Home Brew Forum

Here are some pics from my last brew day. It was last weekend (march 29) I hope all the pictures work- They are being hosted on facebook. If they dont show up I'll upload to imageshack.

If you remember from my previous posts I do a very basic ginger beer. My last batch was so popular that I decided to do two carboys this time. my biggest batch yet.

Unfortunately one of my carboys broke when I poured boiling water into it to sterilize it. the bottom cracked out and the water was all over the floor. This made me question if I was being too hard on my glass ware in my methods. I always use boiling water in my 1st carboy and I use it to sterilize my bottles too.

The problem was that it was an old bottle and I guess it wasn't meant for the stress. It had all these neat bubbles and imperfections in it so Im pretty sure it was hand blown. I had taken it to the home brew to get their opinions on it and get it fitted for a bung. One of the guys there even offered to buy it and said if I ever wanted to sell it he'd take it.

So naturally I was pretty sad to see it broken. Oh well I guess it just wasn't meant to be...




Well there is my pile of fresh ginger root. My handy knife. I begin the long process of skinning the ginger to start a new batch of beer.



Still peeling away... It's nice when you have a few brews left over from the previous batch to enjoy while working on a new batch.



here is a pic of the ginger on a rolling boil. It takes at least two pot fulls to fill the carboy.



Here are my two carboys waiting to be filled up. The one on the right is an old hand blown water jug that I came across half buried on one of my walks. I put alot of hours into cleaning and sanitizing this thing.



heres a close up of some of the detail. It says "Silver Springs Water" and has a picture of a little Indian running.



Here's the first half of the brew funneling into the first carboy. I let a few chunks of ginger go into the jar but I take the rest and reboil them for the second half.






here they are, the two carboys full of hot ginger water. The one on the left is the new one I bought to replace my broken antique.

The one on the right looks darker, that is because I added a cup of Demerara sugar to it. (just for color) They both have lightened up alot since then. They are more yellow now.



Now here are a few pics to remember my broken carboy by. As it sits in my recycling pile. RIP

Using boiling water on glass is generally a bad idea as it's not designed to take the sudden change in temperature. Pyrex lab glassware can but normal glassware can't.

I broke a demi john doing the same. The bottom came clean off so I'm now using it as a cloche in the garden.

If it isn't cracked around the sides then you could do the same. Obviously just be careful of the sharp edges

I would be interested in the full recipe and method you use for this ginger beer. Any chance you could post it?

I tend not to peel the ginger, just cut it into half inch lengths and chop the lot in the food processor. Always good to freeze the ginger beforehand and defrost overnight as this bursts the fibres releasing all the lovely ginger oil!

I made the mistake of using my boiler for the last batch of GB; the hop strainer may be fine for hops but it clogged up after a few seconds with the root ginger

Love the colour btw. I used a kilo of brown sugar and it wasnt nearly enough for 25L to give it that lovely dark hue.

MightyMouth wrote:I would be interested in the full recipe and method you use for this ginger beer. Any chance you could post it?

This does look worth doing. I'll give it a go if the recipe is posted. Sorry to see the broken carboy, it must have made an awful mess when it cracked

Wolf's posted guidelines to his method in a thread over here. Although further clarification wouldn't go amiss

Unlucky to lose nice glassware, although to be honest when I saw the title and saw a picture of a knife and ginger I had visions of the next picture being a fingerless hand. And they came back to haunt me when I saw the broken glass everywhere.

anomalous_result wrote:Wolf's posted guidelines to his method in a thread over here. Although further clarification wouldn't go amiss

Thanks for the link.

All that effort and such a nice carboy too, sorry to hear that.

I broke one when it slipped out of my wet hands and was just glad it wasn't full of liquid. I won't use them now for fear of dropping one. Imagine 5 gallons of liquid with lots of glass splinters mixed in - nightmare.

Yea, I know the boiling water is hard on the glass but my made in mexico carboy has been holding up pretty good. One time after filling it with the hot Ginger Water I put it in a bathtub full of cold water to cool it faster. Now thats really asking for trouble. But it took it like a champ. My new carboy is made in Italy and it held up to my boiling water treatment with no problem.

As for the carboys slipping out of your hands; I thought about that too. So I bought these handy handles that clamp to the top. they make it much easier to handle a heavy carboy full of liquid gold.

Thanks anomalous_result for posting that link. If anybody reads my description there and still has any questions Id be happy to answer. This time I used a bit less sugar because the last batch I found to be a little on the sweet side. I never really measure the Ginger but my general rule is more is better. The Ginger root at the grocery store is always dried out so when I go I ask one of the stock boys to pull out a new box.

booldawg wrote:I tend not to peel the ginger,

Love the colour btw. I used a kilo of brown sugar and it wasnt nearly enough for 25L to give it that lovely dark hue.

My first few batches I didn't peel and I found the skins seem to float to the top and dirty up the beer. Peeling is alot of work but I find it makes for a cleaner finished product.

And the colour is nice but after a week it loses it and turns very yellowish. The one with demerara is still slightly darker but they have definitely lost most of their darkness.

If u click this link here to my last post viewtopic.php?t=11561 and look at the first picture, thats what they look like now.


Now this time when I bottle it, I'll buy more ginger and boil it up and use fresh ginger water to dilute. That should give them a stronger ginger flavor. Should be interesting...

I've read on here before that the ginger flavour doesnt last longer and loses it original bite very quickly. Not really a problem as its ready pretty much after carbonating! I used 2kg of root ginger in 25L last time and its still not ridiculously harsh. I drank 2L of it the other night to no ill-effect

Is it alcoholic?

booldawg wrote:I've read on here before that the ginger flavour doesnt last longer and loses it original bite very quickly. Not really a problem as its ready pretty much after carbonating! I used 2kg of root ginger in 25L last time and its still not ridiculously harsh. I drank 2L of it the other night to no ill-effect

It certainly does lose it's bite. thats part of the reason Im diluting it with ginger water next time I bottle. I like the bite.

Martin the fish wrote: Is it alcoholic? Confused

Hell ya! I feel a decent buzz after 2 and after drinking 6 I tend to get pretty silly.


Here's a youtube video I posted of me opening a ginger beer. I filmed it at the same time as I was making this batch...

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=20bgDJ-O6SY

Wolf wrote: As for the carboys slipping out of your hands; I thought about that too. So I bought these handy handles that clamp to the top. they make it much easier to handle a heavy carboy full of liquid gold.

I've read lots of horror stories regarding those handles. The upshot is that you should never lift the entire carboy using only the handle.