Ginger Beer

[Dave86]

Just trying to find some info on doing a ginger beer from scratch. When boiling your ginger up, do you boil it in a few litres on the stove or do a full boil and chill (or not)? Was just wondering if making it up from a concentrated boil would not deliver as much flavour? Anyone happen to have done a side by side?

Cheers

Dave

 

[Muggus]

I don't really see the point in boiling up a whole batch IMO.
Really all you want to do is boil up all of the ginger (and any other spices) with some sugar and water, to make a sterlised syrup of sorts, then water it down and mix in any other fermentables.

Never done a full boil for such a thing, but i'd be happy to have a side-by-side tasting if anyone wants to prove a point!

Oh ps Dave, whats your recipe you plan to use?

 

[Dave86]

I don't really see the point in boiling up a whole batch IMO.
Really all you want to do is boil up all of the ginger (and any other spices) with some sugar and water, to make a sterlised syrup of sorts, then water it down and mix in any other fermentables.

Never done a full boil for such a thing, but i'd be happy to have a side-by-side tasting if anyone wants to prove a point!

Oh ps Dave, whats your recipe you plan to use?

Cheers, mini boil it is

Got about 1-1.1kg of fresh ginger I'm going to put through the blender (a la Dr Smurto) and boil it up with a few sliced lemons (or blended maybe) and 0.5kg malt extract and 1.5 kg raw sugar. Make it up to 23-25L and ferment with nottingham or US-56. Thinking US-56 as it might not attenuate quite so much

Cheers for the info

Dave

 

[sponge]

I did something very similar a while back. it turned out very very dry, more of a ginger flavoured beer then a ginger beer.

the only way ive been able to get that real sweet ginger beer flavour is with a can of goop and some lactose on top of that (along with everything else of course...)


thats just my opinion though...


Sponge

 

[Muggus]

Cheers, mini boil it is

Got about 1-1.1kg of fresh ginger I'm going to put through the blender (a la Dr Smurto) and boil it up with a few sliced lemons (or blended maybe) and 0.5kg malt extract and 1.5 kg raw sugar. Make it up to 23-25L and ferment with nottingham or US-56. Thinking US-56 as it might not attenuate quite so much

Cheers for the info

Dave

Sounds good to me.
The one thing i'm always a bit paranoid of when brewing a ginger beer from scratch is the brew attenuating way too much and becoming unbearably dry and hot, but having some malt in there and a yeast that won't go so nuts should help give your brew a bit of sweetness.
Good luck with it!

 

[Jamz]

Here's a suggestion for ya, how would you go letting it ferment out fully, adding camden tablets to prevent further fermentation and then back-sweetening to taste by adding more sugar? I guess the big downside to that is that camden tablets would rule out bottle carbing, so you'd either have to serve it flat or force carb in a keg or something.

 

[Shortz]

The problem i've had with ginger beer in the past is that it has been quite watery apart from the ginger zing or it tastes like a weird beer. Is it just my recipe?

 

[Muggus]

The problem i've had with ginger beer in the past is that it has been quite watery apart from the ginger zing or it tastes like a weird beer. Is it just my recipe?

If you're just been using a Ginger Beer kit very specifically, you'll often find it is on the watery side.
As has been mentioned by others before, extra ginger (be it freshly grated or in a syrup) definately gives your ginger beer more flavour. More fermentables will also give you a less 'watery' overall sensation, though will also raise your alcohol...not sure if that's what you're after!

 

[minxster]

My Ginger Beer recipe has taken me a while to get good and i love gingery bite!!
Its a K&K tho so i hope its ok to post it here...

1 x Coopers Ginger Beer (or morgans but i cant taste the difference just the price)
1 x 500g Fresh ginger
1 x 250g DARK Brown Sugar
1 x 800g Raw Sugar (or dex or brewing sugar)
1 x 250g Buderum Ginger Honey
1 x 50g powdered ginger
2 x Whole cloves
4 x birds eye chillies (sliced thinly, i personally keep the seeds in)

Boil up around 3litres of water
Add in the honey, chillies
boil for 15minutes
then add the fresh and powdered ginger
boil for 15minutes
about now its smelling really tastey
add the brown sugar and the cloves
boil for 15minutes
remove from heat (i usally cover the pot with clingwrap to prevent anything unwanted getting in) let cool while preparing the fermenter
I guess the order i add things in is abit random... but it seems to work

Make the kit up as normal from here
usually ferment for around 2 weeks, bottle for around 6 weeks, but do taste one bottle at 3 weeks the ginger kick is sooooo strong! it mellows out to a nice hit at 6 weeks, by 3 months its lost most its taste imho.

Sounds like a great recipe. I did one similar for my first ever GB batch which I have only just bottled. My recipe was quite similar however I only used 2kg of raw sugar (will definitely use dark brown sugar next time) and I accidentally poured it 22L not 20L.
I don't have a hydrometer yet but was wondering what did your GB batch here return?

Then last minute just after bottling I decided to add one carbonation drop to each bottle. Do you think this will up the alcohol %?

Any tips would be greatly appreciated, cant wait to get my second batch perfected.

Cheers