# Kit Ginger Beer



## johnno (19/8/06)

Was in the supermarket yesterday with the Mrs and she spotted a Brigalow kit reduced to $1.

"Can you make this?" she aked.

So to my great excitement i put it on today. Made the same thing twice about 3 years ago.

Half teaspoon Cinamon
Half teaspoon Nutmeg
About 10 cloves whole
260 gms fresh ginger
Juice of 6 lemons
1 kilo raw sugar

Boiled everything but the sugar in 4 litres water for about 20 minutes.
Diluted sugar and kit in that and topped up to 19 litres.

Just waiting for the temp to come down a bit before I pitch the supreme yeast and nutrient that comes with the kit.

I'm excited.


cheers
johnno


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## mike_hillyer (19/8/06)

I made that kit many years ago and I thought it was fine. Easy to drink when you eat food. That recipe looks killer dude, sorry I've been watching rockstar supernova.


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## Phrak (19/8/06)

johnno said:


> About 10 cloves whole



G'day Johnno, looks like a great recipe, but 10 cloves of whole what exactly?

Tim


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## johnno (19/8/06)

Phrak said:


> johnno said:
> 
> 
> > About 10 cloves whole
> ...



Hi Phrak,

errrrr...not garlic  
Should of been more clear.. just normal cloves.
Somehow got it confused and thought there was a powdered version of cloves. Hence the "10 cloves whole" bit.

There are a few recipes floating around from years ago which is where I made this version up from. 

Liie I said I have made this up before and its not too bad for a kit version. The second one I made I had some up to 12 months later and they were very dry and champagne like. Probably the yeast which I have no idea what it is.

If you drink it in the first 6 months it is nice and gingery.

cheers

johnno


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## Fents (28/8/06)

I just put a ginger down too for the missus.

Coopers kit with BE2.
2 Nuggets of fresh ginger grated up in the fermenter...smelt and tasted loveley out of the hydrometer reading.

I didnt even think to use lemons, nutmeg or cinnamon. Sounds like a good combo to me.

:beer:


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## Hutch (28/8/06)

This has me very interested - Never done one before, but keen to try.  

I have a question about the yeast. Can you substitute a quality ale yeast (like Wyeast, safale, etc.) for the sachet that comes with the kit, or am I way off the mark?
Also, do you need some nutrient for the yeast, or is this what's in the wort kit?
I feel like a K&K newby all over again  

Cheers,
Hutch.


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## Tyred (28/8/06)

A nutrient is supplied with the kit. At least, from what I recall, it comes with Brigalow, Coopers and Morgans kits.

I can't see any reason why you couldn't substitute another yeast for the supplied one. Can't say I actually know what is supplied with it. Appears to work quite well tho.


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## mike_hillyer (28/8/06)

Good question. Any takers? I would like to know.

The brew shop bloke said when I brewed some oranges to use an all purpose champagne yeast not a beers yeast. I followed the advise and it the orange wine has come out drinkable.


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## troywhite (28/8/06)

yeah I just did the Coopers basic ginger beer kit just over a month ago with a bag of dextrose. It is incredibly dry and tasty.

the old's liked it so much they asked me to brew them up a batch especially.

Edit: The Coopers kit ginger beer didn't come with any nutrient just yeast. Had no problems with fermentation.
Edit 2: My old man said it reminded him of a certain brand of ginger ale he drank as a kid.


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## shotduck (29/8/06)

troywhite said:


> The Coopers kit ginger beer didn't come with any nutrient just yeast. Had no problems with fermentation.



I am fairly sure that the Coopers/Morgans kits contain a certain amount of malt, hence the lack of nutrient in the pack.


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## lucas (29/8/06)

I've done a number of ginger beers in my time and can confirm there's no issue in swapping the yeast. I've done one using a starter made from the yeast under the lid of a coopers pale ale (it's apparently different to all the other ale yeasts) and another with the leftover yeast from a lager brewed with wyeast 2308. the ginger lager turned out very nice though i might add that i have added a fair wack of malt in amongst the adjuncts


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## mike_hillyer (31/8/06)

Sound like malt is either required from the kit itself or as an adjunct. Cheers all!


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## Uncle Fester (1/9/06)

I have a few varied ingredients that I purchased for use in a ginger beer. Not sure whether to use all/some/none of them. here's the list:

Can Coopers Ginger Beer
1Kg Brown sugar
500g LDME
about 6" of ginger root
1lt bottle of Buderim ginger beer cordial (makes 4litres)
2 Chillies
cloves/cinnamon as per Johnno's recipe above

I was thinking of going the can of goo, brown sugar, half the ginger root shredded (boiled with the brown sugar) and throwing the cordial in for good measure. Cloves and cinnamon as directed, and maybe 1 of the chillies sliced into tiny bits.


Anyone care to do a mental Beersmith/Promash calculation on this one and comment?

Not sure wheteher I will run this one through a keg, tap a draft or Grolsh bottles yet. Don't know if that changes the recomendation...


