Fiery Ginger Beer

[mirsultankhan]

was searching around for a recipe and found this

2 kgs root ginger
4 lemons
2 limes
300g sultanas
1 Tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 Kgs DME
500g Brown sugar
200g honey

Champagne yeast

22 litre batch

Can anyone tell me how much grain is the equivalent of 2 Kgs malt extract and does it matter what kind of grains they are?

Many thanks Robbie

 

[Sir_Tmas]

I got a really manky demi-john years ago when I was brewing wine. I filled it to the neck with boiling water and soaked it for a few days before emptying and refilling with boiling water. I added a couple of steradent to it, and left it overnight.
By the time I'd emptied it and rinsed it out the muck had dissolved.
Now glass is a completely different beast to plastics, but I would defo try dissolving before scrubbing.

Thanks very much! I just grabbed some of Tesco's own Oxi powder (stain removal) detergent and just let the barrel soak in it overnight. I think it was mainly meant for clothes, but I saw you could use it in dishwashers so just went for it. Not entirely sure if it was the safest idea but it pretty much got the job done! Maybe should of gone for a scented one - get a nice bit of lavender in the beer? :sick:

---------

For anybody interested, this brew is very tasty! It was basically alcoholic cold ginger tea! It was pretty fiery, but I might add more ginger next time.

Be careful with it though - it tastes nothing like it's strength and is very moreish! Took it to a festival, got to some hard partying and was drinking 2 litre bottles of it. Got myself in a spot of trouble with the ex wench...

 

[mike-os]

I don't seem to be getting enough carbonation, let me rephrase that I am not getting enough carbonation

using about 1 heaped teaspoon per L in 1l bottles, wondering if I can add more (been bottled for 2 weeks)

any suggestions?

 

[mirsultankhan]

was searching around for a recipe and found this

2 kgs root ginger
4 lemons
2 limes
300g sultanas
1 Tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2 Kgs DME
500g Brown sugar
200g honey

Champagne yeast

22 litre batch

Can anyone tell me how much grain is the equivalent of 2 Kgs malt extract and does it matter what kind of grains they are?

Many thanks Robbie

I found a lazy chart for conversion, so my all grain fiery ginger beer now looks like this,

2 kgs root ginger
4 lemons
2 limes
300g sultanas
3500g Maris Otter
500g Brown sugar
200g honey

Champagne yeast

I like the idea of this because from what I can discern some people have a problem with sweetness and need to add elements to sweeten up what can potentially be a dry brew. I think the wort form the grains will be sweet enough for anyone's taste and will add body as well. Not sure about the spices though and i doubt there will be much honey flavour after the yeast has finished but it looks interesting. Ok, im going in, wish me luck! Never used champagne yeast before, lets hope its bubbly! weeeeeeee!

 

[Sir_Tmas]

Sounds very good! The addition of grain is actually pretty intesersting! I brewed a batch virtually exactly the same as the OP - I think I added an orange or somethig (I posted on thre previous page) but pretty much stayed OP.

IMO the dryness was just right - it was pretty dry. It eases up though - even a signle week makes a massive difference. Beware though - it's deceptively potent!

Please let us know how you batch is though - thoroughly interested!

 

[mirsultankhan]

Sounds very good! The addition of grain is actually pretty intesersting! I brewed a batch virtually exactly the same as the OP - I think I added an orange or somethig (I posted on thre previous page) but pretty much stayed OP.

IMO the dryness was just right - it was pretty dry. It eases up though - even a signle week makes a massive difference. Beware though - it's deceptively potent!

Please let us know how you batch is though - thoroughly interested!

Hi Sir_Tmas, let see what happens. From what i can discern some people were saying that sometimes this style of ginger beer lacks body as well, i wonder if the addition of grain will help this. Its just an experiment but that's the exciting part

Will let you know what transpires for sure although my initial gravity readings are rather high. Expecting about an 8% ABV, gulp

 

[FatDad]

Think I'll be trying this one. Looks good.:

 

[FatDad]

Starting in the pan...

