# Bottling Ginger beer



## herman4x4 (28/2/15)

Gday,
Im looking at doing a Coopers Ginger Beer, and on the tin I think it recommends usimg the plastic PET bottles as they can go off if over carbontated. I only have 330ml stubbies. Would I be safe using them and carbination drops, or should I get some plastic bottles?
Thanks,
Andrew.


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## Red Baron (28/2/15)

Provided you've fermented it to dry (ie. no drop in a hydrometer reading for a couple of days), then it'll be fine to use carb drops in glass stubbies.
If on the other hand, you're stopping the fermentation early to leave some sweetness by placing them in the fridge, then PET is definitely the way to go.

Hope this helps,
RB


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## herman4x4 (28/2/15)

Thanks RB. I was thinking of doing non alcho,ic so the kids can have it. Think i might get some PET bottles then. Cheers, Andrew.


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## Red Baron (28/2/15)

Don't waste your money on coopers brown ones unless you'll use them for beer- any cleaned soft drink bottle will do.


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## herman4x4 (28/2/15)

Cool. Will have to start collecting them. Thanks for the tip.


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## stux (1/3/15)

Non alcoholic home brewed ginger beer is not non-alcoholic btw


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## herman4x4 (1/3/15)

Sorry Stux, I'm not sure what you mean? If I brew it for a couple of hours then bottle, going by the tin, it will be a ginger beer with no alcohol in. Or have I miss read the tin? 
Thanks 
Andrew.


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## stux (1/3/15)

The tin is wrong. If it's fermented, it will have some alcohol in it. Maybe 0.5%. 

Maybe legally a 0.5% ginger beer is classed as alcohol free. But I wouldn't let me 5 yo have any.

For example, see this recipe from Coopers for "Non-Alcoholic Ginger Beer"

http://www.coopers.com.au/#/diy-beer/beer-recipes/non-alcoholic-light/detail/non-alcoholic-ginger-beer/

It has an ABV of 0.7%


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## herman4x4 (1/3/15)

Thanks for explaining. I did not know. 
Cheers,
Andrew.


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## Rod (1/3/15)

Most soft drinks have some alcohol in them 

because the flavours are made up of essences with an alcohol base

mind you a very small base

I believe brewed ginger beer soft drink has some alcohol


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## wynnum1 (1/3/15)

Soft drink
http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/05/23/3224599.htm

Horehound which was brewed like a beer but was only allowed up to two percent alcohol.


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## Red Baron (2/3/15)

The current regulations for non alcoholic drinks says that up to 0.5% ABV does not need to be labelled. This is the case for the non-alcoholic beers you see in the supermarkets and most likely brewed ginger beers like Bundaberg, so while they are not labelled as such, they most likely are alcoholic.

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/code/userguide/Documents/Guide%20to%20Labelling%20of%20Alcoholic%20Beverages.pdf

Cheers,
RB


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## stux (3/3/15)

Actually, says alcoholic beverages up to 0.5% do not need to be labelled 

Never says they can be referred to as non-alcoholic, and infact specifically says they can't be

"Alcoholic beverages must not be represented in a form which expressly or by implication suggests that the beverage is non-alcoholic."

Bundaberg GB does contain "trace" amounts of alcohol

https://www.bundaberg.com/faqs/

But, I suspect far less than Homebrewed bottle conditioned GB would.


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