Anyone For Ginger Beer ???

[beechwood]

Hi, thought I would share this ginger beer recipe as has been rather successful, just started drinking yesterday.
The original recipe I found on the internet some years back has been changed quite a bit and have experimented with
different yeasts to see which would work best.

For a 1 gallon brew you will need: 200g root ginger
750g white sugar
1 small lemon
pinch of cream of tartar
1 packet of yeast

Start by boiling half a gallon of water in a big saucepan adding to it the root ginger which has been finely chopped,
the sugar, the lemon chopped small and cream of tartar.
Simmer for around 30 minutes, allow to cool and then add to your fermenting bin/demijohn. Top up to the 1 gallon
mark with cold water and add yeast. Temp should be 20-24c.

(I used ale yeast this time and found that it worked very well, I've used champagne yeast in the past but find it
to be too explosive, white wine yeast works fine)

I waited about 11 days for it to ferment then siphoned it into swing top beer bottles and then put them in a cool
place for 3 days before opening. It can vary a bit how many days it will take to ferment but 10-11 days should be
about right.

The OG was 1050 and FG came out at 1008 so it works out at about 5.6% I have to say it has quite a kick
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let us know how you get on.

 

[Vossy1]

Moved to this section as more relevant :thumb:

 

[JonnyD]

Will this mature with age?

 

[Tutelage]

Its gets smoother and less fiery the longer you leave it. Potentially this may be a bad thing depending on how you like your ginger.

 

[beechwood]

Yes it should do but the only problem I've found is that the pressure builds up so much after a while they
tend to fizz up when you open them, which means you loose half the contents, I'm wondering if I should
have put some wine stabiliser in to stop any further fermentation in the bottle, anyone else got any ideas on this??

 

[Boatbrewer]

I give them five days to fizz up then store them in the fridge. This halts any further fermentation but still keeps the yeast 'live'. If you feel you need more fizz, warm them up for a few days then put them back in the fridge.

 

[beechwood]

I had a bit of a play around with this recipe as I wanted to have a go at making ginger wine, so I upped the sugar
content to 1.5kg of sugar, used an purpose wine yeast and yeast nutrient. The rest of the ingredients are the same
as the first post. I left it to ferment for 20 days then added the stabiliser and left for a further 24 hours. Then I transferred
the demijohn to a cooler place and left it to clear for another week, after which I bottled. Then left for a few days before
cracking open the first one. WOW!! I was really pleased with how it turned out, and has got a real kick to it.
The OG was 1090 and the FG came out at 0993 which makes it about 12.9%

It seams the good thing about ginger is it doesn't need maturing once its made.

(I'm sure I also added a tea spoon of ground ginger the mix as well)

 

[beechwood]

I'm tasting another bottle as we speak after about 4 months of maturing, it still tastes excellent.
The flavour has mellowed out a bit and is crystal clear, it has a real after BITE!! Hope to get some
more on the go soon!!

 

[Sly Fox]

I've been doing some ginger beer, actually bordering on wine, this batch, OG was 1070 and I fermented with beer yeast. I used a kilo of fresh root ginger to make 10L... There's no intention of letting it mature - I'll serve it cloudy straight from stone cider jars on a camping trip in a couple of weeks, should keep us warm!

 

[andycon67]

I will be trying this one !!!



Andy

 

[beechwood]

I got another one of these on the go on Saturday just gone, with slightly less sugar at 1.2kg. strangely the OG came out higher
at 1100 as apposed to last time 1090, we will see how it goes!! Its going crazy at the mo, keep you posted!!!!

 

[beechwood]

I will be trying this one !!!



Andy

I highly recommend it :)

 

[Berk]

Hi, I started a gallon of this off on Saturday, as we had a bit of a brew day. Sadly I won't get to drink it all as I've promised to give some to my mother in law.

Checking on it today and it's bubbling happily, so all is well. It looked like it was going to make a break for it, but gladly it didn't, unlike the hooch I made at the same time.

 

[stuart180]

I've bookmarked this thread, got something on the go at the moment that's tying up my gear, but will certainly give this a go.
Thanks for the tips.

 

[Alexv]

Ginger beer became my favorite recently, love the spicy taste it gives to my beer. I just use less sugar.

 

[stuart180]

Ginger beer became my favorite recently, love the spicy taste it gives to my beer. I just use less sugar.

I only recently tried some (Ginger Beard)... it really doesn't seem to get great reviews but I loved the stuff.

 

[Badger]

Going to try yours! I've had two semi sucessful attempts myself with more root ginger but didnt really boil the root ginger enough :/

 

[Gunnar]

I've got to try this, simple looking recipe too, thanks!

 

[beechwood]

bottled up the second batch of ginger wine today, has cleared nicely and tastes great. came out at 13% same as before.

 

[stuart180]

Guys, silly question, but once its boiled, do you add all the contents to the FV (the boiled down ginger ect.) Or just the liquid?