Ginger Beer advice please!

[seamus]

Hi all!

Got a ginger beer question which I hope you guys can help with?

Me and the missus made a gallon of ginger beer using blended ginger and lemon juice/zest, some yeast that came with a beer kit and 500g of sugar

after 2 days it was like sweet nectar

after 10 days it was like dry ginger wine - totally undrinkable

so to avoid dumping it I bought 1&1/2 litres of fiery jamaican ginger beer and added that - tasted lovely so it got bottled :thumb:

only problem was the preservatives in the ginger beer we bought and added must have killed the yeast so the result was a flat beer :|

so apart from buying a carbonating kit what are our options to get a sweet, fizzy, alcoholic ginger beer??

thanks for any help (again!)

J...

 

[H0N3YoM0N5T3R]

backtwn mate with splenda as it dosnt ferment. al;so if ya puttingit in bottles but a bit opf sugar to help get the fizz thats wat i will be doing next

 

[simonkidder]

The ginger beer you added will have preservatives in it so it will kill all the yeast and won't prime in the bottle to create fizz. The only way to get it sweeter after fermenting is as honey monster says sweeten with splender. Only way you can make it fizzy now is in a corny keg and force carbonate as far as I know.

 

[ScottM]

Would boiling the whole lot, to kill the preservatives, and then re-pitching some fresh yeast not get you what you are after?

 

[simonkidder]

It would but it would boil off all the alcohol then you would have to use a hydrometer to check the sugar levels to make sure you got a half decent alcohol level once fermented and also risk bad taste if there are any artificial sugar in there during ther fermentation..... I think

 

[ScottM]

Mix it with lemonade when you want to drink, job done.

Either that or I think it'll be destined for the pan.

 

[seamus]

of course - splenda or some other artificial sweetener

hmmm - gonna have to get experimenting then as I plan on brewing 5g's for the Jubilee celebrations!!

thanks chaps!!

 

[ScottM]

That won't fix your carbonation issue though. If you're not fussed about it being flat then plain old sugar is fine.

 

[tazuk]

+1 :thumb:

Mix it with lemonade when you want to drink, job done.

Either that or I think it'll be destined for the pan.

 

[seamus]

yar I was going to add priming sugar for carbonation and sweetener to remove the dryness

lemonade sounds like a good bet too - fizzy and sweet! :

 

[ScottM]

yar I was going to add priming sugar for carbonation and sweetener to remove the dryness

lemonade sounds like a good bet too - fizzy and sweet! :

I'm confused. Are you talking about your current batch or the next batch? The current batch is fooked as far as carbonation goes, your only chance is to add a pre-carbonated mixer.

You're previous posting seemed to be geared towards your current flat batch with the ginger beer mixed into it?

 

[seamus]

sorry mate - i'm talking about the next batch! :