# Ginger Beer With Low(ish) Og (morgans Kit)



## gerald (22/1/08)

hey guys,

just did a morgans GB,

i also used 150grams of fresh, grated ginger, 2 cinamon sticks, a lemon and 100grams of honey, put that all into simmering water, then added the can of morgans GB mix. let it sit for a while, added 1kg of dex, and a small amount (maybe 50-75grams of brown sugar). this all simmired for a little while. then i put it in the fermenter and added water to it till it reached 21L. 

now its OG is 1024. on the can of GB mix it said the final gravity if i use 1kg of dex will be around 1005. this wont give me a very high alc reading at all. so im wondering what will happen, if someone can give me any insite?

i did a yeast starter using the yeast supplied + the yeast nutrients + a small amount of dextrose.

pitched the yeast at 26*C and its in my cellar which is at 22*C so it will be around that for most of the fermenting period.

im just wonering will the FG be closer to 1000? or even bellow? 

is that OG normal for a GB?

if not what did i do wrong?

i tasted my OG sample and it tasted great though!

thanks
cya
gerald


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## craig maher (22/1/08)

gerald said:


> hey guys,
> 
> just did a morgans GB,
> 
> ...



G'day Gerald,

Your OG figure sound pretty right - the Morgans GB actually says approx 3% alcohol on the outside of the tin.
The Coopers GB says approx 3.5% using 1kg of raw sugar.


Cheers,

Craig


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## gerald (23/1/08)

any idea on what the final gravity might be???

its started fermenting and is around 22*C at the moment so im pretty happy with that. im hoping this will be a good one.

do people ever add LDME to GB to give it a bit more body? if i chose to do this next time, how much would be a suitable amount???



thanks
gerald


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## craig maher (23/1/08)

gerald said:


> any idea on what the final gravity might be???
> 
> its started fermenting and is around 22*C at the moment so im pretty happy with that. im hoping this will be a good one.
> 
> ...



Probably around the 1.005 maybe slightly less.

You can add LDME if you want..........I have attached a PDF with a recipe including malt or search / google ginger grail.

Cheers,

Craig 

View attachment Ginger_Grail.pdf


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## drsmurto (23/1/08)

I have made several ginger beers from scratch in the past 12 months. 

I started off using only raw sugar as the fermentables with 1kg of fresh ginger plus lemon, cloves and cinnamon.

I then moved on to adding LDME and some crystal malt with the same spices.

I have played around with varying additions of lactose. I dont bother as you need large quantities to get a sweetness. I refuse to use artificial sweeteners hence i have never used a kit.

To date, i have only used champagne yeast. I am about to try using an ale yeast to see if some sweetness can be left in the end product.

I think the first attempt has been the best. Its dry and thin, like a soft drink but very refreshing and the kg of ginger gives it a big gingery bite. For those that found it a touch too dry i mixed with small amounts of lemonade. Good summer drink.

Cheers
DrSmurto


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## eric8 (23/1/08)

I just dumped a Gb into my fermenter last night. I boiled up some grated Ginger for about 20 mins and then added about 2kg of raw sugar and the can of GB.

The OG was around1.042, but it tasted really sweet from the sugar no doubt, but the ginger was there.

eric :icon_cheers:


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## gerald (2/2/08)

ok, just bottled it, just a couple of Q's

fermentation finished and its final OG was around 1001. 

after transfering it to a secondary fermenter and it sitting there for 2.5 days i bottled it. i checked the the gravity again from secondary and it looked to have dropped down to 1000.

anyway i bottled it and used around 10.5gram per L cos i didnt realise i had lost so much when transfering it from primary to secondary, and then secondary to bottling bucket. so yeah....will my GB explode with 10.5g/1L considering its very low final gravity? i read that 10G was good for a really bubbly lager?? i bottled it in mostly grolsch bottles and left a fair bit of room at the top (the entire length of the neck) so im hoping if there is too much gas made, it can go in there and not explode? also bottled in PET bottles which i dont need to worry about it, and a couple of good HB glass bottles?

so yeah, whats the likely hood of explosion??? i put them all in cardboard boxes in my cellar so if they do explode, glass hopefully wont fly around everywhere!


thanks
gerald


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## frasertag (2/2/08)

gerald said:


> ok, just bottled it, just a couple of Q's
> 
> fermentation finished and its final OG was around 1001.
> 
> ...



I dunno what the likelness of an explosion is
but its a good thing you bottled into PET
you can do the squeeze test fairly easy


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## gerald (13/2/08)

ok, im pulling this up again.

i burped my bottles once, quite early on. 2 days after bottling, and they gave a nice lil poooff sound when i opened them. now i do the squeeze test on the PET bottles and compared to my other beers in PET bottles its not very hard at all, infact its quite easy to squeeeze the bottles. they have been stored in 21*C and ive tipped them over numerous times to help get them going but they dont seem to be carbing up. its been 8 days, i know. im kinda impatient but i thought theyd be more carbed up by now!?

do i just wait the 2 weeks and see what happens, maybe a little longer and try one?

grrrrrr
silly ginger beer - guess it was a learning experience. im gonna make sure my sparkling ale is awesome :-D


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