Cheers,

Fester.


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## DrewCarey82 (1/9/06)

Avoid Brigalow ginger beer its vile.


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## johnno (3/9/06)

Bottled this yesterday.
FG was 1005. Did not take the OG because i was so excited making it.

Has a nice ginger bite.

cheers
johnno


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## hando (4/9/06)

I made a kit of "Beermakers" Ginger Beer. I thought it was a bit yuk. My mate enjoyed it though. IMO Coopers is far better.

Has anyone else made Beermakers? What did you think about it?


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## microbe (13/1/07)

johnno said:


> Bottled this yesterday.
> FG was 1005. Did not take the OG because i was so excited making it.
> 
> Has a nice ginger bite.
> ...



How did this turn out Johnno? I picked up one of those kits cheap the other day and this looks like a good way to "kick it up a notch". Was it?

Cheers :beer: 

microbe


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## Keifer (13/1/07)

I kegged my beermakers ginger beer yesterday and tried a few last nite. Ginger flavour was spot on, maybe a little less fresh ginger next time.

But it was very thick and syrupy, so i ended up putting some water in each glass first which seemed to help. It also had a strange aftertaste which was the worst part. Im hoping it will change somewhat with time in the keg, if not i'll open it up and chuck a few litres of water in to help.

Overall, it's a nice change from beer, but nowhere near as good as it could be. Guess i better drink it and try again!


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## drsmurto (15/1/07)

slightly OT but thought you might be interested. Made a GB sans kit from fresh ginger. easy. 

750 g fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick
8 cloves
1 lemon
2kg raw sugar
1 sachet champagne yeast (EC-1118?)

Throw ginger in food processor and chop lemon. Boil everything up for 1 hour (not yeast) in 3-4 L water. Cool in ice water then filter into fermenter, top up to 15 L with cold water, pitch yeast. 

Works out to be ~7%. Mixed 2:1 with lemonade and is very popular, so much so i have 2 bottles left! Boxing day and NYE wiped out my stocks, everyone wanted some. Have another 2 bubbling away now but added some lactose (250g) to see if i could sweeten it up a bit. 

Cheers
DrSmurto


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## johnno (15/1/07)

microbe said:


> How did this turn out Johnno? I picked up one of those kits cheap the other day and this looks like a good way to "kick it up a notch". Was it?
> 
> Cheers :beer:
> 
> microbe




Hi microbe,

I just saw this. 

Yep it turned out fine, once it carbed up after a couple of weeks it did not last long.

I only had a few glasses here and there as I prefer my ginger beer the wussy way with no alchohol in it.  

The Mrs and friends loved it and hassled me to make more.

They must wait for the beer stocks to go up :chug: 

cheers
johnno


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## Keifer (15/1/07)

"They must wait for the beer stocks to go up"

Don't you love when people start placing orders, i politely tell em to make their own!


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## microbe (16/1/07)

johnno said:


> Hi microbe,
> 
> I just saw this.
> 
> ...



Thanks Johnno,

no problem - I used your recipe on Sunday anyway - Had two cans of the Coopers GB (at $2.60 ea I didn't think I could go wrong). One batch bottled (no alcohol) and the other is fermenting away as I type.

Back to the proper stuff after this one though. :chug: 



DrSmurto said:


> Made a GB sans kit from fresh ginger. easy.
> 
> 750 g fresh ginger
> 1 cinnamon stick
> ...



looks like another good one to try - maybe after another couple of ales - thanks DrSmurto

Cheers guys,

:beer: 



microbe


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## drsmurto (17/1/07)

microbe said:


> Back to the proper stuff after this one though. :chug:
> looks like another good one to try - maybe after another couple of ales - thanks DrSmurto



No worries Microbe. Its a lovely drop. 
Highly recommend people give it a go if, like me, you think artificial sweeteners are as good for you as a swift kick in the bollocks. <_< 

It also doesnt require time in the bottle to remove the artificial sweetener taste, i was drinking it, fully carbed, in 10 days.

Price wise - it costs about $14 so its also cost effective! (altho not if you score cans for $2.60...........)

Cheers
DrSmurto


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## gussigan (17/1/07)

yeah that looks like a cool recipe dr smurt, gonna give that a bash maybe even this weekend unless i try and make cider instead.

this may be a stupid question but by raw sugar do you mean dextrose?


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## drsmurto (17/1/07)

gussigan said:


> yeah that looks like a cool recipe dr smurt, gonna give that a bash maybe even this weekend unless i try and make cider instead.
> 
> this may be a stupid question but by raw sugar do you mean dextrose?



No. Raw sugar from the supermarket. a no no when brewing beer but fine for ginger beer. a fraction of the cost of dextrose!


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## tarlox (17/1/07)

Hey DrSmurto

do you need to take the skin of the ginger or lemons?

