Easy Ginger Beer

[SJW]

I bought a Brewcraft Ginger Beer kit but found out that you dont need to by a kit to make great Ginger Beer.
My story goes like this. I bought the ginger beer kit and discovered that the tin u get with it is just Pale LME. So I dumped that in the fermenter with 1kg of Sugar and 500g Brown sugar (I think from memory) and some cinnamon and other spices. I held off putting the sweetener in but u could use any artificial sweetener. But after reading that these kits were a bit weak on the ginger front I decided to grate 500g of fresh ginger and boiled up with the spices and added to the fermenter. Well I made up to 22 litres with an OG of 1.050. I pitched Nottingham Ale yeast and it went off like a bomb. I kegged today with 200 grams of Sugar and will naturally carbonate. Dont ask why. But the point I want to make is even without adding the Ginger Beer Flavour from the kit this tasted bloody great. So next time I do a GB I wont be getting a kit just heaps of LME between 500g and 1kg of fresh grated ginger and some artificial sweetener, if u like it, and ferment with a good ale yeast and I reckon u would have a great ginger beer.

Steve

 

[PartyPooper]

I'll wait until you report the taste-test :lol:

 

[b_thomas]

500g seems to be an awful lot of ginger, I could very well be wrong.

 

[SJW]

500g seems to be an awful lot of ginger, I could very well be wrong.

Your not wrong, it was a shite load, very gingery!

 

[sponge]

Yes, for my last GB (using a kit) i added another 700g of ginger, 2 lemons and sum cloves and cinnamon

delicious and spicey, just the way i wanted it


on monday i put down a GB without the kit.

AG Ginger Beer

1kg fresh ginger
2 lemons
12 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
2.0kg LDME
0.5kg Brown/Raw Sugar
0.5kg Honey
3-4 Sprigs of Thyme
300g Lactose

Made to 21L

S-04 & Brewcraft Dry Enzyme


its in the fermenter now, so fingers crossed it will be alright

i didnt think (from tasting it) that it was quite gingery enough, so i put a few of the boiled ginger peices (boiled for around 45min) into the fermenter also (about 10 i think)

ill give it a taste test in about a week or so

 

[SJW]

Let us know how it goes sponge, it sounds great.

 

[sponge]

Can do mate

I know i used a fair bit of LME, and it tasted quite malty (obviuosly) when i took an OG reading, but im thinking that the dry enzyme will get rid of all/most of the sugars there. I know it will leave me with a drier GB but I was going to do this one with, and the next one without (and any flavour tweakings it may need) and compare them.

Also, i decided to use the S04 just because it gives those fruity esters and i didn't think it would do anything but help a ginger beer along.


Oh well, only time will tell now i guess. Just hoping for another big gingery GB... Im definitely going to an asian grocer for the next lot of ginger tho. $16/kg for the stuff is a little bit pricey for the old back pocket


Cheers, Sponge

 

[frasertag]

Next time try the following

1 x Coopers Ginger Beer
500g Fresh ginger 50% grated and 50% sliced
3 tsp of dry ginger
125g buderum ginger honey
sliced up birds eye chillis' (5 - 10 depending on bite)
3 whole cloves
150g brown sugar
1 whole lemon sqeezed

boil up some water
add in the lemon juice,honey, chilli and fresh ginger.
after 15-20 minutes add in the brown sugar,clove and dry ginger.
boil another 10-15minutes.

Strain into fermenter (or dont strain i have done both and it still works fine)
1kg - 1.5kg of raw sugar (depending on the strength you are chasing)

Bottle after 2weeks
Do not drink for 6weeks minimum.
ENJOY!!!

thats my .24 c

 

[sponge]

Ok, just had my first sample

Has gone down from 1047 to 1019 since monday, but on tasting it, it tastes very thin. I would've thought that being such a high SG, there would still be a fair amount of body in it....

Little worried about it getting down below 1010 in terms of dryness, especially with the dry enzyme, but I guess theres nothing I can do but sit back and play the waiting game.


P.s I think next time, instead of cutting the ginger into 1cm or so chunks, I'll grate or mince the ginger before boiling it, as with 1kg of ginger, its still not overly gingery, and could probably extract more ginger flavour with the larger surface area

 

[matti]

bump.
I want to hear the updates.
I am going to let the kids put in 20 pet bottles after school and the rest I intend to ferment out in a 15 Litre cask.
Its a Morgan kit.
Ive got S-05, S-04, W34/70 and the kit yeast available.

Probably going to use the kit yeast and @ room temperature as we want them to be ready for School holidays in 2 weeks.

 

[sponge]

Ok...


So it ended up finishing on 1010, so im happy that theres still some body left to the brew. As far as taste is concerned, i tried one prematurely after 2 weeks. It was alright, but was definitely missing a big ginger hit which i like. Ill definiately stick the ginger in the food processor next time to extract as much gingery goodness from the boil. Also, possibly cut back to maybe only 1.5 lemons and up the cloves to 15 and cinnamon to 3 sticks. The thyme had a nice herby essence to it, but has little thyme leaves floating around in some of the bottles, not that im overly concerned about that.

Well hopefully it will improve a little with time, but its still not as nice as the kit + extras version i made for my first one. I'll be doing that again at some stage, possibly with chili as well, just because i cannot get enough of chili.


Cheers, Sponge