I made a Ginger spice beer on May 26, 2013 with my nephew. Since he paid for the ingredients, I got a six pack and he got the rest. Out of mine, two bottles were entered in a competition. It only scored 25, mostly because the ginger was lacking in it.
About three weeks ago he cracked open a bottle that he had been saving. It had aged for 18 months. The ginger was finally there. It was an awesomely refreshing beer with the added aging. I wish I had two more bottles of it to enter into a competition now. I believe it would have scored 35 or higher with the proper aging!
I learned a lesson with that brew. When brewing with ginger, give it time to age! We used 1 ounce of fresh grated ginger root in the boil.
I will make that beer again!!
I have a gingerbread lager in my carboy (lagering) at 40F right now. This is also my nephews beer. I tasted it when it was racked over to the secondary and there is a hint of ginger in there, which I fully expect to come out more and more with age.
Lesson learned. Give ginger time to come out.