Basic Ginger Beer

[sean83]

Hi Guys,

I have made a few ginger beers in the past some from a 'plant' some from boiling ground ginger lemons and spices etc... I have enjoyed them however with a lack of time I was hoping to put down a quick kit ginger beer with Buderim Ginger Cordial for the new year period. My recipe was as follows,

1 x Brigalow Ginger Beer Tin
500g Raw Dark Sugar
500g Raw Sugar
Seeds of birds eye chillies
1 x Bottle of Buderim Ginger Cordial

My question is should I add the cordial right at the start of the ferment, later in the ferment, or once fermentation is completed. Hoping for a slightly drier ginger beer, nothing too wine like, but nothing overly sweet. Hope the chilli seeds counter that a little with some heat into it.

Advice would be great as I am putting this down tomorrow.

Cheers Sean

 

[pyrosx]

I made a similar sounding recipe earlier this year - but I also used 500g of ginger frozen/thawed/blended, which seemed to work nicely. All of the sugars and vegetable matter went into a boil. It came about a bit too sweet (well, the half that I got impatient with and kegged did anyway, the other half is still in a secondary waiting for me to get less lazy and bottle it!) but I don't really know what i'd do to fix that issue - it fermented out quite a long way - 1.040 down to 1.005 I think.

One (probably nit-picky, but possibly worth noting) point - the actual -seeds- of a chilli contain no heat - the capsaicin is found mostly in the white pithy "placental tissue" that holds the seeds, and the clear membrane between that and the flesh. So "removing the seeds" from a chilli will likely scrape away all of the pith and a lot of the clear membrane as well, thus reducing the heat.... so you won't get any heat from dry seeds - but if it's surrounded by all the goupy stuff, you're all good.

 

[sean83]

I made a similar sounding recipe earlier this year - but I also used 500g of ginger frozen/thawed/blended, which seemed to work nicely. All of the sugars and vegetable matter went into a boil. It came about a bit too sweet (well, the half that I got impatient with and kegged did anyway, the other half is still in a secondary waiting for me to get less lazy and bottle it!) but I don't really know what i'd do to fix that issue - it fermented out quite a long way - 1.040 down to 1.005 I think.

One (probably nit-picky, but possibly worth noting) point - the actual -seeds- of a chilli contain no heat - the capsaicin is found mostly in the white pithy "placental tissue" that holds the seeds, and the clear membrane between that and the flesh. So "removing the seeds" from a chilli will likely scrape away all of the pith and a lot of the clear membrane as well, thus reducing the heat.... so you won't get any heat from dry seeds - but if it's surrounded by all the goupy stuff, you're all good.

Thanks mate well noted, I took the seeds and most of the guts out of the chilli. I wanted to avoid the vegetable taste you get from throwing whole chillies in the fermentor. Will see how it turns out, it definetly had some bite to it when I ate the chilli seeds, just not the capsicum taste so here is hoping.

Sean

 

[bum]

For the cordial, either start of ferment or a few days in is fine. Do not add it post ferment as it will add considerable fermentables. You don't want bottle bombs.

It is possible to calculate how much to add to use it as your priming sugar but I wouldn't bother, myself. Just bung the lot in primary and prime as usual.

 

[sean83]

For the cordial, either start of ferment or a few days in is fine. Do not add it post ferment as it will add considerable fermentables. You don't want bottle bombs.

It is possible to calculate how much to add to use it as your priming sugar but I wouldn't bother, myself. Just bung the lot in primary and prime as usual.

Hey Bum,

Cheers mate, I have read a bunch of your older posts on ginger beer to get an idea for putting this down. I went with putting the bottle in at the start of ferment. I had a taste from my sample today and it seems to be on track. Less sweet than previous kit GB's. I have put down 'plant' GB's in the past or from scratch and have never been dissapointed but never had raving reviews either, they have always been too dry with too many flavours going on. Probably the best advice though from what I can gather in adding the raw dark sugar, not sure why, but it has given it somewhat of a ginger snaps taste, like the biscuts you buy.

Either way, I appreciate it.

Sean

 

[hoppy2B]

The Bundaberg 750ml ginger beer glass screw top bottles are awesome for reusing with your homebrew.

 

[Parks]

One (probably nit-picky, but possibly worth noting) point - the actual -seeds- of a chilli contain no heat - the capsaicin is found mostly in the white pithy "placental tissue" that holds the seeds, and the clear membrane between that and the flesh. So "removing the seeds" from a chilli will likely scrape away all of the pith and a lot of the clear membrane as well, thus reducing the heat.... so you won't get any heat from dry seeds - but if it's surrounded by all the goupy stuff, you're all good.

This is so not true. While the seeds may not *contain* heat they sure-as-sh*t have a heap of heat on them. I do a lot of planting habaneros and other fairly hot chillies and simply playing with dried seeds even after 6+ months there's enough heat on your fingers to burn the hell out of your nose or your knob if touched

 

[sean83]

This is so not true. While the seeds may not *contain* heat they sure-as-sh*t have a heap of heat on them. I do a lot of planting habaneros and other fairly hot chillies and simply playing with dried seeds even after 6+ months there's enough heat on your fingers to burn the hell out of your nose or your knob if touched

Yep found this out, thought I was pissing fire for a moment there. GB tastes good though tasted a sample last night, it is right on the money