Fiery Ginger Beer

[GHW]

Made this today, 12L. My first venture outside of ales. Very feisty taste to the sample and an OG of 1048 which slightly worries me given how low it can finish! Used the recipe someone lists on page 2, saved myself bother by just chopping 1k of unpeeled ginger roughly and then blitzing in the food processor.

Still too warm to pitch yeast so going out for the afternoon then will do that later.

I plan to drink it in July as we're having a work picnic in honour of my 40th! My drunkard work colleagues will go a bundle for it.

 

[HarrowBrewer]

I'm on my third batch of this, it has been a great brew so far. My current attempt is still in the FV, and this time I've used 4 bags of frozen ginger (Taj crushed ginger 85p for 400g from Morrisons) which made the brewing process a LOT easier, as grating and shredding the root ginger was quite a faff, and the frozen stuff just goes straight in the pan and mixes easily, so I'm hoping the end result will be the same. I've also used 500g of light spray malt, which I used in my second brew, and that helped give it a bit of body. I've missed out the lemons and limes this time, as I did on the second brew and it really didn't seem to make any difference. I've back sweetened both previous brews with 8 table-spoons of splenda before priming and bottling which is sweet enough for the wife and me, it goes down a treat over ice, with sometimes a splash of raspberry cordial...

 

[GHW]

Mine's still fizzing like mad. Not sure how long to give it before bottling, bit concerned at the quantity of ginger etc floating on top and whether it will go manky. Assuming the co2 will stop that happening for a bit but as soon as its exposed to air it might start to go off. Think I'll just wait for a day or two after activity seems to have stopped, then go for it. Suspect it'll be v dry and v strong, going to use Splenda to sweeten, about a teaspoon per 500mls.

 

[GHW]

Hmm. Bottled this tonight and frankly it tasted like p*ss. Hot, dry, bitter p*ss, like you'd imagine a cat with cystitis might produce.

perhaps I should have peeled the ginger. Still, I'll stick with it. It might improve. Added a teaspoon of Splenda per bottle and some brewing sugar to prime. Christ knows if it will be remotely drinkable, time will tell. Shan't be too upset as was all rather experimental anyway!

 

[Toonahfish]

So mine's been going for a little over two weeks now. OG was about 1033 and it's now down to about 1000 or so. The airlock is down to one gurgle every 5 or 10 mins or so, and I can still see little bubbles rising through the glass of the demijohn. I'm going to give it a few more days and then bottle over the weekend. It's looking like it'll be about about 4.5%, which is pretty bang on, I think!

 

[HarrowBrewer]

I bottled my most recent batch last night, the frozen ginger has worked a treat, nicely fiery, lovely golden colour and it leaves a very compacted trub, which made bottling easier. I got just under 19 litres, sweetened with 8 tablespoons of splenda and batch primed with 90g of sugar. The champagne yeast got the fg right down to 1.000 so it should come out at just under 6% abv. I'll have to wait and see how it turns out after conditioning, but so far the frozen ginger has been a real winner in terms of cost and ease of use.

 

[ballomar]

Hmm. Bottled this tonight and frankly it tasted like p*ss. Hot, dry, bitter p*ss, like you'd imagine a cat with cystitis might produce.

Yes, same happened to me. It was OK after 18 months conditioning however!

I think next time, I'm going to use S-33 which is a low attenuation (70%) yeast and quite a high starting gravity. This should, I hope, leave quite a bit of residual sweetness. I might also add molasses or honey which could soften the ginger.

My concern is that S-33 is an ale yeast and it might have trouble inverting the sucrose and fermenting the fructose.

 

[johnfosteruk]

This looks amazing. Day off on Weds, so off to buy some ginger methinks.

 

[CharleyFarley]

Hi
Inspired by Rickthebrew's recipe - and subsequent feedback - I have just made a batch. The only difference I made was three lemons instead of two, as they were quite small. The other thing I did was 'make it up' to 22.7 litres as it said '5 gallons' originally. I have now reread the thread, and think that I should have made it up to 25litres - is this going to be a problem? Will it make it more alcoholic or less?
I don't seem to be able to find any comments on where to keep the fermenting bin - our airing cupboard isn't big enough. The central heating is now off for the summer - this should be okay, shouldn't it?
Cheers!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

You have 5 gallons, I would leave it at that.

At this tine of year there is no need to use a heat source, fermentation adds a couple of degrees so it'll be fine.

 

[CharleyFarley]

It's not bubbling - what have I done wrong?:-|

 

[CharleyFarley]

- I lied - it is bubbling - about every 50 seconds - I thought it would be going mad by now, though!

 

[johnfosteruk]

I set this going a few weeks ago as per the recipe in the first post and it started quite sedately. Fermented out in about a week though so you've nothing to worry about.

 

[CharleyFarley]

Thanks John
It's about 12 - 18 seconds now - although, apparently it isn't an indication - just for those, like me, who trawl for such information!

I shan't test with the hydrometer until Tuesday - a week after making.

 

[Dabe]

So, I knocked up a batch of this pretty much to rickthebrew's recipe, however I peeled the ginger and stuck all of the fruit and ginger through a masticating juicer before hitting the boil (apart from the grated zest of my lemons and oranges, plus a fresh chilli). I also strained all of the boiled ingredients into a loose muslin bag before leaving it all in a 23l fermenting vessel and substituted 500g of white sugar for brown sugar to try and give it a bit more colour and character.

