Ancient Grater, Spiced Beers & Ginger Milk

An exhibition of ancient Chinese artefacts featuring a second century BC bronze ginger grater has opened at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. From the Western Han dynasty, the grater was excavated at Xianggangshan in 1983. You can see it online by viewing the virtual exhibition and stepping through until you reach the kitchen section. I think you'll agree that the design wouldn't look out of place in your kitchen today. In fact, similar devices made from bamboo are still used in some Chinese provinces.

I never cease to be amazed by the number of new ginger-spiced beers and real ales which regularly appear on the market. I've just found another one which, technically, isn't new but it is making a re-appearance. The Harpoon Brewery, from Boston MA, will release its 100 Barrel Series #42 Ginger Wheat ale this month. This ale, at 6.8% abv, should have been bottled last week for the first time since 2009.

I did stumble across another ginger-spiced beer last week. Derby, an English city in the East Midlands, has been named by the Campaign for Real Ale as the UK's real ale capital. The city has received this accolade in honour of its seven breweries. I took a particular interest in the Middle Earth Brewery as it brews Black Rose, a chocolate and ginger stout.

Keen to find out more about Black Rose, I contacted the brewery for some additional information. I shall let Carla Johnson, a brewer at Middle Earth Brewery, tell you a little about this interesting beer. "Black Rose started off as a stout only for winter but due to its success we have been brewing it over spring too. I wanted to create a ginger beer but so many breweries had made pale ales with ginger so we knew it needed to be different. I then started to think of stouts and could not think of a ginger stout! My partner (Steve Twells) and his friend devised the stout recipe and then we added the ginger to the brewing process. Powdered ginger is added to the mash tun when the hops are added and then I add grated root ginger to the cask for the flavour to develop". Thanks Carla.

Parakhi reported on a welcome development by the Nepalese government's Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) which has announced plans to help ginger farmers throughout the country. I've mentioned before about the problems faced by farmers trying to sell their ginger crops. MoCS will now create a number of processing units in the major ginger producing districts and a much sought-after storage facility.

Wise Monkeys is an interesting collaborative blog based in Vancouver, Canada. It contains posts on an eclectic range of subjects including one on how to make ginger milk. I've read about ginger milk before but have never actually tried this Chinese dessert. Maybe now is the time.