Ginger Beer Recipe - Scratch Brew No Kit

[Phoney]

Here is the recipe (I found somewhere on this forum) that impresses all of my mates:

Ingredients:
1 Coopers kit ginger beer from the supermaket
800g organic raw sugar
250g DARK brown sugar
500g fresh ginger
50g powdered ginger
250g yellowbox honey
4 birdseye chili's sliced, seeds and all.
2 whole cloves
1/2tsp nutmeg
1/2tsp cinnamon

Method:
snap the fresh ginger into chunks and then put it into a food processer until it all becomes processed. If you dont have a food processer, I suppose you could coarsely grate it all?

Bring 3 litres of water to boil in a big soup pot.
add honey and chillis, close the lid and boil @ 15 mins.
add fresh ginger, and powdered ginger, boil @ 15 mins.
add the dark brown sugar, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and boil @ 15 mins.
turn the heat off, but keep the lid on the whole time.

now make your kit ginger beer as per the instructions using the 800g of raw sugar.

Then using a very large metal sterile sieve strain the liquid from your soup pot into the fermenter and chuck the solids left behind out. Stir to dissolve.

Top up to 20L, pitch kit yeast, then ferment for 2 weeks at 20-22C, bottle for at least 6 weeks before drinking.

OG: 1034
FG: 1005
ABV: 4.3%



When your GB is finally ready, you can try this for something extra special!

1 longneck of GB
1 cup of ice cold Vodka
The juice of 2 limes
1 small handfull of torn mint leaves
2 handfull's of ice

Throw it all into a small metal bucket & stir. (or divide into glasses) It'll knock the pants off the ladies . Bloody beautiful...


I will give your recipe from scratch a go next time though Chapps

 

[Jimmeh]

Hi phoneyhuh

Recipe looks good!
But just to clarify, do you mean add honey, chillis and boil for 15mins... then add ginger and boil for another 15 mins etc?
Im confused because youve made it look like a hop schedule!

Cheers

 

[Phoney]

Sorry yes, 45 min boil in total. honey and chillis for first 15 mins, then add the ginger, etc.

 

[nabs478]

G'day Chappo,

Just hoping to ask a few questions about your recipe...

1. Seeing as you just add a bunch of simple sugars, does the US-05 yeast just ferment all of it if it is left to ferment out? Leaving a very dry GB?

2. When doing the non/low alcoholic one, I would have thought that after you crash chill it and bottle it, then the yeast would just start back up again if the temp rose above 18C and then you would have bottle bombs?

I am going to brew a GB but I am thinking of exchanging some of the sugars for some freshly mashed wort. Have you ever tried that?

Thanks

 

[Mikey!!!]

Let us know how you get on with this one.

Chappo

So I cracked one of these open this week... It's been in the bottle nearly 4 weeks. I know it's a little early but I wanted to see what it was like. IT WAS FLAT!!!!

Do you think that means that I somehow killed the yeast? Or might it be that the alcohol content is too high for the crappy yeast I used? (I used the yeast from under the lid of the coopers GB kit.)

It's such a shame! It tastes quite nice otherwise. A bit too sweet but that's probably because the yeast hasn't done its job...

Do you think if I leave it for another month or so it might carbonate itself? :huh:

 

[bum]

Rouse the yeast and keep them warm and wait. If they taste good they'll probably be good in the end.

 

[Mikey!!!]

Rouse the yeast and keep them warm and wait. If they taste good they'll probably be good in the end.

Ok cheers. I've shaken the bottles a bit and put them back away. I'll take another peek in a month or so.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Maz91379]

Great thing about this recipe is you can reuse the ginger you strain out, freeze it in small portions, and use it for lots of things with cooking. Think it might make a nice addition to a pumpkin pie made some nice ginger chicken the other day.

 

[thylacine]

Ginger Beer 'Plant' (eg. non kit brewers...)

