Fiery Ginger Beer

[gicarey]

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

if you bottle before it's fermented right out, it'll carry on fermenting the remaining sugar in the bottle, building up pressure, whether that's an issue or not depends on how much sugar there is left, type of bottle, etc I suppose.

If you kill off the yeasts with PS/Campden, then yes that'll stop you getting secondary fermentation, and you'll get a slightly sweeter, still, ginger beer.

 

[smudger28]

Hi Gicarey

Thanks for the reply! I just did not want to end up with 5 gallons of flat ginger beer by risking it fermenting out!

It looks like I'll have to take that gamble. I'm going to use carb drops for half the bottles and sugar for the remaining bottles to see what effect they have!

 

[Oliversmithuk]

How much water was in the original boil?

 

[BruinTuns]

Hi lads
Another newbie here so please excuse ny ignorance. Can anyone tell me what type of sugar goes into this brew? Everything I've read about home brewing says to use brewing sugar (dextrose), but that's when adding to beer kits. Does ginger beer call for ordinary household granulated?
I only read the first 20 or so pages of this mamoth thread so apologies if this question has already been answered.

 

[BruinTuns]

Ok, so in the absence of any response I read through the entire thread and am now able to answer my own question. For anyone joining at this point, the answer is that the dozens of members who have brewed this ginger beer and contributed to this thread have between them tried pretty much all varieties and combinations of sugar from white granulated Tate & Lyle through honey and molasses to Brew enhancer mixed with lactose.
Good luck.

 

[gl0ckage]

Sorry I have been very busy past few months. Any sugars is fine dextrose provides a cleaner taste.

 

[BruinTuns]

Thanks for that gl0ckage. Lots of people seem to have had good results with table sugar, so maybe I'll try a mixture.

 

[Chillistarr]

Prompted by the dwindling of the last batch of beer I started hunting for some inspiration last week and found this thread. Cue some online shopping for yeast (only ever done beer kits before, never had any spare) and physical shopping for a kg of fresh ginger, and all was set. Yeast arrived today, so got grating and slicing - using the recipe in the OP pretty much as is, bar swapping one lime for an orange, and omitting the Cream of Tartar. Topped up the FV to about 20l and pitched at 25c, so we'll see how it goes! SG was 1048, so it looks like it'll be a tad stronger than my previous productions...

 

[gl0ckage]

It's a wonderful brew shame all mines gone

 

[Pcpogo]

Just done rickthebrews recipie with an addition of 1tsp of ground mixed spices.

OG was 1055.

Looking forward to the results.

Question is, how do you drink yours. fizzy or flat?

 

[gl0ckage]

Fizzy all the way, I had some flat and they taste funny.

 

[Pcpogo]

Fizzy all the way, I had some flat and they taste funny.

Lager fizzy or ale fizzy or somewhere I'm between?

 

[Pcpogo]

Lager fizzy or ale fizzy or somewhere in between?

 

[Chillistarr]

Well, it's alive! Not bubbling much, but bubbles non-the-less. Good first step

 

[gl0ckage]

I have mine just below lager, 1 tsp per bottle I use for priming.

 

[Pcpogo]

Ideal.

Gives me a starting point.

Thanks

 

[Chillistarr]

Just racked my brew this morning as bubbling mostly done and I'm tied up at the weekend so didn't want to leave it sitting... Gravity at this point is 992, not really expecting it to go much further. Was aiming for about 7% so the 7.4 I get from the calculator is a decent result I think. Unfortunately the muslin filter I rigged on the inside of the tap in the FV clogged almost instantly, so had to syphon into bucket 2 after all...the plus side, about 4 or 5 pints that the syphon couldn't get out of the mess of bits and sediment

 

[Chillistarr]

Hmmm, seems to have lost the end of that post, never mind...

 

[BruinTuns]

Right, FINALLY got my first ginger beer on the go. I've read through the whole thread and this post is for any other newbies who might have skimmed.

The recipe I used was:
2 kg root ginger (grated, bit of a chore but not too punishing)
Zest and fruit of 3 oranges (bitter pith removed, this is optional)
1 tsp cream of tartar
4 tsps glycerine 4 tsps yeast nutrient
4 tsps Youngs wine yeast
3kg white household sugar (recipe says 2.5 kg biut I'm hoping for a potent brew)

That's it, real simple. Didn't use limes or lemons as some people have reported sharp or bitter flavours and everyone agrees that this brew is dry enough without any extra. Can always add a wedge of lime at the drinking stage.
I used a potato peeler to peel the zest from the oranges - works surprisingly well. I was then able to easily remove the thick layer of pith. Last year I made an orange and almond cake with whole pulped oranges and the cake had an unpleasant bitter, 'soapy' twang.
I used wine yeast because I have a tub of it but only one sachet of champagne yeast. Didn't want to waste that if I made a mistake (nearly did!) and I'll use it in the next batch if this one goes ok.
I hydrated it first. Well, partly. After 20 minutes half the granules were still on the bottom of the glass and I need to get finished so I gently swirled the contents and poured into the fv. Should be fine, most of the lads have dry-pitched.
The Young's instructions call for 1 heaped tsp per gallon which seems a lot; could it be that they just want us to buy more? :hmm:
The mistake was that I pitched at too high a temperature. Ideally the wort (or 'must' should be somewhere between 20 - 25 degrees,. I had topped up to 23 litres with cold tap, but hadn't taken into account the extent to whivch this was warmed by the boiled ginger mixture and then the boiled sugar water. Only after I'd pitched did I realize. The temperature was just over 30 - that's 90 Fahrenheit!
But after some googling it seems that I should be ok. Apparently that temperature will accelerate the fermentation process and may, if I'm unlucky, produce some 'off' flavours, but won't kill the yeast. Phew!
The OG was 1050 which disappointed me at first, but then I remembered that the fermentables is just pure suagr which, unlike the malt used to brew beer,should ferment out almost totally, so the FG should be low enough to give me what I'm after. Fingers crossed..
The fv is chock full of ginger and orange bits and does indeed look like it might stop the brew from coming through the tap - just have to cross that bridge when I get to it. Will update when the time comes.
Good luck with yours...

 

[BruinTuns]

I have a question that I don't think came up anywhere in the thread, so I'll ask it here in case anyone more experienced checks in. :hat:
Most (all?) of my orange/ginger pulp seems to be floating on top of the brew and it's very tempting to give it a gentle stir to get more flavour out of it. But.. I've spent the last hour reading about how bad it is to oxygenate beer at this stage. Does this rule apply to all brewing, or are beers more sensitive? Would it do any harm to give this brew a gentle stir? I really want it to be tasty..