Ginger Beer Recipe - Scratch Brew No Kit

[brettprevans]

Ouch!!!! $20/kg :angry: That's highway robbery!

I usually get mine from the local farmers market at Beenleigh showgrounds but I guess that won't help you CM2.

Chap Chap

i recon if you bought it at your local price, incl shipping $, it would still be cheaper than $20 p kilo. ridiculous! I'll ring a few of the local fruit/veg stores around locally. got to be a better price than that.


edit: just rang a few local shops....$20kg, $20kg, $30kg wtf! the melb ginger shortage of 2010!

 

[chappo1970]

i recon if you bought it at your local price, incl shipping $, it would still be cheaper than $20 p kilo. ridiculous! I'll ring a few of the local fruit/veg stores around locally. got to be a better price than that.


edit: just rang a few local shops....$20kg, $20kg, $30kg wtf! the melb ginger shortage of 2010!

WTF????? Wow that's expensive! I'll have a look up this way CM2 if you want?

Chap Chap

 

[brettprevans]

WTF????? Wow that's expensive! I'll have a look up this way CM2 if you want?

Chap Chap

yeah mate, why not - thx. shipping from interstate cant be as expensive as buying it here. maybe i should be a ginger grower in victoria instead of working at my day job!

 

[piraterum]

It's $20/kg in Sydney too :angry:

 

[mrmatt]

$20 for nice stuff from the asian grocer $10 for manky stuff from woolies at my shops

 

[moovet]

Hi Chappo,

When you crash chill, what temp do you take it down to. The SG yesterday was 1.015 which equates to about 2.4% so I racked it into a carboy and put it in my brewfridge which is at about 4 degrees. Is that too low? I also didn't have any finings yesterday so will it matter if I throw finings in when it is that cold?

Cheers,


M

Bottled the ginger beer about 11 days ago. Had a bit of a problem with the finings though as the bung was stuck and I couldn't pour them in easily and tried to do it through the airlock. However they ended up freezing in the airlock (must have a higher freezing temp) and luckily didnt have an exploding carboy in my fridge.

Managed to sort it out and bottle it leaving it in the fridge at about 4 degrees while we went overseas for 10 days. Got back today and relieved a bit of the pressure in the bottles (using 2.4L Berri Juice PETE bottle) and drank some tonight. Definitely lost a bit of the ginger bite but is still very good and I will defnintely repeat the recipe at some stage maybe with some extra chili and ginger (maybe another 250g).

Anyway, the pregnant wife loves it and it doesn't taste alcoholic at all.

Time to start brewing some mead!!

 

[The Mexican]

I bottle mine in screw top Bundaburg GB bottles 700mls (i think? Not completely sure about that one). I haven't had a problem thus far except for a much much earlier batch that went into some Tooheys New tallies.

Let us know how you get on with this one.

Cheers

Chappo

Hi Chappo

I've been making GB around 20 years & think I have it somewhere near what I like. IMO only... cut back the fresh ginger by 1/2 & use 1/2 a bottle Buderim ginger syrup. I use some DME to give a bit of body & for sweetness I use lactose as they can be very dry without it, but don't over do it. For yeast I was using chapagne yeast, but now it's what ever ale yeast is left in the fermenter from the last brew, pitched high. My GB's are not low alcohol & I only use 1/2 the amount of primming sugar & refrigerate the lot when carbonated.

Regards
The Mexican

 

[chappo1970]

Hey there Mr Mex,

Yeah I have used the ginger refresher too in a few brews and it is nice. The idea on my recipe was a total scratch ginger beer with nothin' artificial. Yep lactose is great to back sweeten. Thinking I must brew this very soon but by the look of it I think I will wait till the ginger prices are more around the $20kg mark. SWMBO tells me it's $20 at the farmers market as well .

Chap Chap

 

[brettprevans]

just rang a few local shops....$20kg, $20kg, $30kg
wtf! the ginger shortage of 2010!

SWMBO tells me it's $20 at the farmers market as well .

hmmm maybe chinese bulk buy :lol: h34r:

 

[Ester Trub]

I know most of you would probably be against this, but I'm led to believe that dumpster diving can be a great source of large amounts of ginger. Especially at $20/kg, I reckon they're probably throwing a lot of this stuff out.
Would probably only suit those who are dumpster divers anyway, as it would take patience for a good score like that.

