Ginger Beer in a Demi-John

[Wooderson]

Hi there, i'm just getting back into brewing after a 2 year hiatus .I'm looking to do some smaller scale brews until and get my new my place, where i'll have room hopefully for all manner of Cornies and vats of TC
As the title says I want to do a 1 gallon Ginger Beer in a Demi before transfering to some 1 pint bottles i've got.From looking at the recipes they seem to use more sugar then I remember,i'm sure I was only using 1kg for 5 gallons of lager.Is this to retain sweetness in the final product and if so is that why bottling in glass is a bad idea due to the higher sugar content?

Cheers

[Jim]

Bump!

Can anyone help with this one?

[Bongo]

I found and did this recipe last month this only uses 450g of sugar and it tasted great,was sweet enough and the whole family loved it,as instructed i used plastic bottles i didn't want to chance glass but if you really wanted too you just have to be careful and store them in a box away from people and do no more than the 24 hours for carbonation in a warm place before putting in the fridge.

here is the recipe anyway if anyone want's to try it

Ingredients
Two lemons
450gms sugar
8 pints (4.4litres) of water (enough to fill a demi-john)
Flat teaspoonful of Dried Yeast
100gm Fresh root ginger
Two heaped tea spoons of tartaric acid (Cream of Tartar)
Equipment
A large pan that can boil four and a half litres of water
A jug
A glass
A coarse cheese grater
A wooden spoon
A 1 gallon demijohn
A bubble seal for the demijohn
A lemon juicer
A lemon zester
A fine sieve
9 glass or plastic bottles of 500ml volume with screw caps (eg plastic coke bottles)

Method
1. Put 8 pints of water in the large pan and bring it to the boil
2. While the water is coming to the boil...
scrape the zest from one of the lemons
grate the ginger on the coarse cheese grater
add the sugar to the ginger and lemon zest in a bowl
cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice into the jug
add the tartaric acid to the lemon juice
put the yeast into some warm water with a little sugar in a glass
3. When the water has boiled ....
add the sugar, ginger and lemon zest to the water, turn off the heat and stir
allow the water to cool to roughly blood heat, stirring occasionally
add the lemon juice and tartaric acid to the water
add the yeast mixture
4. Use the jug to pour the mixture into the demi-john
5. Seal the demijohn with the bubble seal
6. Stand the demijohn in a warm place for 48 hrs at a bubble rate of 40/minute
7. After 48 hrs pour the mixture through the sieve into the jug and fill the bottles leaving an air gap for the pressure to build up in. Screw the caps tightly onto the bottles (8 pints (4.5l) should fill 9 bottles)
8. Leave the bottles at room temperature for 24 hrs
9. Put the bottles in the fridge for 2-3 days to allow the yeast to settle (failure to do this may result in an explosion!)

1. Open the bottles slowly to release the gas
2. Pour the whole of a bottle into glasses, as any gingerbeer remaining in the bottle will contain quite a lot of yeast.
3. Drink
The ginger beer made this way should be fizzy and fairly sweet.
If you ferment the mixture in the demijohn for longer than 48 hrs then the alcohol content will increase at the expense of the sweetness - try different times to suit your taste.

[maxashton]

400gms sugar
100gms light spraymalt
100gms lactose (aka milk sugar)
40 gms fine grated ginger
1/2 lemon chopped or sliced finely including peel.

Heat 1l water to boil, add dry ingredients and simmer for 20 mins.

Pitch carefully (and slowly to avoid thermal stress) to your demijohn, including or excluding lemon bits. Dilute to 4.5l of water, wait to cool to about 20 degrees then pitch yeast.

You may want to whisk the spraymalt in when the water is just lukewarm, or it might clump up and warrant the use of an immersion blender.

Prime in returnable beer bottles or soft drink bottles in the normal way.

Lactose is for sweetening, and won't ferment. Feel free to adjust ginger, lemon and lactose to suit.

Recipe shamelessly adapted from liqorcraft's excellent recipe pdf. They have others too, worth checking out if you're into other beverages.

[Wooderson]

Thanks for the replies guys,so there really is no recipe that can be bottled in glass then without risk of explosion?

[maxashton]

I've bottled my lemonade in glass. If you prime in the same way as beer i don't see why it wouldn't work.
That said, i don't see a problem with plastic either.

[alefric]

Bongo ...What type of yeast is best to use with this recipe?.......What did you use?

[maxashton]

s-04 or cheap ale yeast.

also, buy extra lactose, these things tend to be dry.

[Bongo]

Bongo ...What type of yeast is best to use with this recipe?.......What did you use?

i used a 6g packet left over from one of my beer kits,as max said any cheap ale yeast or s04 is fine.

[Wooderson]

I've bottled my lemonade in glass. If you prime in the same way as beer i don't see why it wouldn't work.
That said, i don't see a problem with plastic either.

But your due to the extra sugar you'll be using to give the Ginger Beer it's sweetness the bottle exploding would be almost inevitable?

[Ska_J]

But your due to the extra sugar you'll be using to give the Ginger Beer it's sweetness the bottle exploding would be almost inevitable?

I assume that was the point of the lactose sugar. This way, after its finished fermenting, the bottles can be primed with just the right amount of sugar for carbonation, but won't be too dry due to the non-fermentable lactose.

J

[Wooderson]

Yes that's what I was thinking, well it's going now and looking and smelling great.
I'm going to go with plastic, though I may do one in glass as an experiment.

Cheers for the help guys.

[maxashton]

No worries, hope it comes out good.

[Wooderson]

Just got one last question, I forgot to mention I wanted it to be alcoholic but am not sure how long to leave it in the DJ for.I have used the recipe which included 400g of sugar but didn't take a reading, i'm ideally looking for it to be 3-4%.

Cheers

[maxashton]

Should be ok!