Ginger Beer!

[dean_wales]

Hi there,

I am looking to make some proper alcoholic ginger beer. Similar but not as sweet as Crabbies

I want to mak the bottle conditioned kind and not the american plant styles ones. Does anyone have any reccomended recipes?

The onyl recipe I can find is this one from a pdf I googled by Liquorcraft. But I am sure it is meant to have cream of tartar in it and I am not sure about using lactose? Where would I get that anyway?

Traditional Ginger Beer

This recipe makes a semi-sweet alcoholic lemonade of about 4.5% strength. You can vary the sweetness by varying the amount of lactose in the recipe or make it dry by leaving the lactose out altogether (see notes).

Equipment:
• 25 litre fermenter
• A priming scoop for measuring sugar into the bottles
• Homebrew sterilizing compound
• Beer or screw top soft drink bottles

Ingredients:
• 2kg glucose/dextrose
• 500g malt extract
• 500g lactose
• 100g to 200g crushed or grated fresh ginger (vary to suit your own taste)
• Up to 4 lemons, sliced or chopped fine including peel (optional)
• 5g yeast nutrient
• 1 sachet SO4 yeast
• Water to make up 22 litres of wort

Method:
1. Heat 5 litres of water then add glucose, malt, lemons & ginger & simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Sterilize your fermenter according to directions on the sterilizing compound.
3. Add about 12 litres of cold water into your fermenter. Pour the hot mixture through a straining bag (available at homebrew suppliers) into the fermenter.
4. Top up with cold water to the 22 litre mark add the yeast nutrient & stir well.
5. Make sure the temperature is 30C or less & add the yeast, fit a fermentation lock in the lid of the fermenter & half fill it with water.
6. The fermentation should start within 24 hours although it usually only takes a couple of hours to start. When it starts, bubbles should be rising through the ginger beer & stream through the water in the airlock.
7. Allow the ginger beer to ferment until it stops then allow it to settle & clear for 48 hours.
8. Use a priming scoop (available from homebrew suppliers) to add a measure of sugar to each bottle.
9. Fill the bottle to about 50mm from the top then seal it firmly with a crown seal or screw cap.
10. Store these bottles in a warm place for a week or 2 to allow them to condition (become fizzy). They will now be ready to drink.

Notes:
You can vary the quantities of lemons & ginger to suit your own taste. You cannot use sugar or glucose to sweeten a bottle fermented drink like this because it will cause the bottles to explode. This ginger beer is sweetened with lactose which is a non-fermentable sweetener. You can add more or less lactose to suit your own taste. As a rough guide, lactose is about half as sweet as sugar.

What do you guys reckon? Any tips or links to other recipes? I will probably just do a stove top gallon or two first time round.

Thanks,

Dean.

[dave-o]

Do you want to make
-a ginger ale, like the soft drink but alcoholic
or
-an ale, but with ginger in it?

[EramusBlack]

Assuming (as you mention Crabbies) you want to be making an alcoholic Ginger Beer, rather than a beer with ginger in it.

Yes, it should have cream of tartar and I'd use a champagne yeast, for the bubbles ... but without the malt and a lot more ginger ... if fact abandon that recipe altogether ... I have a recipe for a ginger beer if you are interested.

[dean_wales]

I am looking to make ginger beer not beer with ginger!

Can you or anyone else suggest a better reciepe? I have already aquired some golden caster sugar, champagne yeast and cream of tartar.

Dean.

[EramusBlack]

Ingredients:
750 g ginger root, grated
2 kg sugar
2 lemons, sliced
150g of Sultanas
3/8 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 Packet of Champagne Yeast
Approx 11.5 Litres of water

Instructions

1. Boil as much water as you can get in your stock pot, peel the lemons (avoiding pith), then throw in the peel and squeeze in the juice.
2. Grate the ginger (skin too) and throw in along with the cream of tarter.
3. Add sugar and reduce temp to simmer for about 30 mins.
4. Add 150g of Sultanas to the fermenter then pour the liquid on top and fill up to 11.5 ltrs with water. Once cooled to fermentation temp sprinkle the yeast on top.
5. Cover and ferment for 4 days.
6. Strain and squeeze the juice from the pulp and transfer to a clean fermenter until complete (usually about 5 / 7 days).
6. Bottle in strong glass bottles adding 1/2 teaspoon of priming sugar to each.
If you wish to make smaller/larger batches then adjust the ingredients accordingly. This will make a drink of approx 6% ABV. Reduce the sugar if you want to lower the ABV.

Open with care as they can be a bit lively.

Adjust the recipe as necessary, as I think this is a little stronger than you were looking for.

[Philipek]

I've been making ginger beer like this for a while, then got my mates into it, who've been making ginger beer for about 6 months in pop bottles. I've tried white sugar, brown sugar and demerara and they all have a very noticeable effect on the taste. After about 2 months the demerara was gorgeous, but before then it was a bit funky. I'll try the sultanas in my next batch.

I generally leave it to ferment for a 2 - 3 weeks, that's how long it takes to go through all the sugar. If you're bottling after 4 days it will be lively because it's still fermenting, though I suppose it'll be sweet.

I bought the cream of tartar but have never remembered to add it. I also strain the must before I add the yeast.

[EramusBlack]

I generally leave it to ferment for a 2 - 3 weeks, that's how long it takes to go through all the sugar. If you're bottling after 4 days it will be lively because it's still fermenting, though I suppose it'll be sweet.

