Ginger Beer Kit With Beer Kit?

[microbe]

Just wondering if this has been done before by anyone here?

Is it something worth giving a go or best left? It doesn't really fit the definition of either Metheglin or Braggot as far as I can see.

I spent a good part of this morning trawling through the site's search results without any mention that I could find.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

microbe

 

[carnut1100]

Interesting idea, and one I have had myself but not tried yet....

 

[Supra-Jim]

I brewed something similar to this recently and it turned out quite good.

Ingredients list as follows:

1 x can of pale ale (use whatever brand takkes your fancy)
1 x 1kg of dextrose
1 x piece of ginger the size of two fingers
1 x cup of sherry
1 x US-05 yeast ( i think)

12 hours before the brew i grated the ginger and placed it in the cup of sherry to soak. Then on the brew day, made the pale ale as per instructions. Then separated the ginger from the brandy. Tipped the brandy into the fermenter, then boiled the ginger in 1 litre of water for 10 mins. Added this water to the fermenter, disgarded the ginger.

Feremented for a week in the primary @20degC, then a week in the secondary @20degC. Used carbonation drops for bottling and conditioned in the bottle for about 4 weeks.

The result is one i am very pleased with. Nice easy drinkng ale with a lovely suble ginger flavour that lingers on the aftertaste. All who have tried it have been very positive.

 

[Tyred]

Sounds like an interesting 2-can experiment.

 

[Bribie G]

Out of curiosity I did a Brigalow Bitter kit n kilo and it turned out a beautiful, clear golden liquid that tastes nothing like beer. However it is quite drinkable with a shot of Bickfords lime juice cordial that turns it into a nice 4.5% alcopop.

It occurs to me that you could use this very bland kit as a base for ginger beer and just pop in about 100g dried ginger and a bottle of Bundaberg Ginger Beer Cordial. Brigalow always seems to be on special somewhere for about $9. Using a more flavourful kit might introduce conflicting flavours. I reckon the hops would blend in nicely but too much malt might give a muddy taste??

If you want a sweet ginger beer for drinking, just add a dash of the Bundy to the jug when pouring the beer.

As it happens I'm currently fermenting two batches of 7% ginger beer but just sugar, gingers and yeast nutrient with a Nottingham yeast. They ususally turn out very clean tasting.

 

[earle]

A while ago I did a cider kit with a beer kit and suprise, suprise got something that tasted like a combination of cider and beer, but not particularly like either. I'm guessing with a ginger beer kit and beer kit you would end up with a similar result. I wasn't thinking alcohol content when I made mine and also added several litres of juice and some dex. I realised afterwards and calculated it to be around 9%. It certainly had a kick to it.

 

[microbe]

Thanks for all input. As nothing was decidedly against it I finally got stuck in and did it.

I used a Brigalow Ginger beer and a BiLo Draught (the two cans only, for a total of $9 invested - didn't want to waste too much!). It started @ 1.023 and bottled (sugar scoop primed) 13 days later @ 1.006. I work that out to be quite low strength at about 2.2%

On first taste, there's lots that needs to change to make this worth repeating. The beer side of things is well hidden behind the softdrinkness of the GB, but the ginger is not there either. In fact it brings to mind the long forgotten taste of a shandy. IF I were to do this again I'd probably drop the volume from 23L and add some combination of dextrose and/or DME and ginger. Might just be better to keep ginger and beer as separate entities though.

Cheers,

microbe