Alcoholic Ginger Beer

[Welshwitch]

Not sure if I am in right part of the forum. Has anyone made Alcoholic Ginger Beer, we currently have some bubbling away but we were wondering if we should prime the bottles at the bottling stage.


Cheers Hic :

 

[ricardo]

Hi
I have a Coopers Alcoholic Ginger Beer fermenting now.
As far as I know you should be priming the bottles.
:thumb:

 

[rickthebrew]

if you want it fizzy then prime your bottles :thumb:

can i have your recipe as i`d love to do a ginger brew

 

[Welshwitch]

Hi Rick, Davesiv gave me this recipe

5 gallons water
1-1 1/2 lbs. ginger root, coarsley chopped
17 cups sugar
4 lemons, sliced
3/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 packet champagne yeast



Boil as much of the water as will fit in your largest pot.

Squeeze in lemons and add squeezed bits.

Add ginger root and cream of tartar.

Add as much sugar as you can if there's room.

Simmer gently for 20-30 minutes.

Put remaining sugar, if any, in 5 gallon plastic pail or similar.

Pour water mixture over.

Add remaining water to 5 gallons and cool to lukewarm.

Taste - this will approximate the taste of the finished product. If necessary add more ginger or ginger powder.

Dissolve yeast in a cup of the mixture, then stir it back in.
Cover and ferment for 7 days at 65-70°F.

Siphon into sterilised bottles (I use 2-litre pop bottles). Cap. Age upright for one week at 60-65°F then store in cool place at 60°F or less.

If necessary release pressure in bottles occasionally to prevent explosions! Take care when opening bottles - can be very lively!!

Drink as is (will be 5-7% alc. by volume). Is also very good, but deadly, mixer for gin on a hot summer's day.

___________________________________________________________________________________________


Mr Witch scaled it down so we could do a gallon just to try so we did the following


130 grms fresh root ginger
1 1/2lb sugar
1 lemon
1 gram cream of tartar
1 tsp wine yeast
1 gallon water

Still in demi john at the moment bubbling by the woodburner let you know how it tastes hope to try it Christmas Eve :

 

[rickthebrew]

Cheers for that, love to hear how it tastes :clap:
Will hopefully get some on ASAP :thumb:

 

[llannige]

Sorry if I have misunderstood this thread. :wha:

But the recipe for a gallon looks very similar to the one i did not long ago for a traditional ginger beer.(not alcoholic)
Although it turned out as a lovely refreshing summer drink.There is no way I would call it alcoholic.

 

[rickthebrew]

surely 600-700grams of sugar to a gallon will ferment out to around 6 - 7%? How did you make yours llannige? Was it fermented - and how did it taste :hmm:

I really would like to make an alcholic ginger beer - just for something different every so often :drunk:

 

[llannige]

Just checked.

I used 450g of sugar.So maybe not so strong.

The method was very similar to the one above and I used pet bottles too as it was very lively.

Never took a reading.All i know was the gallon never lasted long.

As I say,never considered it being alcoholic.

Maybe I was wrong.

 

[rickthebrew]

As I say,never considered it being alcoholic.

Maybe I was wrong.

:whistle:

I`m gonna stick a 5gallon one on over xmas - will take some readings, your gallon with 450g sugar must of been around 4% at a guess? :hmm:

Love a bit of variety!

 

[Welshwitch]

Well I think ours will be alcoholic we ended up doing 2 gallons the reading on the first was 1066 and on the second we put less sugar in and the reading on that was 1052 if we stop it at 1000 the first gallon should be around 8.7% and the second 6.9% that's very strong if drinking it like beer and if using it as a mixer with gin as suggested then sit down when drinking it. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

[Welshwitch]

5 days since we did the Alcoholic Ginger beer and it is down to 1000 so we are going to stabilise it tomorrow morning we had a taste and it doesn't taste as gingery as it did 5 days ago, so we have added 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger.

Will let you know in a few days what the final outcome is.
:wha: :wha: :wha: :wha:

 

[rickthebrew]

cool, i may up the ginger to DOUBLE then :party: like a bit of fire in ginger beer :twisted:

 

[rickthebrew]

welsh witch - did you leave all the bits of ginger / lemon in whilst the brew fermented ? Got all my bits to put a five gallon brew on - i`m gonna use a kg of ginger :lol:

how was your brew?

 

[Welshwitch]

Sorry so late replying yes we left all the bits in and strained them before bottling after about 5 days, it was a very nice drink and really must go and get some more fresh ginger. We did stop it at 1000

 

[Welshwitch]

Update on the Ginger Beer it is fantastic can't make it fast enough really refreshing on these hot sunny days and very strong, also heard it is good for aches and pains so can't go far wrong. Mr Witch enjoys making it as well which is a real bonus.
:clap: :clap:

 

[Cussword]

Mr Witch scaled it down so we could do a gallon just to try so we did the following
130 grms fresh root ginger
1 1/2lb sugar
1 lemon
1 gram cream of tartar
1 tsp wine yeast
1 gallon water
Still in demi john at the moment bubbling by the woodburner let you know how it tastes hope to try it Christmas Eve :

Hi WW, when you use the wine yeast, does it finish still, or fizzy??

 

[Welshwitch]

We prime the bottles with 1 teaspoon of sugar per pint and the longer we leave it the fizzyer it gets we leave it at least a month.

Hope that helps.

 

[Cussword]

: Thanks, I've made up a gallon using beer yeast(S-04). The next one I'll try with wine yeast

 

[chiefstoker]

Sorry so late replying yes we left all the bits in and strained them before bottling after about 5 days, it was a very nice drink and really must go and get some more fresh ginger. We did stop it at 1000

Call me daft, but if you stopped it at 1000 with stabiliser, how did you prime it to get it fizzy?

 

[Welshwitch]

Not sure why it is fizzy but the longer you leave it the pressure builds up in the bottle we opened our latest batch last night but we hadn't left it long enough as only a little pressure had built up but even so it is a nice drink.