 

[brettprevans]

I know most of you would probably be against this, but I'm led to believe that dumpster diving can be a great source of large amounts of ginger. Especially at $20/kg, I reckon they're probably throwing a lot of this stuff out.
Would probably only suit those who are dumpster divers anyway, as it would take patience for a good score like that.

sorry but your reasonsing seems contradictory. at $20kg there is little likelyhood that they would be throwing it away as its costs so much. more liekly to throw it away if it was cheap.

and they shouldnt be throwing it away anyway. plenty of things to do with ginger so it can be used rather than throw away.

 

[Ester Trub]

sorry but your reasonsing seems contradictory. at $20kg there is little likelyhood that they would be throwing it away as its costs so much. more liekly to throw it away if it was cheap.

and they shouldnt be throwing it away anyway. plenty of things to do with ginger so it can be used rather than throw away.

If you were a fruit shop or large supermarket with kilos and kilos of wrinkly ginger that you couldn't sell because no one was buying it, you would throw it out. Trust me, I used to work in the fruit section at Coles, and Ginger got thrown out all the time. Not such a popular product even when it's cheap.
I totally agree, they shouldn't be throwing it away, nor a lot of other stuff that just gets chucked in the bin for no good reason, but it happens just the same. It's criminal if you ask me, but it's just another sign of how wasteful society has become.

 

[mrmatt]

Made mine on the weekend (not the same recipe http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...p;#entry610510) and used SO-04 when i thought i had 05 in the cupboard, went and checked it toady and the krausen is mad, much higher then my beer ones, bit of ooze coming out of the clingwrap and all. I thought that GB had only a small amount of krausen.

 

[chappo1970]

Made mine on the weekend (not the same recipe http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...p;#entry610510) and used SO-04 when i thought i had 05 in the cupboard, went and checked it toady and the krausen is mad, much higher then my beer ones, bit of ooze coming out of the clingwrap and all. I thought that GB had only a small amount of krausen.

Not with S04 it won't. That stuff crawls out of fermenters on a normal beer. Be interested to see how "Old Dusty" goes with a GB?

Cheers

Chap Chap

 

[bum]

Not with S04 it won't. That stuff crawls out of fermenters on a normal beer. Be interested to see how "Old Dusty" goes with a GB?

I'm not a fan of S04 in beers but have used it a couple times in GBs without noticing the qualities I dislike about it (excluding the loose sediment).

 

[brettprevans]

If you were a fruit shop or large supermarket with kilos and kilos of wrinkly ginger that you couldn't sell because no one was buying it, you would throw it out. Trust me, I used to work in the fruit section at Coles, and Ginger got thrown out all the time. Not such a popular product even when it's cheap.
I totally agree, they shouldn't be throwing it away, nor a lot of other stuff that just gets chucked in the bin for no good reason, but it happens just the same. It's criminal if you ask me, but it's just another sign of how wasteful society has become.

sorry mate i was thinking resteraunts not ubermarkets. yeah they chuck stuff. cant say i want to go dumpter diving though. ill just have to suck it up and pay the price or wait until its back in season.

 

[scoundrel]

last friday at the fruito in mcwhirters - fortitude valley, 300g packs of ginger were about $3-4, ill be heading in on thursday morning to see if anys still there.

 

[Mobbee007]

sorry mate i was thinking resteraunts not ubermarkets. yeah they chuck stuff. cant say i want to go dumpter diving though. ill just have to suck it up and pay the price or wait until its back in season.

Maybe Ester could do the dive & post some to you?

 

[mrmatt]

is 04 a bit dry?

 

[Wolfy]

ill just have to suck it up and pay the price or wait until its back in season.

After noting the price of fresh ginger, when I saw 1kg jar of crushed ginger (90% ginger) at Costco, for a bit over $5 I though it was worth a try.

Also saves the time/effort of crushing/chopping/squeezing the fresh stuff too - don't know what it tastes like in GB yet however, as it's only been fermenting for a week now.