Coopers Ginger Beer Review

[lovelldr]

Made this up doing a bit of an alteration...

I boiled 2.5 ltrs water and added:

250gms fresh sliced/crushed ginger
~3 Cinnamon Stick halves
half a star anise
juice & zest of one lemon
~1tbsp chillie flakes
500g light malt extract

Left this to simmer for about 20 mins.

Added this to the can of wort in the FV. Added 1.25kg of unrefined granulated sugar and 250g of unrefined dark brown sugar and filled up to 20l. Gave this a good stir, and took a sample (hopefully mixed in all of the sugars, but not 100% sure?!). Got an SG of 1.042 @ 21.6'c. Roughly, what value did everyone get for their FG?!

Gotta say though, it did taste a really good strong ginger beer. Looking forward to this fermenting : :drunk:

 

[lovelldr]

Just come to take a hydrometer reading on this now... Comes out at around 1.002. Wondering if anyone can state what their FG was for this? Is this roughly as far as it will go, or did people's go further?! I remember when I made one from root ginger using the fiery ginger beer method, and that went down to 0.990. Now, I'm hoping this is as far as it will go down to (SG was 1.043), as I don't really want it to dry out much further...

Many thanks guys :)

 

[kwakamat]

Just come to take a hydrometer reading on this now... Comes out at around 1.002. Wondering if anyone can state what their FG was for this? Is this roughly as far as it will go, or did people's go further?! I remember when I made one from root ginger using the fiery ginger beer method, and that went down to 0.990. Now, I'm hoping this is as far as it will go down to (SG was 1.043), as I don't really want it to dry out much further...

Many thanks guys :)

Hey fellah - I brewed this to 18.5lts rather than the recommended 19 and my FG came out at 0.998 eventually so i would say you are there and there abouts

 

[lovelldr]

Just come to take a hydrometer reading on this now... Comes out at around 1.002. Wondering if anyone can state what their FG was for this? Is this roughly as far as it will go, or did people's go further?! I remember when I made one from root ginger using the fiery ginger beer method, and that went down to 0.990. Now, I'm hoping this is as far as it will go down to (SG was 1.043), as I don't really want it to dry out much further...

Many thanks guys :)

Hey fellah - I brewed this to 18.5lts rather than the recommended 19 and my FG came out at 0.998 eventually so i would say you are there and there abouts

Thanks for that. Took another reason following day, and was still the same taken it down to garage to try and cool fit a bit before bottling, but in this great, didn't seem to be doing much! Lol

 

[RobWalker]

is this nice and sweet brewed to instructions then?

 

[lovelldr]

is this nice and sweet brewed to instructions then?

The taster I had from the test jar wasn't mega sweet, unfortunately not like what it tasted like when I first set it off fermenting... But, the taste I had when taking og was still fairly good. Much better than when I made one up from root ginger and doing straight out ... even after back sweetening with sweeteners!

Still got to bottle this first tho and leave to carbonate and condition before casting proper judgment...

 

[alank950]

Gonna try a kit sometime after i try fresh grated ginger with LME.Was going to try the Coopers kit although after reading this i might go for the Simply ginger beer kit.I did read that is has alot more ingredients than the Coopers.Ale yeast is recommended...any feedback would be appreciated. :thumb:

 

[Sean_Mc]

Mrs M has just asked about this kit, thanks for reviews guys, will add my own in a month or so :thumb:

 

[alank950]

Simply ginger beer kit
Mine will be ready for tasting next week..its been in cold store for 1 week now..i used 1.5kg of lme and 1kg of beer enhancer and a jar of honey..

 

[ScottM]

is this nice and sweet brewed to instructions then?

The taster I had from the test jar wasn't mega sweet, unfortunately not like what it tasted like when I first set it off fermenting... But, the taste I had when taking og was still fairly good. Much better than when I made one up from root ginger and doing straight out ... even after back sweetening with sweeteners!

Still got to bottle this first tho and leave to carbonate and condition before casting proper judgment...

What was your verdict on this? It's definitely one of the brews I want to try at some point :)

 

[lovelldr]

is this nice and sweet brewed to instructions then?

The taster I had from the test jar wasn't mega sweet, unfortunately not like what it tasted like when I first set it off fermenting... But, the taste I had when taking og was still fairly good. Much better than when I made one up from root ginger and doing straight out ... even after back sweetening with sweeteners!

Still got to bottle this first tho and leave to carbonate and condition before casting proper judgment...

What was your verdict on this? It's definitely one of the brews I want to try at some point :)

I quite liked it. Altho I don't think I left it to settle enough, and quite a lot of yeast in bottle. Taste was good from what I remember. Got a couple left I been saving, but off drinking at mo... Will try to remember to post back after I've had one though

 

[alank950]

Simply ginger beer kit
used 1.5kg of lme and 1kg of beer enhancer and a jar of honey..
Tried a bottle of this today ,man its very good,not to gingery or sweet ,just right.I will be making this again with exactly the same ingredients.If it improves over the coming weeks,it will have turned out an excellent brew indeed..

The on the rocks raspberry and lime cider i thought was a little sweet and the ginger beer i made from fresh ginger ,fruit and root beer concentrate is very potent.I didnt check the abv but by its effects it would go down well being pumped from an outlet at cape canaveral ... :shock:...

