Opinions on Ginger beer

[AussieLondon84]

Hi everyone, I had an idea after some reading, and I am wanting to go "all grain" (even though it's not a typical beer so therefore no gains haha).

But my idea is to make a ginger beer using raw ginger 600 grams, and then use cinnamon and cloves in small amounts and chilli flakes, and then use champagne yeast to ferment.
It will also have about 4kg of white table sugar (cane or beet) but I will invert the sugar by simmering it over the stovetop with lemon juice to make into what is essentially golden syrup before adding it to the fermenter.
I think that I will be able to do this all in one simmer with all ingredients incl ginger in there to simmer away and invert the sugar at the same time, OR possibly invert the sugar first and then do a second simmer with the ginger and spices, then add cold water to the top to the right temp, and use my champagne yeast, and then wait.

Any comments are welcome as this is a rough draft idea I thought of after much reading online.
I think I could also go on the safe side and undercarb it into the glass bottles with priming sugar since ginger beer doesn't need to be too fizzy.

What you all reckon?

 

[wheazy_joe]

There are a couple of threads on here about alcoholic ginger beer, could spend a bloody long time reading through them all!

I'm a bit of a fan of Crabbies stuff, and have contemplated making my own a few times but haven't taken the plunge yet. Mostly due to the mixed reviews of stuff made from scratch and also the coppers kit.

Not much of an answer to your question I'm afraid!

 

[AussieLondon84]

There are a couple of threads on here about alcoholic ginger beer, could spend a bloody long time reading through them all!

I'm a bit of a fan of Crabbies stuff, and have contemplated making my own a few times but haven't taken the plunge yet. Mostly due to the mixed reviews of stuff made from scratch and also the coppers kit.

Not much of an answer to your question I'm afraid!

I will give those a read, thanks for the tip, I am new the the forum.
I guess I am more wondering about champagne yeast.

I read the Coopers Ginger beer is not too good as it is too sweet once it is finished (I love the other Coopers kits though).

I want a really dry ginger beer with a little spicy kick and cinnamon and all, so sort of like Crabbies, I guess in a way I am looking to emulate Crabbies to a great degree but with more alcohol, slightly more dry and a bit more spicy.
I agree Crabbies is amazing, but quite pricey to buy, so if I can make it at home and also give it a little more alcohol then I am up for trying it.

 

[Lympicit]

Hey,

You know this is short of what I am planning to do next. Ginger beer with spices.

My plan us to keep it simple and add one spice at a time and see what is good. I'm going to start with fenugreek or cardamon.

Let me know how you get on.

M

 

[Labowner]

I'm not a big fan of the Crabbies but I love the Sains 'be good to yourself' Ginger Beer its tasty stuff.
Interesting about the coopers kit as I was considering trying it. Fraid I know nothing of any assistance to you but I will be watching to see how you get on with the fingers crossed as I will want to brew something similar some day :)

 

[mike-os]

I found the coopers kit to be pretty good if you leave it long enough

 

[AussieLondon84]

Hey,

You know this is short of what I am planning to do next. Ginger beer with spices.

My plan us to keep it simple and add one spice at a time and see what is good. I'm going to start with fenugreek or cardamon.

Let me know how you get on.

M

I just put the 23 Litre batch down yesterday, but yeah, used tap water, so I am concerned about the chlorine content since I live in London.
I used Champagne Yeast to pitch, main ingredients for the boil were, 520 grams ginger (peeled, sliced and blended), 50 cloves, 9 teaspoons lemon juice, 5 teaspoons of chilli flakes (Habanero) 2 cinnamon sticks, a 150 grams of molasses (black treacle from cane), 3 kilograms white sugar (from beet as that's all ASDA stock rather than proper old fashioned cane sugar ) but I inverted the sugar to separate the glucose from the fructose, then boiled/simmered everything together for 1 hour 20mins before adding to the fermenter with cold tap water (could have been a major mistake to use cold tap water due to chlorine content).
(I use the molasses/white sugar combo since it is cheaper than using brown/demerrera/ raw sugar, and it basically puts back the raw sugar together again, since molasses and white sugar come from raw sugar in the first place).

I am concerned if there are health risks due to chlorine in the water for brewing since with the amount of spices in my brew I doubt I can taste off flavours haha.

 

[Lympicit]

Wow, that sounds more like volcanic than fiery.

 

[AussieLondon84]

I added another 2kg worth of inverted sugar with lemons to the fermenter, but forgot to take a reading with the hydrometer so now I got no idea how alcoholic this will be, it read 1052 with the 3kg of sugar, so adding more 2 more kg, not sure what the total potential alcohol will be (using champagne yeast).

Any ideas what the potential ABV of this is with a total of 5kg of sugar for 23 litres?

 

[Lympicit]

Hey Aussie,

I'm not fantastic at working out what alcohol content something might have. I'm rather wishy washy on the numbers.

How is the ginger beer coming? Is it too hot for you?

I'm yet to get a ginger beer variant going. I've still to bottle about 20l of regular ginger beer and I'm running out of space with demijohns of wine taking over my kitchen and airing cupboard.