# Ginger Beer Query



## Dropbear (20/10/08)

This afternoon I put down my first ever brew of a Morgans ginger beer but in my haste after I had everything in the fermenter I mistakenly read the bottom directions for the non-alcoholic recipe and added 115 grams of raw sugar. What effect will this have on my brew if any and should I still add the sugar into the bottles? :unsure: 
Also just a note for new players; Ensure that the tap is turned *off* on the fermenter before adding the brew especially when mixing in the kitchen.


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## Bribie G (20/10/08)

If you are doing a 23 litre brew then around 150 grams of priming sugar in the bottles will produce a typical 'lager' fizziness so adjust your recipe accordingly. The amount of sugar you mentioned would give a less fizzy result but not flat by any means.

Those taps are a worry, eventually your fingers will be trained to turn it the right way without having to even think about it


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## Tyred (20/10/08)

From memory it should be about right for non-alcoholic ginger beer. You don't need to add more sugar for this as it is designed to have just enough fermentables to carbonate the beer.

If you wanted to go alcoholic then you would have to use the full amount of sugar and let the brew ferment out in the fermenter.


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## Bribie G (20/10/08)

+1
I make alcoholic ginger beer and after it has fermented out I bottle with less priming sugar than I would do with a lager type beer. With ginger beer it needs to tingle on the tongue rather than fizz up your nose :icon_cheers: 

Just go with what you have got and see if you like the results.


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## Dropbear (21/10/08)

So should I still add the 3 grams of sugar to the stubby at bottling as per the recipe for alcoholic Ginger beer or leave as is.


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## mynameisrodney (21/10/08)

I seem to be reading this differently to the other guys. To me it sounds like you are making alcoholic ginger beer and added an extra 115g of sugar at the *beginning* of the fermentation process. If this is the case then just lest it ferment out and prime as normal (3g/bottle). The only difference it will make is a tiny bit higher alcohol content. 

Chris


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## Tyred (21/10/08)

Dropbear said:


> So should I still add the 3 grams of sugar to the stubby at bottling as per the recipe for alcoholic Ginger beer or leave as is.



What stage is it at ? 

If it is bottled, then leave as is. It will not be alcoholic. Extra sugar added will not make it alcoholic and may make bottle bombs.
If it is still in the fermenter with only the 115 grams of raw sugar then you can add the extra sugar as per the alcoholic recipe.

The alcoholic recipe (from memory) says to use 1 kg of sugar (or something) with the kit and then let ferment for a week or so. At the end of fermentation all the available sugars have been used by the yeast. The 3 grams of sugar per stubby is to carbonate the fermented alcoholic ginger beer.


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## Dropbear (22/10/08)

Thanks for the replies guys. I will add the 3 grams of sugar at bottling. This is my Christmas brew so I sorta require it to be alcoholic.


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## Bribie G (22/10/08)

Dropbear said:


> Thanks for the replies guys. I will add the 3 grams of sugar at bottling. This is my Christmas brew so I sorta require it to be alcoholic.



Hey dropbear, hold it right there and don't bottle till you read the following. If you want it to be alcoholic you will need to add some fermentables to produce the alcohol. What you are going to do at the moment will produce a fizzy non-alcoholic, or a very weak-alcoholic brew because the sugars you have already added aren't enough to produce much alcohol.

If it's a Xmas brew and you want it about the same strength as commercial beer, here's what you need to do:

Add about 2.5 kg of dextrose, from your local home brew shop, (cost about five bucks) to whatever is in your existing fermenter. Ferment out for a week to ten days and then bottle with a heaped teaspoon of sugar to each large bottle.

Then you will have a merry Xmas


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## flattop (31/10/08)

Quick one on Ginger Beer...
I have seen a couple of brands around but have heard that there are some really bad ones and one or two good ones.

Anyone recommend a good one?


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## albrews (31/10/08)

flattop said:


> Quick one on Ginger Beer...
> I have seen a couple of brands around but have heard that there are some really bad ones and one or two good ones.
> 
> Anyone recommend a good one?
> ...


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## mickoz (31/10/08)

[/quote

hi, coopers is a good drop of ginger beer. i have not had a failure yet.

cheers. alan
[/quote]


+1 on the coopers - tastes better when it has aged a few weeks.

Mickoz


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## Goofinder (31/10/08)

flattop said:


> Quick one on Ginger Beer...
> I have seen a couple of brands around but have heard that there are some really bad ones and one or two good ones.
> 
> Anyone recommend a good one?


I don't drink the stuff, but I've made up a few batches for the other half:

Colony West "tastes like cardboard".
Beermakers when it was being made smelt and tasted OK, but after a few weeks in the bottle developed a strong sulphury smell and ended up being ditched.
Coopers is the winner, easily. We used this first then tried the others but have since stuck to the Coopers only.


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## Jase71 (31/10/08)

Or go the "All Root" method (AG for ginger beer perhaps  ) This will allow for more versatility in your flavour. My partner just made up a concentrated 'cordial' with honey, cloves & cinnamon, it smells nice and spicy ! Will be chucking that into an Oztops setup hopefully this weekend. 

Theres a few good sounding recipes floating around here as well, with larger scale fermenting (ie 20lt) in mind


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## davidsmith (31/10/08)

HI Jase71,
I have brewed 3x Coopers ginger beer and have found it to be outstanding!!! the kids love it and always look forward to more


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## Tyred (31/10/08)

flattop said:


> Quick one on Ginger Beer...
> I have seen a couple of brands around but have heard that there are some really bad ones and one or two good ones.
> 
> Anyone recommend a good one?



