with two different hops giving it tons of hoppy flavour and aroma. At 7% ABV it also has a pleasant soothing effect on your nerves. A touch cloudy; if we could classify it, we would call it a New England Ginger Pale Ale.

In our laboratory, we developed a gluten-free non-chemical based additive which adds proteins to the Tipple Hop without affecting that delicious blend of ginger and hops.

Brewer Jeremy Sulzbacher commented “The commercial additives I tested left an unpleasant taste, so we developed our own natural foaming agent. This one even enhances the flavour!”

We are keeping the details secret, and it will be a few months before we can go commercial with it.

Praising the Rivals

Alcoholic Ginger Beers

I regularly try and taste each alcoholic ginger beer and ginger ale of my competitors. My primary purpose is to keep my business plan up to date, but also to collect ideas about how to improve the Ginger Tipples and for new products.

Ginger AleFor the purpose of this article, I will not name the products of my competitors, and if you ask me about a particular one, I will always praise their attributes, perhaps not as ebulliently as Ginger Tipple. Also, I always taste them together with a one or two ginger beer lovers whose opinions I value.

Conceptually, when we hear the word ‘ginger’ we think of people with red hair. In fact ginger beers and ales made from fresh root ginger will be an almost light grey in colour. The association of red and ginger comes from a specific type of ginger found in Malaysia which was common during the days of the British Empire.

Some ginger ales, especially the lower quality non-alcoholic ones use processed ginger, or ginger powder which has a darker hue to it. Many use ginger essence in conjunction with flavour enhancers and artificial colourings.

For reference, we achieve our golden colour by using exotic sugars and hops and only use very fresh ginger.

Passover

Ginger Beer
Machane Yehudah

A few years ago, I went to a beer bar and shop in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market where the owner, an old friend of mine, shared a Tipple with me and his bar-tenders. I apparently inspired one of them to crystallize his own ideas and create an alcoholic ginger beer.

Before it was launched, I saw pictures of production which showed that the ginger was boiled.

We tasted it on Passover and we all noticed that the ginger was cooked and that it was too sweet for our liking. Should be good as a cocktail mixer.

The Best Rival

After Ginger Tipple, the best alcoholic ginger beer comes from on of the leading cocktail mixer producers. With an ABV of 4%and a light to middling sweetness, you are still able to taste the gingers used. I say gingers, because there is a mixture of processed and fresh gingers. They also use better sugars.

Champagne

Ginger BeerI don’t want to boast too much, but if we were to compare the competitors of Ginger Tipple, the first one I reviewed in this blog is like an Asti Spumante. The second like a Cava.

We aim to be the champagne of this sector, and believe that we are that good.

 

Drank 30 Beers in an Afternoon

Billie’s Craft Beer Fest

Ginger Tipple

Before you jump to conclusions, I did not drink 30 full glasses of beer. It was 30 tasters and  quite a lot of them I sipped and then about half of them I poured away.

It is not often one has the opportunity to drink quality craft beers – unlimited – and Antwerp’ first craft beer festival two weeks ago was a wonderful occasion to imbibe. In fact, it was absolutely amazing, not just because of the wonderful beers, but I now truly believe that Ginger Tipple is a tremendous brew.

Selection of Breweries

There were 50 breweries from all around Europe and North America, most of which had eight beers on tap, two at a time. As I was there for two hours on Sunday afternoon, this meant that there were about 100 beers available. Which is tremendous.

IPAs

As to be expected, there were a lot of IPAs. To be honest, some of them were average ales with a lot of hops, very few had that magic word, body. For the first time I experienced a range of different IPAs, West Coast IPAs which are very hoppy, often with very fresh hops from Yakima, Washington. Then there were the black IPAs which are made with toasted malt, the skill here is not to either the hops or the toasted malt to overpower the other. The German IPA used German hops etc.

Quads & Stouts

Ginger Tipple
Milk Stout

There was a varied selection of quads and stouts, matured with all sorts of flavours, although the bourbon barrels were the most common. Coffee, vanilla and cocoa were the popular tastes. Particularly enjoyed the Fantastic Voyage, a milk stout from Penrenial Artisan Ales which was infused with coconut flakes while whirpooling.

I missed the Kentucky Breakfast Stout, from Founders Brewing, which is one of the best on the market, and which commands a premium price of $20 per bottle. I had tasted a bottle six months ago, and it is very good.

Voodoo Brewery had a special brew for the show, which was a refreshing old style ale matured in bourbon barrels.

Estonia’a Pohjala brewery delivered an Imperial Coffee Stout called Cocobänger which uses high quality Costa Rican coffee, coconut and Magnum hops. At 12.5% ABV it was seductive.

Different Beers

Tempel from Sweden had a great sour beer with mango called Manu. With an ABV of only 3.5% it must be great to drink on a hot day, although I am not sure how often that happens in Sweden.

My favourite was Norway’s Nogne O‘s Tripel X Farmhouse Ale which is not boiled before fermentation which occurs at a temperature of 39 celsius.

The meads were not my cup of tea.

Sour Beers

You can travel the world and find sour beers with or without fruit. At this event there were quite a few, but the best were from Belgium. For me, the stars in this category were the Rodenbach Grand Cru Flemish and Caractere Rouge red-brown ales.  Nor can you omit Alvinne‘s Gentleman Sour Ale.

Summation

Stéfan Cauwenbergs and his colleagues deserve full praise for arranging the craft beer festival and by setting the entry price quite high it meant that you did not have to by tokens all the time to taste different beers.

Looking forward to next year’s festival.