# How Much Lactose For A Ginger Beer



## lucas (30/4/06)

I've made a ginger beer up, its one of the ones where the artificial sweetener is separate so I've opted to use lactose instead to achieve some sweetness.

The brew is basically a whole lot of sugar and not much else (1.5kg of dex, .5kg light dried malt [and thats .5kg more than the can said to use], .25kg of lactose and the ginger flavoured concentrate)

I tasted the SG sample and it didnt taste very sweet at all. now I assume that the sweetness is only going to drop as the sugars ferment so what I'm basically wondering is how much lactose should I have used? has anyone done a ginger beer like this before? how much lactose and how sweet would you rank it?

Im assuming i can add more lactose when i bulk prime as if im not mistaken its not fermentable so it shouldnt cause bottle bombs.

on another related note, is it likely that the can came with a special yeast that is happy to just eat sugar? the can recommended recipe was just 1kg of sugar, the artificial sweetener, the ginger flavour and the yeast


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## Foz (30/4/06)

Hey Lucas

It would help if you named the can that you have purchased, but we'll work around that 

I've done plenty of extract gingerbeer brews and have never felt the need to add extra sweetners. 

The cans i've found to turn out excellent ginger beers are both the Morgans and Coopers kits.

The recipe i'm most happy with is to add 1kg of dextrose, 500g of Brown sugar and 500g of light dried malt. 

With the Morgans kit this turns out quite 'heavy' yet incredibly tasty!

Same goes for the Coopers kit although the alcohol is lessened because of the kit size. 

If your worried about sweetness then i'd suggest buying one of these kits, you wont be dissappointed.

Oh and the yeasts that come with the kits seem to do the trick and ferment within about 6 days (22degrees).

Hope this helps!


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## lucas (30/4/06)

The kit was made buy westbrew and is their "old fashioned ginger beer kit". it's a little different from most of the other kits as it only has a tiny little bottle of concentrated ginger extract (id guess about 100ml?) and no included fermentables. those poor yeast arent getting much malt in this brew


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## Zizzle (30/4/06)

Sorry for the slight hijack lucas,

I've got a can of Coopers Ginger beer here. It says:

1. Empty the contents of this can into a fermenter with 2 litres of hot water and 1kg of raw sugar - dissolve thoroughly.

When they say raw sugar, do they mean the table "raw sugar" that you would get at a supermarket or 1kg of dextrose?


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## Foz (30/4/06)

hmm sounds interesting. well i'd still go about it as per the instructions on the kit but i wouldn't have the highest expectations. (sorry to say)

I once did a sasaparella (SP?) that had similar sounding amounts of ingrediants as the ginger beer brew that you're doing. When i followed the instructions i ended up with a 'nothing' of a brew. Sure there was some sars flavour, but very 'watered down'. Hopefully you wont have the same problem! Its all just a learning curve anyway!

Zizzle - from what i know normal table sugar is fine in ginger beer as the tastes it gives out aren't as domminant as they are in normal beer. I just use dextrose as it fully ferments. (more alcohol! lol) 

Just had one of the gingerbeers that i mentioned above (coopers) and man does it pack a nice spicy punch.

Good luck with yours Zizzle! a kilo of normal sugar will be fine - but don't be afraid to experiment!


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## Vangleator (30/4/06)

Not too sure on the alcoholic versions, only done non-alc type for kids. Used dried corn syrup to thicken it it up a bit. Using Colony West lemonade kit with flavour bottle & nutrient pack, batch primed recipe was for 25L. 250g dextrose & 200g DCS. Assuming that DCS is 1/3 fermentable, thats 250 + 130 = 380g sugars at 15g/L sugars. 
Sounds a bit high, but the bottles never went bang, even after a year with a highly carbed lemonade at approx. 0.5% alc. Sweetness wasn't a problem with this brand, as I suspect it was artificial anyway. 
Maybe give that a go, there's a range of artificial sugars out there. 
Hope that helps you. :beer:


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## Uncle Fester (30/4/06)

Foz said:


> hmm sounds interesting. well i'd still go about it as per the instructions on the kit but i wouldn't have the highest expectations. (sorry to say)
> 
> I once did a sasaparella (SP?) that had similar sounding amounts of ingrediants as the ginger beer brew that you're doing. When i followed the instructions i ended up with a 'nothing' of a brew. Sure there was some sars flavour, but very 'watered down'. Hopefully you wont have the same problem! Its all just a learning curve anyway!
> 
> ...




I made the Sars kit early on in the piece. I used 2kg brown sugar and the ingredients as provided in the can.

Very sweet, very "Sarsy", but it took over 12 months to carbonate properly.

I'm there now, and it is quite a surprisingly accurate kit IMHO.


M


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## lucas (4/5/06)

well, i think its finished fermenting. SG is 1006 (down from 1038, will check its stable with another reading tomorrow) and the airlocks gone still. I tasted the gravity sample and it's definitely lacking in sweetness (though it certainly packs a ginger punch). i think im going to bail on the lactose sweetening idea and just throw the pack of artificial sweetener in with the bulk priming sugar


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## new2brew (4/5/06)

If you want to try a fresh batch, rather than using a kit, here is a nice easy recipe that my better half uses with great results

19L water
680g ginger root, coarsley chopped
17 cups sugar
4 lemons, sliced
3/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 packet champagne yeast



Boil as much of the water as will fit in your largest pot.

Squeeze in lemons and add squeezed bits.

Add ginger root and cream of tartar.

Add as much sugar as you can if there's room.

Simmer gently for 20-30 minutes.

Put remaining sugar, if any, in fermenter. 

Pour water mixture over.

Add remaining water to 20L and cool to lukewarm.

Taste - this will approximate the taste of the finished product. If necessary add more ginger or ginger powder.

Dissolve yeast in a cup of the mixture, then stir it back in.
Cover and ferment for 7 days at 20-24c.

Siphon into sterilised bottles. Cap. Age upright for one week at 20-24c then store in cool place at 20c or less.


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## Tyred (4/5/06)

I've never had any problems with sweetness in any of the ginger beers I have made. My main complaint is a lack of gingeryness. Then again, my main experience early on was home made ginger beer where you could smell the ginger from across the room when the bottle was opened.

new2brew - No priming for your ginger beer recipe ? From memory champagne yeast can be pretty brutal and eat all sugar thats available. It looks good and I'll give it a go after I get other brews done.


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## new2brew (4/5/06)

Cant see why it wont work with something less agressive....maybe a lager?


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## WildaYeast (11/5/06)

I've brewed two batches with the WestBrew Old Fashioned. I have been using it because of wanting to avoid the artificial sweeteners (only kit I've found that has it seperate). Brewing non-alcoholic for the wife and kid, so no sweetness from non-fermentable sugars in malt, etc.

First batch, used 500g of lactose. Barely sweet, a bit like mineral water. Mind you, found it kind of refreshing.

Second batch, used 1 kg lactose. Noticeable difference, but definitely still not sweet. Tolerable for the wife, but the kid still adds some sugar.

Rather than going to 1.5 kg lactose (starting to get $$), thought I'd try some stevia. This is a plant derived sugar substitute, you can get it in health food stores. Haven't quite figured out quantity yet. Bit of advice on the web, but depends on type of stevia as well (also have to be careful with some types of getting undesirable flavours).

About to brew. Will let you know in a few weeks how it turns out. Love to hear from anyone that has used stevia.

Cheers, Brian


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