I think the recipe I posted may be unclear - I ferment for 4 days, then strain, then continue the fermentation for a few more days (5 - 7)

[dean_wales]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the input. I have revised my plans and come up with the following recipe:

Ginger Beer

Ingredients:
5 UK Gallons / 24 Litres water
2kg Golden caster sugar
500g Grated/blitzed fresh ginger
5 Lemons (zest and juice)
1 Orange (zest and juice)
1 tsp Cream of tartare
5 Cloves
1/2 tsp of mixed spice
500g Lactose powder
Sachet of champagne yeast

Method:
Boil all the water before hand. Then boil up all of the ingredients with 1 gallon of the water.
Strain into FV and pitch yeats after taking OG and checking temperature.
Leave this to ferment for approximately 1 to 2 weeks in airlocked FV.
Check FG and then prime bottles as usual and bottle condition for 3-4 weeks before consumption.

This should hopefully be what I am after. A drink of approx 4%-5% alcohol that is tangy and gingery but not so dry as to be undrinkable.

Suggestions welcome about quantities of lactose and cream of tartare. Ive seen sultanas in some recipes are they needed?

I might add half a kilo of a darker sugar or malt extract powder but will probably go with somethig similar to the above.

Dean.

[Philipek]

From what I've read, (probably here) unfermentable sugars are not sweet. So the lactose will give it body, but it won't add any sweetness.

I think that there are four things you can do to up the sweetness -

1. mess around with sulphites, kill the yeast at about 1.010, then force carbonate.
2. let it ferment dry and add sugar in whatever form when you drink it - sprite, unfermented ginger must, table spoon of sugar etc.
3. brew it really facemeltingly strong - 1.070.
4. bottle it before it's finished fermenting in pop bottles and chuck it in the fridge to really slow the yeast down.

Ooh, malt extract - it really will be a beer then. I might give that a go, ferment it with a belgian yeast.

Sultanas certainly aren't needed. I have never used them, but I will next time, and cloves. I like the idea of mixed spice, too. I might do five spice and have a mulled ginger beer for Christmas.

Phil

[ormian7]

I started my first Ginger Beer last night after following a couple of recipes I went for -

300g fresh ginger finely grated
500g sugar
3 tsp honey
2 lemons
1 lime
1 stick of cinnamon
1 tsp Young's wine yeast

I boiled about 1l of water and added the juice and peels from the lemon and lime , the sugar, the honey, the grated ginger and the cinnamon stick. I simmered this for about 20 minutes

I then chucked it all in a 1 gallon glass demi-john. Topped this up with cold water. Let it cool down and added the yeast

It was bubbling along nicely this morning

I am going to give it 4 days in there, then fine sieve it into another demi-john (top up with water) and leave it for another 5-7 days before bottling it in wine bottles and sticking it in the fridge

Like I say, my first go. Any comments/suggestions?

[irc]

My latest try at Ginger Beer is

500g demorara sugar
1.5Kg cane sugar
500ml lemon juice
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tub (38g) ground ginger
400-500g grated raw ginger
1 tub Asda sweetner (75g)
1 tsp yeast food.

Grate raw ginger & boil with sugar, ground ginger, and cinnamon. Put in fermenter add lemon juice, sweetener, and yeast food and make up to 24L

Usually ferments from 1030 to below 1005 in 5 or 6 days. We drink it as a thirst quencher so go for a lowish 3 - 3.5% ABV.

[Old Speckled Ben]

Hi

I'm just trying this one that I found:

http://productsfromnz.com/pics/pdf_1419.pdf

I'm giving it much longer to ferment than the 48hrs it states, though lol

[Mike '77]

Ingredients:
750 g ginger root, grated
2 kg sugar
2 lemons, sliced
150g of Sultanas
3/8 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 Packet of Champagne Yeast
Approx 11.5 Litres of water

Instructions

1. Boil as much water as you can get in your stock pot, peel the lemons (avoiding pith), then throw in the peel and squeeze in the juice.
2. Grate the ginger (skin too) and throw in along with the cream of tarter.
3. Add sugar and reduce temp to simmer for about 30 mins.
4. Add 150g of Sultanas to the fermenter then pour the liquid on top and fill up to 11.5 ltrs with water. Once cooled to fermentation temp sprinkle the yeast on top.
5. Cover and ferment for 4 days.
6. Strain and squeeze the juice from the pulp and transfer to a clean fermenter until complete (usually about 5 / 7 days).
6. Bottle in strong glass bottles adding 1/2 teaspoon of priming sugar to each.
If you wish to make smaller/larger batches then adjust the ingredients accordingly. This will make a drink of approx 6% ABV. Reduce the sugar if you want to lower the ABV.

Open with care as they can be a bit lively.

Adjust the recipe as necessary, as I think this is a little stronger than you were looking for.

i'm about to do my first run of GB - what sugar do you recomend? I was thinking raw sugar? what is the purpose of the sultanas - i've seen other recipes using them, are they for taste or sugars? any input is greatly welcome....

[dean_wales]

Hi guys,

I went with my reciepe and would reccomend it. The lactose means it isnt dry but not overly sweet either. It finish translucent rather than clear I would say a bit clearer and very similar to cloudy lemonade.

My only feeling is the grated ginger, the more the better it isnt overpower in my recipe. I would go for more next time. I would also forget the sulatanas!

Dont forget to prime with plenty of sugar!

Dean.

[Mike '77]

glad your brew went well - i've got 1.5kg of root for mine to try, want the fieryness of the ginger. have you done the same brew wihout the lactose? did you use normal white sugar?