Ginger brews slow to start?

[TRXnMe]

Has anyone else had trouble getting a ginger based brew to start?

Over the weekend I made up 5 gallons of ginger beer, 1.8 kilos root ginger, ginger powder, 2 kilos sugar, 1.28 kilos of golden syrup, a few cloves, some juniper berries, 3 lemons.

I got the wort into the FV and added cold water to 23 litres, then let it cool a little while before adding champagne yeast and two crushed nutrient tablets, screwed the FV cap on, filled the airlock and sat back. Checked it 5 hours later and it had formed a small head from the yeast, got home from work today and noting, nada, zip, no bubble, no head just gingery smelling liquid.

I used the ginger to make up a couple more litres of wort, added 2 kilos of sugar and filled two demi johns with the wort plus cold water, left to cool and added wine yeast and nutrient. The two demi johns are barely bubbling, hardly anything there.

I know ginger is an antispetic, very good for the bladder etc, is it slowing my yeast down, or could there be summat else?

I used videne at 1.25ml per litre to sanitise the cleaned FV and the demi johns and then rinsed both out, the FV with boiling water and the FVs with cold tap water.

I've pitched some more yeast into the FV and will see what happens tomorrow, here's fingers crossed.

 

[pittsy]

i've brewed this twice now , my first was very slow to start and it didn't finish for 3 weeks but my 2nd batch which was diff recipe started normal 24hrs etc and was done in around 10 ish days , so i say just wait it may be just a slow fermenter

 

[oldbloke]

I've just started 2 demijohns of TC, identical except one had 280g of root ginger boiled in the water I made the tea out of.
If anything the ginger one is slightly ahead - but it may have got just slightly more than half the yeast.

 

[TRXnMe]

Thanks for that oldbloke, I shall postpone panic for a day or two then :)

Just checked the demi johns and the foam on top (krausen?) is growing, so I'm hoping it's catching on :)

 

[oldbloke]

Of course, my TC has all sorts of stuff the yeast likes in it, so not really directly comparable, but I've used ginger in a few now and never noticed any slowdown.
Maybe a pure ginger beer lacks something the yeast would enjoy, but you added nutrient and a few other things that ought to cheer it up.
Poor wort aeration, maybe?

What's the weather like? I'm sure mine change speed when the rain arrives or leaves. And I had a dandelion wine that cleared halfway down the demi when a front came in then went cloudy again when it had passed. Very odd.

 

[lovelldr]

I've done 2 gingers beers also. FIrst, was one that I made up using root ginger, lemons, water etc. This one didn't appear to ferment much at all during the actual ferment process, but hydrometer readings proove it did :p

Second, was a kit adaptation... I used the coopers ginger beer base, added some extra root ginger, some lemon, cinammon, star anise,and can't remember whether anything else. But, this was flying. Granted, there was 1.5kg sugar and 0.5kg light dme... But, it was like this after 2 days:

Had a little taste of one last night ... really quite a nice drink. Just needs to round off a little and finish carbonating! But, quite pleased and impressed by it...

 

[TRXnMe]

OK, still not a bubble from the airlock

I took the lid off it and gave it a bloody good stir, will see what happens next.

Out of paranoia I went over the ingredients I used, there is potassium metabisulfite in the lemon juice I added, to bulk out the three lemons I'd already put in (call me stupid, I know), so that may be the problem

I did leave the wort on a simmer for a good 30 to 40 minutes after adding the lemon juice, shouldn't this have driven off the preservatives in it? Or is potassium metabisulfite immune to heat?

 

[oldbloke]

Spoze it might be. It's only the same as a Campden though, which stuns but doesn't usually totally kill yeast.
It is beginning to sound like a re-pitch job though

 

[TRXnMe]

Spoze it might be. It's only the same as a Campden though, which stuns but doesn't usually totally kill yeast.
It is beginning to sound like a re-pitch job though

OK, I'm out of champagne yeast, but have plenty of Young's wine yeast, so if it's still not showing tomorrow I'll give it another ruddy good stir and chuck some of that in the FV.

It smells very nice, so worst case is I'm stuck with some ginger pop.

Thanks for the advice and moral support :)

 

[TRXnMe]

Mystery solved

Some how the the O ring sealing the lid of my FV had fallen out, dunno where it has gone, but it's gone. Fitted a new one and the airlock is damn near going into orbit :)

The question now is what is it going to taste like? I panicked this morning and pitched some more yeast into it, a load of Young's wine yeast, that on top of the champagne yeast already in there it might be 'interesting' to see which wins in the flavour competition.

 

[oldbloke]

Mystery solved

Some how the the O ring sealing the lid of my FV had fallen out

My ginger TC stopped bubbling today though the straight one next to it is doing 4 a second and I could see the CO2 rising in the demi. Didn't ram the bung home fully after topping up.

 

[TRXnMe]

Well, after two weeks in the FV and no visible activity for the last 5 days I decided to keg / bottle my ginger beer, I'm sat here with about half a pint of the stuff from the end of the vat, by 'ell it's dry, and by 'ell it's strong

FG was just under 0.990 (my head wontt do the match, the meniscus was 2 lines below the one marked 0.990 on my hydrometer)

Starting gravity was quite high with nearly 4 kilos of fermentables, plus whatever came out of the ginger, in the vat, I'm almost wondering if it's not close to 10%!!!

I've filled 6 bottles to take to friends in 3 weeks time, a little young, but you have to live dangerously now and then :) the rest went into a keg and is now in a nice warm place getting on with secondary fermentation :)

It's supposed to be for the wife, but having carried out stringent quality control (I've supped 1/4 pint by now) it might be too strong for girls, I might have to dispose of it myself to protect her liver

To all those who posted recipes for 'real' ginger beer, and those who subsequently offered moral support with this brew I thank you all sincerely

 

[pittsy]

nice 1 mate , if its around 10% your brew will need around 12 weeks plus to be ready , maybe longer as ginger beers tend to take a long time to condition plus its a strong 1 so longer still

 

[TRXnMe]

nice 1 mate , if its around 10% your brew will need around 12 weeks plus to be ready , maybe longer as ginger beers tend to take a long time to condition plus its a strong 1 so longer still

Thanks for that, I'll mark the calendar, 3 months from today makes it mid October, so should be brilliant for bonfire night, along with the toffee apple cider / wine I've racked off today.

What doesn't get drunk on bonfire night will be very nice for christmas :)