On July 4th, my friend Mike came over, and hung-over as I was (long story), we brewed another batch of Snapping Ginger Ale. This is destined for my deck-warming party, date TBD. Once again we tweaked the recipe. The malt and hops are as in the first batch, though we used hop pellets instead of whole-leaf. About 1.5 pounds of grated ginger went in for half an hour after the boil, as has become standard procedure.
I hadn't planned to try it before the party, but Pete was over to re-rack our batch of mead (more on that in about six months), so we decided to have basically a swift half-pint (or three-quarters). It was good—less gingery than I'd expected, but definitely tasty. The hops were still muted compared with a normal pale ale, but I think they were more evident than in the first batch, inasmuch as I can remember what that one was like. The head retention was also good, so I may have found a sweet spot. As is traditional when kegging, I chucked the first pull, though I might not have needed to. It had been re-racked from primary, and then stopped fermenting, so there wasn't really any sediment to speak of to begin with.
And yes, I usually don't bother with a secondary, unless the fermentation takes more than two weeks. I might try dry-gingering the next batch with about half a pound after the first week of fermentation, just to see what it does.
I'll update this post with any other notable reactions after the party.