It was bubbling away like mad for the first few days before I transferred to to the cellar to try and keep it cool in the summer heat, and 23 days later it's still fermenting away quietly, however now it's not so violent. I couldn't resist taking a cheeky sample and according to my hydrometer, it's currently at 7.1%.

I'm hoping to bottle it up at sometime next week, with a bit of Canderal or similar to sweeten it up a bit as it was a bit on the dry side from my quick taste test. It was unfortunately also a little bit lacking on the ginger front (despite using 1.7kg of fresh ginger plus a few spoons of ginger powder), so I was wondering about anyone's thoughts on adding some more powdered ginger to the bottling vessel when batch priming? Could it end up being a little too raw by adding in extra spice at this point or might it just add the little bit of extra kick that it might require?

 

[CharleyFarley]

Well, day 10 and it's bubbling at about every 22 seconds. I've just tested it and it is down to 1010 - from 1040 - about 4%? It tastes nice - about the right amount of gingeriness, flat (I suppose this will be better when I put it in the bottles and add the sugar), but not enough 'body' - is that because it hasn't finished yet? Still tastes a bit 'yeasty' - again, it hasn't fermented out yet. It is a bit too drinkable! Any idea why it is taking so long?

 

[Sir_Tmas]

Been wanting to do this for a couple of years now and have finally got round to doing it! Followed Ricks recipe pretty much. The only change was I added an orange or two to the mix!

Grated ginger (was an absolute nightmare), sliced lemons/limes/orange + water into a pan and simmered for about 30 mins. Dissolved the sugar and then put into FV and topped up with cold water to 5G. Didn't have a thermometer kicking about so not sure of the adjusted OG, but took a reading anyway at 1046. Dry pitched the yeast (Wilko's wine yeast + nutrient + sachet of cream of tartre), plonked the lid on and away it's gone!

It's been bubbling away for little over 2 weeks now. Assuming the reading stays the same over the next couple of days, I'm looking at roughly 6.6%. The hydrometer sample tasted great!

Not sure whether to shift it into another vessel or just put it straight into bottles though. I've borrowed a second vessel from a friend who hadn't washed it in over a year (with a bit of his brew left in for good measure) so it's stained as hell and is proving difficult to clean. There's all sorts of black bits (which look like specks of actual outside dirt) stuck to the inside. If I run a bomb load of sterilising powder through this, surely the dirt will then be sterile though so it'll be fine?

If that's not advised, I'll put it straight into bottles. Gonna have to be 2l plastic bottles as I'm planning on taking as much of this brew as possible to this years Glastonbury...still not entirely sure if this is actually a good idea!

I have a couple of questions though and would really appreciate any help!

1) Regarding the specks of dirt stuck to the side of the secondary vessel as mentioned above. Any ideas?
2) I've conditioned in glass bottles before - about 1tsp sugar per 500ml. For 2 litre bottles, would it be a straight 4 tsp per bottle or is the ratio sort of logarithmic? I'd rather not end up with bottles that could set off small earthquakes!
3) Regarding plastic bottles - I've read that brown bottles are the best, as it blocks out some of the sun, which for some reason is better for the beer. Is this the case? Also, as the bottles would be brown, I'm assuming that they would hold the heat, so....
4) Is heat anything to worry about? They are gonna be stored in a tent for a few days, so I'm hoping that the heat won't cause them to explode! The festival is set to be a wash out, but I'd still much rather my tent be flooded with rain water than sticky ginger beer and wasps!

All help is massively appreciated, and either way, I'll update this post on my progress as it gets a bit further!

Much love.

 

[ballomar]

Sorry if this post is a bit nonsensical, but I've just tried my new ginger beer. Hick! It's gone straight to my head! Hick!

I think I've almost found ginger beer nirvana. As I've previously discovered, if in doubt, follow the recipes suggested by Stephen Harrod Buhner.

What I did was this:

- 1 gallon water
- 12 ounces brown sugar
- 1 1/2 ounces ginger
- 1 tbsp cream of tartar

I ended up with OG a bit over 1.040 because I added a bit extra sugar. I also boiled the water, sugar and cream of tartar, in the the belief (perhaps wrong) that this would help invert the brown sugar and hence give the yeast an easier time. I used Safale S-33. I was worried that as an ale yeast it wouldn't cope with the sucrose, but it chomped it up fine.

Primary took just on two weeks for it to stop bubbling, which is longer than just using malt takes. Probably because the S-33 needed a bit more time for the fructose. Surprisingly, it fermented all the way down to 1.000; S-33 is supposed to be a fairly low attenuation yeast.

I then primed a couple of bottles with honey and the rest with white sugar.

I first opened a bottle primed with white sugar. Nice hit of ginger at the beginning, but a bit thin on the palate. It's OK but needs a bit more body. I'm wondering whether using some molasses or dark crystal malt in primary might fix this.

Then, I opened a bottle primed with honey. It's really good. The problem with the thin body is gone. I don't normally like honey flavoured beers, but there is almost no honey flavour in this. The honey seems to have contributed only body. This is really good.

So, this is it! I've found a really good (alcoholic) ginger beer. The questions remain: would it be better to put honey in primary rather than priming the bottles with it? what effect would extra molasses in primary have? What if I used US-04?

 

[keirtristan]

I made one recently, roughly based on this recipe. Came out at about 10%. Added some fresh strawberries and lime and mixed brown and white sugars.

With the champagne yeast was seriously dry, some people preferred to add up to 100% lemonade on top. Others loved it neat. Either way people loved it. May make something similar again.

 

[Tazmaniandevil]

Regarding the specks of dirt stuck to the side of the secondary vessel as mentioned above. Any ideas?

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.