# Ginger Beer - Non Kit, Non (low) Alcohol, Using Malt Extract



## iJosh (20/6/12)

Hi all,

Yes, I have tried the search function and I'm not finding exactly what I'm after...

Basically, I want to brew a tasty, sweet-style non-alcoholic ginger beer using malt extract as the 'sugar' base to hopefully add a little body and a bit of 'specialness'  I'm opening to the idea of funky ingredients like a smidge of chilli, but for my first go at GB I think the more basic the better.

So, here's is what I am thinking...

10L 
0.75kg ginger root
1 lemon
0.75kg extra light DME (or amount to suit taste)
1 cinamon quills
~5L water to make ginger 'soup'

Bring water to boil, mix in ingredients until all blended evenly (whole ginger roots and lemon combined in food processor beforehand). Shut off heat and let steep for 1 hour to allow flavours /aromas to mingle.

Add to fermenter filtering through a grain bag and top up with pre-chilled bottled water to bring to 10L and temp to ~18C. Evenly mix in a packet of rehydrated US05 (maybe only half?) then bottle and store in pantry.

I'll bottle at least one in a Coopers PET to monitor the pressure so I know when to fridge them.

Does this recipe sound right? Being my first time it's really hard to know how much 'sugar' to use so that I get a sweet GB but without making it alcoholic! I realise there will be a tiny amount from the carb process, but I believe this will be only around 0.5%...

Any advice is appreciated!

Cheers,
Josh.


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## Wolfy (20/6/12)

Taste it as you cook and mix it all up, that should give you a good idea how much sugar you should be using.
In addition bottle them ALL in plastic, refrigerate as soon as you have enough carbonation and drink them quickly, you will likely create bottle-bombs otherwise.
'Normal' bottle carbonation only requires about 1teaspoon of sugar per bottle, and you will be using much more than that, so they yeast will happily eat through all the sugar and excessively over carbonate the bottles - I think the Coopers-type Ginger Beer kits use artificial sweetener so that you get the sweetness but not the excessive carbonation.


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## iJosh (20/6/12)

thanks for the reply, Wolfy.

Maybe I could bottle pasteurise to kill off the yeast once they're carbed...? I could warm water to ~70C in my brew kettle (40L Crown urn) and submerge them for a while so they warm through. Do you have any experience with pasteurising?

Also, I thinking it would be best to make the full 10L brew so I can nail my sweetness level... Or maybe I should start with a 2L brew in case it tastes like shit! lol! :lol:


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## Wolfy (20/6/12)

No experience with attempting to pasteurize ginger beer, sorry.
The only times I have made it similar to what you propose (but with Ginger Beer Plant) I have only made small batches (less than 5L) and ensured they were consumed within a few days.


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## iJosh (20/6/12)

Wolfy said:


> No experience with attempting to pasteurize ginger beer, sorry.
> The only times I have made it similar to what you propose (but with Ginger Beer Plant) I have only made small batches (less than 5L) and ensured they were consumed within a few days.



Hmmm, I think I'll just try a small batch then to begin with. If I like it I'll have another think about how I'll tackle a big lot.
Cheers


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## Rod (21/6/12)

iJosh said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Yes, I have tried the search function and I'm not finding exactly what I'm after...
> 
> ...



if you are going to ferment it , you will end up with alcohol , although low

even if you use no sugars in the ferment , it will generate some alcohol when you carbonate


with .75 kg of malt in 10 litres alone , you will have about 2.7% alcohol


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