.....To make the ginger beer "plant", place in a jar eight sultanas, juice of two lemons, one teaspoon lemon pulp, four teaspoons sugar, two teaspoons ground ginger and two cups cold water. Cover lightly with a cloth. In warm weather, leave three or four days by which time it should be starting to ferment. Then each day for one week, add two teaspoons ground ginger and four teaspoons sugar to the "plant". It should be ready at the end of the week to make into beer. To make beer, place four cups of sugar, four cups of boiling water and the juice of four lemons into a large bowl. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Strain the plant into it through a fine cloth, squeeze dry. Add 28 cups of cold water and stir. Pour into bottles and cork down. Leave two weeks before using. To keep the "plant" alive for another batch of beer, halve the "plant" in the cloth and place in a jar with two cups cold water. Continue to feed it with four teaspoons sugar and two tablespoons ground ginger for one week. This is one that my father used when I was a child...

 

[brewbeast]

just a thought, would a wheat yeast work well with a ginger beer? i could imagine the banana and clove possibly mixing quite well

 

[tdack]

Ginger Beer 'Plant' (eg. non kit brewers...)

.....To make the ginger beer "plant", place in a jar ... This is one that my father used when I was a child...

Pretty much the same as my folks had me make as a kid. Except I think mum used a bit of bakers yeast to kick things off. She also used to use the end of a stocking stretched over the mouth of the jar and then stuffed in the jar. You put the ginger/sugar/lemon mix in here and it sat in the water. It made the filtering process at the end a little easier as you just lifted the stocking out of the jar with most of the solids.

I remember my batches being a little explosive. We used to keep the ginger beer under the house once bottled and I learnt after a couple of exploding bottles that placing them in the fridge door was bad. After that the bottles were always carried very carefully from downstairs/under the house and placed in the bottom of the fridge where they wouldn't be shaken about too much.

 

[crundle]

I would recommend using PET bottles for GB, especially the low alcohol versions, as you are really just making a normal alcoholic version but drinking it before the yeast has had a real chance to work on the sugars. PET makes it easier to judge when they are ripe by the results of the squeeze test, unlike glass!

The kids go nuts for this in the summer, and our ginger beer plant gets a workout!

Crundle

 

[keiper12]

I really enjoyed reading the ginger beer posts and tried Chappo's recipe but I mucked it...it stabilized way too low and I ended up with ginger wine...really quite horrible. The continued fermentation really changed what started out as a good tasting brew.

What do you do when you see the specific gravity continues to go south...stabilize it? Any advice?

Thanks...

 

[skippy]

I really enjoyed reading the ginger beer posts and tried Chappo's recipe but I mucked it...it stabilized way too low and I ended up with ginger wine...really quite horrible. The continued fermentation really changed what started out as a good tasting brew.

What do you do when you see the specific gravity continues to go south...stabilize it? Any advice?

Thanks...

depending on what type of yeast you use...

I found that Champagne yeast is notorious for fermenting GB to dry, as it tolerates high alcohol and pressure.

 

[keiper12]

depending on what type of yeast you use...

I found that Champagne yeast is notorious for fermenting GB to dry, as it tolerates high alcohol and pressure.

Thank you...

...I used a standard beer yeast (WLP039 Nottingham Ale Yeast - couldn't find the one recommended) thinking that it would stop...but it definitely fermented to dry. I'll try it again...but am a little worried about beer bombs...

Thanks again, Keith

 

[chappo1970]

Keith,

Try S05. I sample mine often to guage whether it's reached the right point I want it, flavour, sweetness and dryness and then crash chill to stop the yeast's putting them to sleep. I then use potassium sorbate and sodium metabisulfate (campdon tablets) to kill off the yeasts. But I keg carbonate and then bottle. Mind you I am happily drinking thru a batch that I bottled (in glass) back in March this which I just used potassium sorbate to stop the little buggers reproducing. Its really a salt and when added to your GB will form sorbic acid which does the deed. Any yeast already alive will continue living and continue being able to ferment out sugars into more ethanol and CO2 but they will eventually die off.

Hope this helps?

Cheers

Chappo

EDIT: Oh and filtering helps bring down their numbers to if your able to filter?

 

[keiper12]

Keith,

Try S05. I sample mine often to guage whether it's reached the right point I want it, flavour, sweetness and dryness and then crash chill to stop the yeast's putting them to sleep. I then use potassium sorbate and sodium metabisulfate (campdon tablets) to kill off the yeasts. But I keg carbonate and then bottle. Mind you I am happily drinking thru a batch that I bottled (in glass) back in March this which I just used potassium sorbate to stop the little buggers reproducing. Its really a salt and when added to your GB will form sorbic acid which does the deed. Any yeast already alive will continue living and continue being able to ferment out sugars into more ethanol and CO2 but they will eventually die off.