Morgan - Very little ginger taste and smell
Bfw - Sulphury smell, overpowering artificial sweeteners taste, the only brew I have thrown out.
Brigalow - Needs more ginger to be really nice.
Beermakers - Slight ginger taste, Had rotten egg smell but this appeared to go when cold conditioned (1 month at 4 degrees)
Coopers - Probably the best. Has a better ginger taste than the others.


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## flattop (31/10/08)

Thanks Tyred, picked up a coopers pack today, looks like you have done a bit of work in this area.
I like the all root proposition (who doesn't) but brewing time before Xmas is severely limited so this one is going to be a canned batch.
Of course I am trying to brew and bottle as much as i can in 2 fermenters before the weather gets too hot or unstable.
I should get another container for racking but i am trying to limit the costs as i have sprung a truckload of money into brewing this month.

Anyhow back to the subject all root ginger brewing looks like a great idea but i am concerned about volume/taste proportions, too strong/hot as ginger can bite if it's too strong.
That and of course if you stuff it up then you pour out 20litres ....
Of course if i were brewing only for myself i would throw in a heap of ginger and maybe a few whole chilli's to get the afterburner feeling but i have to satisfy the ministry of war and finance as well.


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## billwill (5/11/08)

hi everyone,

I am new to this and have had a ball looking through this site. It's been great.

I have just started brewing, and decided to give it ginger beer a go from scratch - mostly because I was broke, and was just using stuff we had in the house.

I think I was trying to be a bit creative and may have stuffed up in the process and am looking for advice if anyone can offer it.

This is how I prepared it:

1st step - ginger beer plant (1 teaspoon of sugar, ginger, bakers yeast - every day over a week I fed it with suguar, sporadically adding a little lemon here, cayene pepper there, dry ginger, etc (three weeks later it is going great guns)

After a week of feeding the plant, I mixed in:

4l water
1 kilo brown sugar
1k white sugar
handful of ginger sliced thinly
4 lemons quartered
2 dried apricots
2 table spoons maple syrup

I boiled all this until sugar was dissolved and the lemon and ginger was soft and poured it into the fermenter.

I then put cold water in the fermenter and juggled the temp until it was right.

I poured in the ginger beer plant, sealed it up, and 12 hours later it was bubbling away.

I left it like this for about 12 days.

When I bottled it it smelt a little bit too lemony, but none the less, I kinda expected it. About another 8-12 hours later, I tested the PET bottles and they were feeling tight, in the next day or so I one of the was feeling very tight so I released a little air and it fizzed.

I have left the bottles like this for 5 days now sitting.


My main concern it that I did not put a primer in the bottles (will this cause it not to be carbonated?). But I would also be interested in any feedback others might have on what I have done.

let you know in a couple of days how I go.

cheers


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## mwd (5/11/08)

Sounds a bit like you got 'bottle bombs' if the PET bottles are hard after only a few hours. The fermentation may not have finished when you bottled.

I would be checking a bottle at least everyday. If the bottles are rock hard release the cap and if it starts foaming head for the bathroom.

You can crack the caps of each bottle and relieve the pressure then retighten.
May have to do that a number of times until the pressure is under control.
Bit of a job but saves losing the lot.

Stick a few bottles in the fridge ( not freezer ). Should slow things down and you should be able to drink a few without a foaming volcano.

Just read your ingredient list and 5l of liquid and 2kg of sugar would probably take about 3 weeks to ferment out and the alcohol content is going to be pretty high.
Check the kids for slurred speech hic


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## moodgett (5/11/08)

Got a Coopers Ginger Beer Going atm

used

1 x Coopers Can
1kg Dex
Safale s-04 yeast
Yeast Nutrient
18L @ 22Degrees


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## albrews (5/11/08)

billwill said:


> hi everyone,
> 
> I am new to this and have had a ball looking through this site. It's been great.
> 
> ...


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## billwill (5/11/08)

cheers tropical brews for the advice. My ginger beer is a kid free zone and am hoping for it to stay that way 

cheers


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## flattop (5/11/08)

Billwill i agree, 2kilo's fermentables 5l water it's gonna be falling over juice.
Like the extra additives though.
Don't suppose you took the SG at the start or the end?
Looks like the yeast is still working in the bottles.....

Just put my coopers kit on this evening
! can Coopers Ginger beer
200g DME
400g Dextrose
1 cinnamon stick broken up

Aiming for a low alcohol version. approx 3% would be fine SG= 1012 after pitching.


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## tdack (5/11/08)

The young fella here has recently finished a week of feeding his ginger beer plant, then making the sugar syrup and bottling.

Plant was about 100gms of DME and 4 good teaspoons of powerdered ginger into a litre of boiled, cooled water. Pitched a Coopers kit yeast into it and then fed it a teaspoon of DME and a teaspoon of ginger every day for about 8 days.

At the end of that time the contents of the plant jar was given a good shake and strained through a double layer of muslin.

Boiled up 3.5 litres of water and added 1kg of table sugar to it. The syrup was then mixed with the strained liquid and topped up to 7 litres total.

Bottled it and have had it sitting for the last week. All the bottles have carbed up well, tasting will be on the weekend.


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