# Making Ginger Beer



## wynnum1 (17/7/10)

When making ginger beer what barley has the most neutrel flavour and how much is needed to supply nuitrient and if mashed with rice what ratio of barley to rice to convert the rice and does rice have to be cooked first.


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## bum (17/7/10)

I'd be very surprised if you discovered anyone had a definitive answer on this one. I think you just invented that. You'll have to pioneer this one and let us know your findings. Sounds interesting.


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## jakub76 (17/7/10)

Can't answer all of your questions but I do brew with rice. It needs to be 'gelatinized' before it can be used, for me that means bringing 1kg to a boil in 5 litres of water and keeping it simmering for an hour. Be careful not to burn it, although I did scorch it once and it made little to no difference in the finished beer. Most I used was 1k rice to 3.5kg malt. I'm sure you could use more if you were keen but the lauter and sparge might be problematic.

What's your proposed Ginger Beer recipe? I've never made it from scratch.


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## wynnum1 (17/7/10)

Was thinking of making a bland beer no hops and adding ground ginger and maybe chilli for bite


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## felten (17/7/10)

If you're using a lot of adjuncts I would suggest using something like barrett burston galaxy malt for its high diastatic power.


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## brett mccluskey (17/7/10)

I make ginger beer quite often and have never used any grain at all.My recipe is as follows: to make 4.5 litres,you need 40g root ginger(grated),500g sugar,1tbls cream of tartar,zest of 1 lemon,juice of 1 lemon,neutral dry yeast(S-05 is good). Place the ginger,sugar,cream of tartar,lemon zest in fermenter with 2 litres of warm/hot water,stir well to dissolve sugar.Add the rest of the water ,cold,to adjust to fermentation temp ,Add lemon juice and yeast,aerate well. This brew takes app.3 days to ferment,when done ,bottle and allow 3 days to carbonate,then enjoy! WARNING! Do NOT under ANY circumstance add priming sugar to bottles!!!! This brew will self carbonate quite well by itself. Only about 3% ,so adjust the sugar for your preference. I"ve also got a recipe for traditional ginger beer using a "plant",but thats a lot more work.


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## Wolfy (17/7/10)

wynnum1 said:


> When making ginger beer what barley has the most neutrel flavour and how much is needed to supply nuitrient


Honey has very little nutrients in it suitable for yeast, so mead makers add DAP and yeast nutrient, why not apply their theories to your GB?


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## brettprevans (18/7/10)

toper1 said:


> I make ginger beer quite often and have never used any grain at all.My recipe is as follows: to make 4.5 litres,you need 40g root ginger(grated),500g sugar,1tbls cream of tartar,zest of 1 lemon,juice of 1 lemon,neutral dry yeast(S-05 is good). Place the ginger,sugar,cream of tartar,lemon zest in fermenter with 2 litres of warm/hot water,stir well to dissolve sugar.Add the rest of the water ,cold,to adjust to fermentation temp ,Add lemon juice and yeast,aerate well. This brew takes app.3 days to ferment,when done ,bottle and allow 3 days to carbonate,then enjoy! WARNING! Do NOT under ANY circumstance add priming sugar to bottles!!!! This brew will self carbonate quite well by itself. Only about 3% ,so adjust the sugar for your preference. I"ve also got a recipe for traditional ginger beer using a "plant",but thats a lot more work.


If ur bottles are self priming then it means your bottling before fermentation is finished. That's bloody dangerous and risking bottles bombs.

In regards to the OT, so ur wanting to make beer with Ginger flavour. not Ginger beer? Cause from what you've described that kinda what ur doing. 

Now the idea of making a plain wort base and then making Ginger beer from that is feasible if your going to then go down the 'from scratch' route. Ground Ginger won't give u much flavour and can't replace proper Ginger. What I wpuld suggest is to make ur base wort from pils or pale ale malt plus ur rice, then in the boil add plenty of real Ginger, lemon etc. Or use the base and add a Ginger beer kit in the boil. 

IMO those will give u the best results, but by all means experiment and report back so we know how ur method worked out.


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