Ginger Beer Recipe - Scratch Brew No Kit

[brettprevans]

I'm looking at attempting Chappo's original recipe on page one. Just a quick question though, I don't have a kettle,l so does anyone see any issue with using a 3 litre pot and working in batches?

be better if you had a larger pot. i did my version of this in my 17L stock pot as opposed to my 90L kettle.

i would suggest that for ultimate results you'd want some of each ingrediant in each batch, but that would be a PITA

 

[beer-bub]

I'll take your advice and divide the ingredients up. Might be a PITA, but I don't have a quick option to get a larger pot. Have seen a few threads here about buying one off ebay so might follow suit, not 90L though!!!
Cheers

 

[manticle]

Kmart will do at least 15L, if you have a cheap chinese/asian grocer nearby you might find a 20/30/40/50L pot for very cheap.

 

[beer-bub]

Kmart will do at least 15L, if you have a cheap chinese/asian grocer nearby you might find a 20/30/40/50L pot for very cheap.

I work near Box Hill, so I think this might be a great idea for the next brew. I did it in batches and yes it was a total PITA!!! Done now and hopefully bubbling away (looked pretty dead in there this morning and I've just seen the recommendation regarding yeast nutrient...) Also added more water than intended SG 1038. Just hope it hasn't stalled!

Recipe in the end:

1.25 Ginger (around 850gms after peeling)
1kg dark brown sugar
500g brown sugar
500g Beechworth honey
2 cinnamon sticks
2 Large lemons (juice only)
1 15 cm Chili (seeds and all)

 

[Arghonaut]

Brewed one of these following Chappo's recipe on Saturday except i used half dark brown sugar. Cooled it overnight and pitched the yeast (us05) Sunday morning, OG was 1058, took another reading this morning and it hasnt budged.

I added a tsp of yeast nutrient with 10 mins left of the boil as per the instructions on the packet. I just sprinkled the dry yeast on to the surface as its what i always do with my regular beers and never had a problem.

Its sitting in my temp controlled freezer @ 18 degrees, a beer i pitched at the same time with the same yeast is happily bubbling away next to it.

Starting to worry, anything i can/should do at this point?

 

[manticle]

Did you check gravity?

 

[Arghonaut]

Did you check gravity?

Yep, thats what i meant by it hadnt budged, still on 1058.

 

[manticle]

Sorry I forgot to actually put my eyes in when I read your post.

Get another pack, rehydrate it and make an active starter with a bit of malt extract and some grated ginger. Once the starter is ready, if the brew still hasn't kicked off, chuck it in. If it has kicked off, let the starter ferment out, refrigerate, decant and keep in a sanitised, sealed container for your next 05 brew.

Starters aren't normally needed/recommended with dried yeat but active starters are one way to kick of slow/stalled ferments.

 

[Arghonaut]

Went to take one more reading before putting a starter together this morning, and noticed that there was some signs of activity on the surface of the wort, sure enough its dropped to 1050, phew! at $20 a kilo i was getting worried about my ginger investment!

 

[Macca81]

Just an update on this, its damned good! very refreshing and easy drinking and it goes down very well on a warm day. i primed half with sugar and half with honey, and you can definatly tell the 2 apart. one of my mates thinks it tastes too gingery, but i quite like it like that, everyone else has thought it was great! i will be doing this one again!

well, having used some of the recipes in this thread as inspiration for making a GB, i put my first home brew GB down tonight for the first time since i was about 12... (non alcoholic plant, with lots of bottle bombs lol)

i figure i should post up what i did.

Ingredients:
1x coopers GB kit as base.
800g fresh ginger, grated.
1x Chillie, sliced, seeds in.
1 cup of lemon juice, plus the pulp and zest of one whole lemon.
3x cloves, whole.
1x stick of cinnamon, sorta broken up.
500g Leatherwood honey.
500g Brown Sugar.
500g Raw Sugar.
1x 750ml bottle Ginger Refresher.

Firstly, started peeling the ginger, decided it was a PITA and gave up on that idea. then i grated it... dont ever grate it. buy a blender. grating that much ginger sucks. a lot!

anyway, chucked all the ingredients except the kit and the refresher cordial into the pot and boiled it for a min or so. then chucked all ingredients into the fermenter with 18l of water all up. this bought it to roughly 20-21l total.
yeast pitched at 26deg. OG was 1.040 i aim to have an FG of 1.005ish.

having an initial taste of what i drew off to take the SG reading, i would say that i wouldnt mind a bit more chilli next time, but i suspect that it will draw out a fair bit more as it ferments, so we shall see

 

[unrealeous]

Recipe

1.5kg Fresh Ginger
2.0kg Brown Sugar
1.0kg Iron Bark Honey
4 Cinnamon Sticks
5 Large Bush Lemons
5 Limes

I hope you enjoy it!