Into the FV...

 

[FatDad]

I made a 12.5l batch of this little beauty and wondered, when it comes to bottling time how much sugar and water should I use to batch prime a 12.5 litre batch?

 

[mirsultankhan]

I made a 12.5l batch of this little beauty and wondered, when it comes to bottling time how much sugar and water should I use to batch prime a 12.5 litre batch?

I just use a teaspoon per bottle, worked fine, infact I had one last night, it has smoothed out rather nicely and man its gingery. It has sat I suspect for just over a month and prior to this it was a little rough, so much so that even my kids and his friends wouldn't drink it. Ahhhh a beer that they will not steal, awesome, but anyway, it is very effervescent now and there is a good balance, its not just quite as dry, I like it.

 

[FatDad]

I just use a teaspoon per bottle, worked fine, infact I had one last night, it has smoothed out rather nicely and man its gingery. It has sat I suspect for just over a month and prior to this it was a little rough, so much so that even my kids and his friends wouldn't drink it. Ahhhh a beer that they will not steal, awesome, but anyway, it is very effervescent now and there is a good balance, its not just quite as dry, I like it.

Thanks for that :)

 

[mike600]

Hi. I made the original Recipe and found it being a bit watery to taste, with a hint of a yeasty taste, before the ginger came through. It could do with being a bit sweeter. abv was 7%
New to brewing so any help welcome. :drink:

 

[FatDad]

Bottled today. Just over 7%, tastes nasty I have to say but I'll give it a couple of months to sit in the bottles and then judge.

 

[faustino123]

Give it time.

When I made this, it was very harsh in the early days.
I kept a few bottles for about 1 year and cracked them open with friends. It was outstanding.

 

[stever1000]

I brewed this last night following the original recipe except I didn't have dried ginger and the tartar was expensive!! locally so I skipped it.

couple of questions:
1. did you guys weigh the ginger before or after grating it to get 1kg? I weighed it beforehand so I hope I didn't add too little.

2. What temperature did you ferment it at?

3. What's the magical number of days before bottling?

4. I forgot to add yeast nutrient while boiling, will this effect anything now that it has been sitting in the fermenter for 12hours now? There is activity in the airlock.

Smelled delicious while boiling!

 

[vassili]

Started my second batch today, we unfortunately have left it a bit late as its for a airgun enthusiasts gathering on bonfire weekend.
Made a few alterations though to my first batch, instead of 3kgs of granulated sugar, I've done 2kg white, 1 kg soft brown and half kg of honey, I've also put in 3 fresh chopped habanero chillies " well they said they wanted a warning drink"!
I'm also going to prime with honey "probably", not definitely though as I want the fizz and I'm not sure I will get that like I would with caster sugar.

 

[krispn]

I've been inspired to give this a go too but used medium DME and some brown sugar and pitched White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison I Yeast so it should be interesting.

I'm keen to try it with a coupe of different yeast strains to see what happens. It's just a 1g experiment to pass an afternoon! I'll update once I've tried it in a few weeks!

Fingers Crossed!

 

[BugWug]

Howdy

Finally tried this and followed Rick almost to the letter and wow!

I will tweak it another time but, day 8 after bottling it is SO drinkable!

Lovely jubbly!

 

[HarrowBrewer]

Hi. I made the original Recipe and found it being a bit watery to taste, with a hint of a yeasty taste, before the ginger came through. It could do with being a bit sweeter. abv was 7%
New to brewing so any help welcome. :drink:

I had exactly the same with my first batch. Second time round I added more dme and brewed it short to 18 litres, which improved it a lot. I sweetened it with a few spoons of Splenda before bottling as well. If I make it again I'm going to do a grain mash instead of the sugar, making it more of a "ginger enhanced beer" than a ginger beer.

 

[mike600]

Harrow Brewer I think I will try what you suggested brewing it short and with the the malt. might try it in the next few weeks. how long did you leave it before drinking?