Fiery Ginger Beer

[phildo79]

I bottled my brew last night. Got 37.5 pints worth. I added 190 grams of sugar and 60 sweetner tabs to it before bottling (dissolved in boiled water and added to the batch). I will leave for one week in a warm-ish place (boiler cupboard) before trying one.

It took 12 days to ferment out. FG was 995 but the OG was only 1040 and i used 2.8KG of sugar. Did I do something wrong when taking the OG? Like not leaving it long enough to cool down? If not, then it'll be about 6%ABV. I was hoping for more but as long as it's tasty, I'm sure I'll work my way through them.

Slainte

Cracked open a couple last night to try. I think the sweetener tabs did the trick; not as dry as feared. Still a hint of dryness, mind, and a definite sharpness but nothing unpleaseant. The only thing that is missing is the real lack of ginger flavour. I was expecting a very gingery taste but was left disappointed. Maybe this will improve with time but I'm not optimstic. I'll try another batch and up the ginger root content to 3lbs.

hashtag somewhat unhappy FFS

hashtag - a lot happier now

Well a little extra time did some good. This stuff has definitely improved. I would like it to be more gingery though so I'll treble the ginger content next time. And I'll blitz it in the blender as grating it is a pain in the arse. Having a few at the moment and I'm starting to think I messed up the ABV calculation as I can already feel the effects :shock:

 

[lakeslad]

This has got to be the summer barbie drink,, you know the one that turns your unsuspecting mates into blubbering wrecks.....
Whats the Mocow Mule recipe.
2 fingers of vodka on crushed ice, a dash of lime topped up with fiery ginger beer.
Hold onto yer brain its going interseller.
:party:[/quote]


just so happens i have a nice liter of vodka in the house a bag of crushed ice and a few limes, now to add me ginger beer and tonight i expect to be sleeping on the sofa lol :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Wasabi]

Looking over this thread it seems most people are using wine yeast or champagne yeast. I recently switched to using ale yeast (Wilkinson's finest ) and I think the results are much better. In fact a very simple concoction of 1L apple juice, 40g powdered ginger, 400g sugar, 5g ale yeast, 1tsp yeast nutrient + water to 4.5L came out very nice.

I'm currently doing the same again only with Tesco "Apple, Peach and Pear juice" this time (consists of 80% apple, 20% peach and pear pulp), will be interesting to see how it comes out.

 

[Alexv]

Thanks for the great recipe, I brewed ginger beer a few times but with another recipe. Will try that one definitely, all my friends love it.

 

[oligopoly]

Just brewed this up. Modified the original recipe on page 1 by adding 5 tsp of glycerine for mouthfeel and also 5 crushed campden tablets. Just for the heck of it really. I'm going to give it a good week or so indoors before doing another hydrometer reading. One question I did have - il batch prime the equivalent of 1 tsp of granulated sugar per 500ml bottle, but how much Splenda would people recommend? As I understand it this is a good way of adding a bit more sweetness to the drink without increasing the carbonation ?

 

[oligopoly]

Just cracked open a bottle out of curiosity. Only bottled 8 days ago... It fizzed which surprised me and the carbonation is fine.

But the smell isn't great - smells slightly sewerage-y. Think the lemons and limes may have been left a little too long while fermenting ??? :-| Taste is ok. Not great, not horrible, just ok.

Hoping it will improve once left alone for a few weeks!

 

[jackcf]

I have just put my mix into the FV and it is showing an OG of 1020. I put the suggested 2.5kg of sugar in. Will adding more sugar bump it up?

Is this going to be a problem? Is there anything i can do get it to 1045 like in the original post?

 

[Snakes]

Put together a batch over the weekend - my first steps into home brew - and waiting to see how it turns out.

Like a lot of other people, the taste going into the FV was epic, the missus was very happy. Nervously waiting to see what it develops into over the next few days/weeks, but I put in about 1 kg of ginger into a 10 litre batch, so it should retain a bit of flavour. I'm thinking of dry-hopping some more ginger later on if it begins to lose its potency.

Yeast has been happily bubbling away, and last night scared SWMBO into thinking someone was thumping around downstairs. It's a new sound in our house, like the pitter patter of joy.