Regards 

Tarlox


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## gussigan (17/1/07)

ah, cheers thanks mate. i figured that's what you meant, but thought it was worth asking given there's so many different sugars you can ferment with


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## gussigan (24/1/07)

okay, probably going to give that ginger beer recipe a shot this weekend. just a couple of quick questions... when you say 750 gms of ginger, i assume that's after you've taken off all the knobbly skin bits etc?

also, what do you think those jars of ginger would be like as getting rid of all the skin on that much ginger will be fairly time consuming


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## itsallaboutbeer (25/5/07)

Hi, Just have a couple of questions re the ginger beer recipe. What temp are you fermenting at? I have a filtarion/ forced carbonation system that I would use after fermentation so I am considering adding some buderim ginger syrup before filtering into the keg . I am hoping that will avoid the need to add extra sweetness by having to mix it with lemonade. Either that or I will take some suggestions off of this site to mash some crystal malt ( 500g or so ) before doing the ginger, sugar boil. I believe this will leave some unfermented sugars in the final product? I would love to hear other opinions about this plan. My quest for the perfect "straight out of the bottle" ginger beer conrtinues! 


DrSmurto said:


> slightly OT but thought you might be interested. Made a GB sans kit from fresh ginger. easy.
> 
> 750 g fresh ginger
> 1 cinnamon stick
> ...


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## FazerPete (25/5/07)

itsallaboutbeer said:


> Hi, Just have a couple of questions re the ginger beer recipe. What temp are you fermenting at? I have a filtarion/ forced carbonation system that I would use after fermentation so I am considering adding some buderim ginger syrup before filtering into the keg . I am hoping that will avoid the need to add extra sweetness by having to mix it with lemonade. Either that or I will take some suggestions off of this site to mash some crystal malt ( 500g or so ) before doing the ginger, sugar boil. I believe this will leave some unfermented sugars in the final product? I would love to hear other opinions about this plan. My quest for the perfect "straight out of the bottle" ginger beer conrtinues!


I always sweeten my GB by adding sugar syrup to the keg instead of using artificial sweeteners and it works really well so I don't see why you couldn't use ginger syrup instead. I recommend taking a 250ml sample before you keg it and just the right amount of syrup to taste, then scale up. I use a kit rather than DrSmurto's recipe and it takes 250g of sugar to sweeten the whole brew so I don't know whether 1 bottle of syrup would be enough. Better to test now rather than be disappointed later.


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## NRB (26/5/07)

itsallaboutbeer said:


> I am considering adding some buderim ginger syrup before filtering into the keg .Either that or I will take some suggestions off of this site to mash some crystal malt ( 500g or so ) before doing the ginger, sugar boil. I believe this will leave some unfermented sugars in the final product? I would love to hear other opinions about this plan.


You can't mash crystal malt, but it can be steeped. Why not add the cordial to the keg PRIOR to filtering onto it? Is filtering necessary anyway? Your yeast will be inactive at fridge temps anyway.

Adding the cordial will work wonders for the taste I imagine.


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## reveler (14/7/07)

johnno said:


> Half teaspoon Cinamon
> Half teaspoon Nutmeg
> About 10 cloves whole
> 260 gms fresh ginger
> ...




Hey Johnno, 

This recipe looks good, just wondering what the alcohol content is like in it and what yeast you used?

Cheers
Damien


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## Muggus (14/7/07)

Hi everyone,
I made my first ginger beer a few months ago and i'm quite happy with the result for a first attempt. Heres the recipe I used:

Morgans Ginger Beer Kit
1kg of Dextrose
500g of Demerara sugar
~200g of fresh ginger root, peeled (I painstakingly peeled it at work and weighed it)

I grated the ginger and boiled it up with the demerara sugar then added it all (including the ginger pieces) to a fermenter with the kit and dextrose. Filled her up to 18L and let her rip using the kit yeast and nutrient stuff.
SG was 1041 and FG 999, around the 5.5% mark. Nice and spicey, plenty hazy too. Manage to get the odd chunk of ginger in some bottles.

Like the sound of using spices in a ginger beer though! I'm definately going to make another maybe later on in the year.


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## johnno (14/7/07)

Reveler said:


> Hey Johnno,
> 
> This recipe looks good, just wondering what the alcohol content is like in it and what yeast you used?
> 
> ...




Hi Reveler,

I did not take a hydro reading at the start. Would have been about 4-4.5%.

I just used the yeast and nutrient pack that comes with the kit.

This ginger beer comes out pretty good for what it is.
Oh, and the fresh ginger was grated.

cheers
johnno


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## phil48m (14/7/07)

DrSmurto said:


> slightly OT but thought you might be interested. Made a GB sans kit from fresh ginger. easy.
> 
> 750 g fresh ginger
> 1 cinnamon stick
> ...




hey Doc, just bought a Coopers GB, I like the look of your additives and will give them a try.


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## reveler (14/7/07)

do people who use fresh ginger strain it into the fermenter, or just pour it in clumps and all?


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