 

[Scottiedog]

Brewed this a few weeks ago, left to condition in King keg for 4 weeks. ABV 3%
slightly sparkling, Cloudy when poured just like old fashioned Ginger beer. If left longer will probably clear.
Tastes Gingery and sweet, all good. Will do again :

 

[Mockery]

Simply ginger beer kit
used 1.5kg of lme and 1kg of beer enhancer and a jar of honey..
Tried a bottle of this today ,man its very good,not to gingery or sweet ,just right.I will be making this again with exactly the same ingredients.If it improves over the coming weeks,it will have turned out an excellent brew indeed..

The on the rocks raspberry and lime cider i thought was a little sweet and the ginger beer i made from fresh ginger ,fruit and root beer concentrate is very potent.I didnt check the abv but by its effects it would go down well being pumped from an outlet at cape canaveral ... :shock:...

I have a brew of Simply Ginger in the FV right now, added 1kg of beer enhancer and an extra 110g of fresh ginger boiled for 30 minutes before adding the extract to the FV. SG 1.040 for 23litres total volume. Because of the issue of artificial sweetener mentioned on the yeast sachet I used a separate ale yeast I had in my box of goodies (Fermentis Safale S-04).

I do wonder whether there is any artificial sweetener in the main concentrate, does anyone know ?

 

[Ian...]

I have just made a 2.5gallon batch from scratch and bottled it. It's absolutely fantastic, a great drink for the summer (if we get one) and it finished at 6.2%ABV. It just needs to carbonate now. But you know what, even if it doesnt gas up, I'll still guzzle it.
Cheers.

 

[ScottM]

Opened my first bottle of this tonight and I must say.... it's fantastic!

It's very green, and you can taste it, but that's my fault as it's only been in the warm for a week and in my fridge for 3 hours. Forgive my impatience lol.

Regardless I can already taste the potential this kit has.

I brewed it with the following:

Coopers Ginger Beer Kit
500g Muntons Light DME
1KG Brewing Sugar
500g Fresh Ginger

I grated the ginger and stewed for half an hour. I then strained out the ginger and added the sugar and DME to the pot. Brought back to the boil quickly then took off the heat and added the ginger beer kit. Topped up to 23L with cold water. OG was a lowly 1.030 so I added 200g of sugar to beef it up a bit, giving 1.033.

End result is a very slightly malty ginger tasting beer that's sitting around 4% (after priming). It's reasonably sweet but not overly so, I'm thinking that the fresh ginger will have helped out here.

Anyway, there is definitely a little room for improvement so next time I'll be brewing with the following..

Coopers Ginger Beer kit x2
1kg brewing sugar
400g white sugar
200g priming sugar
500g of fresh ginger
2tsp dried ginger powder

The bite after drinking is way higher than the ginger taste so I'm hoping that doubling up the ginger kit will bring that through in spades, keeping the fresh ginger as it is and adding a little ginger powder should make sure that the afterburn remains. The brewing sugar is remaining the same but I'm going to leave out the DME, to save on cost, hoping that the double dose of kit will hold that side of things up. The white sugar is to save on cost while boosting the ABV.

End result should be a very gingery, reasonably sweet, refreshing and potent enough to know that it's alcoholic


Between these 2 experiments I'm fairly certain I'll be able to nail an exceptional ginger beer recipe :)

 

[windymiller]

Have brewed up a couple of these Coopers kits now, and they seem to have been very well received. Both have been made pretty much as per instructions, albeit with a very generous helping of Tate and Lyle cane sugar. No scales were used, and suffice to say the amount added was "generous"! :whistle:

One kit was brewed up down under in time for summer, and was an excellent drink on a hot day. The other has been in the bottled a couple of weeks now and being sampled, and its as good as the first one. Popular drink with the ladies who are maybe not so into beer, and already there have been some interesting experiments with it. Last weekends Tequila Slammers made with it were particularly effective and evidence that a very cheap night can still be had! :drunk:

A kit of Mangrove Jack ginger beer that I brewed up when I was last down under, has just hit the bottles, and we await comparitive results. Will be hard pushed to top the Coopers kit I think!

 

[MarkTheShark]

Im trying a coopers GB kit for the fist time with 1.5kg raw sugar. Had an OG of 1050 and its down to 1010 now after 3 weeks in the primary. It tastes extremly sweet tho, will this mellow out a bit after conditioning? or is there a way before bottleing to make it a little bit less sweet?
Thanks

 

[ScottM]

It should go down past 1.000 with that amount of sugar in it :)

1.050 is extremely high for what you added though so I would be curious if the figure was accurate. The coopers kits have next to no fermentable sugars in them, hence low starting gravitites.

I'm just finishing up brewing a double dose kit, where I used 2 coopers kits and 1.65kg of sugar. My starting gravity was 1.036 @ 23L (to put it into context). So if you hit 1.050 with 1 kit and 1.5kg of sugar then I'm guessing you only added 10L of water?

My gravity is already below 1.010 and still falling. I'm expecting around 0.998-1.000 due to using 2 cans.

 

[MarkTheShark]

I probably took a poor SG reading, got the gravity down to 1.005 before i bottled it. It has been in the bottle for a bit over two weeks and I opened one to find it had no carbonation. Would I be expecting it to take a long time to carbonate? Should i try to heat the bottles up to get the yeast going again as the bottles are only sitting at around 16oC? The taste wasnt too bad tho, but it does taste a little underdone.