 

[Snakes]

Measured the specific gravity this morning, and in about 2.5 days it had dropped from 1046 to 1001. I don't remember it bubbling away too fiercely, but with only 10 litres does this seem excessively fast? I'm going to leave it to sit for a while longer to make sure it has fermented out and let the flavours develop a bit, but that seems like a very short fermentation time.

 

[hobotronics]

So I'm trying this in a few days. I was wondering if anyone had a definitive recipe for a 1 gallon batch that has turned out good? Ive read through the whole thread and have seen a few different methods. Thanks!

 

[jamie72]

Hi brewed some of this and just strained off into second f.v after a week. Tastes good but has a bit of an eggy smell to it. Is this normal?
First post. Started brewing on Boxing Day after getting a brewing kit for Christmas. Addicted now, haven't bought any beer from the shops for about 2 months.

 

[kRooGa]

Found 4 bottles of last years brew at the back of the shed last weekend. Popped one in the fridge and gave it a try. Absolutely amazing. Crystal clear, sweet, fiery and very tasty. I'll be doing much more of this and laying it away :

 

[simtur88]

Has anyone tried sweetening with Xylitol?

I'm planning on trying 3-4 different non-fermentable sweeteners in order to identify the best.

So far my list is: Xylitol, Splenda and Glycerol. Any other recommendations?

 

[nightroamer]

Just tried this as an optimist as its only my second brew.

Started well, liquor smelt good and this was made up at 1038 at 26 degrees un corrected.

fermented out after 9 days at 0996 at 23 degrees uncorrected.

Had a quick taste and i appear to have bitter water with a bit of fire in it!! what could have gone wrong??
Tried to sweeten and made no real improvement...

Help

 

[psychodave]

Just about to get cracking on this. Went to get ginger from ASDA, £2.89 per KG, and the woman thought it was swede so I got just over 1KG for 55p, bargain!

 

[amuseboucheUK]

Hi, just dropped in to say that I've started a Ginger Beer as per the OP but with the addition of one red hot chilli pepper (capsicum not musician) ... the OG is 1045 so so far we are on track!

 

[Perfectspace]

Hi all - I'm an absolute brewing novice - but found this Forum massively helpful. After making a couple of red wine kits, this caught my eye! So I wanted to check I'm doing this right..... The recipe I've used for 1 Gallon:

250g Fresh grated ginger
1tsp Dried ground ginger
1/4 tsp Cream of tartar
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 Clove
1 lemon + rind
1 lime + rind
425g Sugar
100G Brown Sugar
4.5l bottled water
1/4tsp Yeast nutrient
I used 1g of Wilko's Gervin Universal Wine Yeast (which I believe is EC1118).

After 6 days of intense fizzing it came to a halt, and I have just transferred to a Secondary DJ, and sieved out the rubbish. Added 1 tsp Glycerine.

Temp adjusted OG was 1035 and FG 997 which I think gives me dead on 5%. It's now bubbling once every 3mins. Tastes like... fire water!

So - my question - what next?! Do I bottle now with sugar and sweetner? Or do I wait for... something?!
Cheers

 

[MikeStan]

amuseboucheUK I loved the idea of the Chilli addition, last year i did Moscow Mules muddled with chilli and they went down a storm. can only think this woukd be as good!

 

[Snakes]

Nightroamer - stick with it, it'll come good with time. Mine is nearly 3 months old and all good. It certainly tasted rough at the start.

 

[smudger28]

Ok so I have wanted to try Rick's recipe since scouring the net for recipes. I have followed the recipe to the exact letter but I have a few questions regarding priming etc....

1. When do I add the priming sugar/carbonation drops? I have a hydrometer which displays in red "Bottle beer or add sugar" this is about 1006 SG. Or do I leave it to ferment to dryness and then add priming sugar/drops?

2. If I added the sugar when the hydrometer tells me to could I endanger myself with an exploding bottle scenario?

3. If I added the sugar @ 1006 SG would you add PS and Campden to kill fermentation or would this inhibit the secondary fermentation?

I'm just a bit confused about priming etc since I have never done it before.

Thanks guys

Paul