Just kegged a batch of this - only change was dropped the brown sugar down to 1.25kg to make it less alcoholicy and added a couple of chillies as per suggestions. Chilled after 4 days fermenting - right in the goldilocks zone of not too dry, not to sweet - Bloody beautify drop Chappo. Thanks for the recipe.

 

[bonk]

Hi All,

its been awhile since i posted something off any use etc, so i thought i would chuck up a recipe for ginger beer to get some feed back etc. So far it tastes good with only 1 week in the bottle. But like most it lacks the zing of ginger. It does have a nice bite but nothing aggressive.

Because i tried to do a beer with ginger i ended up with the following, taking ideas from everyone else in the thread.

10L Batch

Fermentables
1.5Kg LME
100g Dark brown sugar

Hops
6g of Hallertauer Aroma Hop flowers (7.5%) Boiled 60min

Spices and others
230g of Fresh Ginger grated
1 tsp Ginger Powder
1 Small Lemon cut up
1/2 stick of cinnamon.

Yeast, not sure was an ale yeast, generic homebrew brand thing.

Method
4L of water to the boil, added hops when boiling.

After 30mins added
190g of the ginger,ginger powder, lemon and cinnamon

at flame out, in with the remaining fresh ginger.

I tried to treat the ginger as an aroma hop with its additions.

Then the usual, cool down and into the fermenter and top up with water to 10L.

Any feedback to help the ginger kick? i was thinking that the chilli trick might be something to explore.

Thanks,

 

[bum]

That's stuff all ginger, really. More ginger will give you more ginger bite.

I won't be putting down a GB for the foreseeable future. Ginger is way too expensive and pretty poor quality at the moment.

 

[brettprevans]

+1 to bums advice.
And u really want to get as much from ur Ginger as possible so u need to cook it out to extract the most flavour.
Chaps recipe is still pretty good. In fact I'd say the best, depending on whether quantumbrewrrs recipe takes ur fancy (it's pretty good also). I loved my version which is pretty much a tweaked chappo version.

Happy brewing and remember to report back

Oh and i hope u paid attention to ur OG and FG so u dint have bottle bombs

 

[bonk]

Cheers, i thought it was low in ginger, but yeah $32 a kilo in darwin is crazy for ginger.

And yep, use old promash to track my numbers so i know whats happening.

thanks again.

 

[gregie57]

Anyone interested...I have just been down to woolworths (Melbourne area), the price is $14.95/kg. I made a pig of myself and bought 2 kg's.

 

[Margrethe]

I've tried to make non-alco gb, and have never succeeded. Always ended up with it alcoholic.

I am peeved that I just can't get it right. I've done it from peoples recipes, I've done it from kits....it always ends up alcoholic.

I want a nice smooth, sweet ginger brew as my 13 year old is annoyed she can't drink the alco stuff, and I'd like to make some for her. Just can't get the hang of the non-alcoholic version!

I'm in awe of you fellas!

 

[stux]

I've tried to make non-alco gb, and have never succeeded. Always ended up with it alcoholic.

I am peeved that I just can't get it right. I've done it from peoples recipes, I've done it from kits....it always ends up alcoholic.

I want a nice smooth, sweet ginger brew as my 13 year old is annoyed she can't drink the alco stuff, and I'd like to make some for her. Just can't get the hang of the non-alcoholic version!

I'm in awe of you fellas!

If you add yeast to it it's going to be at least a little alcoholic

If you want a truly non alcoholic gb you need to basically carbonate a gb cordial

 

[brettprevans]

I've tried to make non-alco gb, and have never succeeded. Always ended up with it alcoholic.

I am peeved that I just can't get it right. I've done it from peoples recipes, I've done it from kits....it always ends up alcoholic.

I want a nice smooth, sweet ginger brew as my 13 year old is annoyed she can't drink the alco stuff, and I'd like to make some for her. Just can't get the hang of the non-alcoholic version!

I'm in awe of you fellas!

Mate these are all alcoholic GBs. Mine was about 6.5%

 

[bluejay]

I want to make a batch of this for my sister.

Couldn't find any Iron bark honey at woolies. Is there a specific reason you use this type? What's the next closest one?

Would you recommend adding any of the ginger refresher stuff? I already have a bottle of that.

Also, would a coopers kit yeast from a dark ale, stout, lager or draught can work? I won't have time to get to the brewshop before next weekend to buy any other yeast but I would like to start this brew before then and the coopers can yeasts are all I have available.