Hope this helps?

Cheers

Chappo

EDIT: Oh and filtering helps bring down their numbers to if your able to filter?

Awesome...your clarification helps greatly...it makes very much sense and I'll definitely give it another go and stabilize when it hits the right finishing gravity (I've been making too much dry wine and forgot my common sense)...I have a counter pressure filler and it seems like the perfect application.

Do you find that you have to bulk age a bit to reduce the stabilizing agent taste (or does the strong flavors hide it)?

Again, thank you for your help...your recipe had exactly the right flavor on the first day...when I follow through correctly...I have no doubt that it will be a winner.

Take care...

 

[chappo1970]

Awesome...your clarification helps greatly...it makes very much sense and I'll definitely give it another go and stabilize when it hits the right finishing gravity (I've been making too much dry wine and forgot my common sense)...I have a counter pressure filler and it seems like the perfect application.

Do you find that you have to bulk age a bit to reduce the stabilizing agent taste (or does the strong flavors hide it)?

Again, thank you for your help...your recipe had exactly the right flavor on the first day...when I follow through correctly...I have no doubt that it will be a winner.

Take care...

No worries. I have been meaning to post that tid bit up for a while but kept forgeting to do it . I shudder to think of the bottle bombs that may have been created?
Yes I usually bulk condition it for 1 to 3 months as a matter of course in the keg to settle everything down and to let the flavours come shining thru. I have never had any off flavours but you will find a sulfury aroma at first but the C02 when carbing seems to drive that off very quickly. I have also dropped off the sodium metabisulfate as I cold condition in the keg and filter prior.

Chappo

 

[Bugsylove]

Ok so i finally got around to making version 2 of the Father & Son Special Ginger Beer.

Version 1 was lacking in a few areas so I have tweaked it a little and changed a few things to see if I can improve it.

Recipe

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

Yeast Safale S-05

Steps

1. Wash the ginger thoroughly
2. Cut Ginger into 2cm long pieces
3. Add 500ml of cold water to blender as well as the ginger. I found it's best to add a couple of pieces at a time. If you don't have a blender grating is fine but you may want to consider freezing overnight to break up the cell structure as the ginger root is very fiberous.
4. Set Ginger pulp aside in the fridge for an hour to set up a little. Makes it easier to get out of the blender.
5. Juice the lemons and limes. Set aside two lemons and limes for zesting.
6. Zest the lemons and limes taking care not to have any white pith. I used a fish filleting knife. Then cut into thin strips.
7. Crush cinnamon. I put the cinnamon sticks in a zip lock bag and used my palm to crush them. Less mess that way.
8. Add all the sugar and honey to the boiler with 22lt of hot water. You will need a further 500ml of water to rinse the hoey from the pot. Stir to disolve. Boil size should now be 24lts.
9. Bring up to the boil. Gentle at this stage. Boil time is 60mins.
10. Add ginger pulp, zest and cinnamon to hops bag and drop it the boiler.
11. Boil gently for 50mins. Scoop ginger scum from top of boil. Dunk the bag like a tea bag every so often to get as much ginger flavour to impart to the boil.
12. Boil vigorously last 10mins. Keep a vigil as it will try to boil over!
13. Flame out 60mins.
14. Remove bag from boiler, just the remaining water seep out, don't squeeze. Scoop any scub from the top of the boil.
15. Rehydrate yeast in starter.
16. Cool it to pitching temp 18-20C.
17. Pitch yeast.
18. Ferment till steady readings.

SG - 1057
FG - 1012

I put it into the fermenter yeasterday. It was happily bubbling away this morning. I want to make mine a little less alcoholic so I will rack to a secondary vessle and crash chill before bottling.

I hope you enjoy it!

Would it be over gassy if you prime the bottles before bottling, would you prime them at all or half as much or as per usual

 

[cdbrown]

Chappo,

Any reason for doing a full boil on this? My next brew is going to be a ginger beer and looking at using your recipe. Has it changed at all since brewing it earlier in the year?