Alcoholic ginger beer

[Essexhomebrew]

I will start this post by saying hello given I am new to the forums and I also apologies in advance if this thread is on the wrong forum. I wasn't sure where else to post this.

Given its a festive time of the year I have been trying to brew a home made alcoholic ginger beer using recipes I have found on this forum and other brewing forums out there. However, I am struggling to achieve something drinkable at this stage. Everything I have made so far has come out really dry and doesn't really have much ginger flavour. As such I was wondering if anyone out there amongst the home brewing community had a good recipe they have tried that produces a nice end product?

Currently have been trying the following:

2 lemons
250g fresh ginger
1kg sugar
wine/champagne yeast
yeast nutrient

Boil the lemon and ginger for 10 minutes then leave to cool. Whilst warm stir in the sugar then move to the fermenter. Once cool, dry pitch the yeast and add the yeast nutrient.

I'm not sure if its the method used however, using wine yeast or champagne yeast seems to give the taste of cheap wine and it doesn't taste like a ginger beer at all. Granted we haven't bottled, and therefore haven't added any non-fermentable sugar or priming solutions, but the product is virtually undrinkable. Any suggestions would be great.

 

[terrym]

My suggestions:- It may be your yeast is drying it out too much; you could try an ale yeast which won't have the same alcohol tolerance as the yeast you have been using and will finish earlier. You could also try powdered ginger instead of the ginger root you have been using. And for sweetening try saccharin or equivalent

P.S. I used to make ginger beer in a similar way to this years ago
http://canieatit.co.uk/grow-your-own-ginger-beer-plant-and-youll-never-need-to-buy-a-bottle-again/
Not sure how alcoholic it is (or was) but it tasted really good

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Welcome to the forum.
Here's a long thread for you to while away a winter evening: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/fiery-ginger-beer.3826/
Notice that the recipe includes powdered ginger.
I made that recipe and it came out drier than a pommie's towel.
If I hadn't lost the batch (CO2 failure while on holiday - it was kegged) I was planning to make a sugar syrup to add to each glass when serving.
Better still, a ginger syrup: https://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/ginger-simple-syrup/87823e83-9cf1-43cf-a70c-5e5b4bf982e6
I made the ginger beer to add to vodka to make Moscow Mules - SWMBO has a liking for Moscow Mules (among many, many other alcoholic drinks).
Afterwards I realised that I could have added sugar to the keg and chilled it to keep the yeast asleep.
If I was making it again I would take the advice proffered by @terrym and use a low attenuating ale yeast, like Danstar Windsor.
I would be careful using artificial sweeteners.

 

[terrym]

SWMBO has a liking for Moscow Mules

And hopefully Doncaster Donkeys

 

[johncrobinson]

Old style ginger beer WAS as dry as a bone.

I suspect the commercial stuff today uses non fermentable sweetners to appeal to a wider marker.

You can safely knock the edge off it by using glycerine.