Ginger Beer

[Fatgodzilla]

I just made this kit up last week after the packaging promised me a nice malty finish.

I added 500 LDM, 250 Dex, 250 Malto-Dex
Lge Tbl spoon grated ginger soaked in 50ml port strained
Kit yeast
I didn't use the artificial sweetener so to make it was drier.

When tasted at bottling, I'd have to say there is bugger all ginger flavour, after reading a few peoples recipes I'd add 500gms of fresh grated to this at least or take MHB's advice and use the Buderim Refresher. It was very dry - which I don't mind, it had a nice zing which tasted as if it came from lemons - not ginger. Strange. I'm not sure that conditioning will bring out any extra ginger flavours, previous GB's have tasted pretty much the same at bottling as they do 2 months later. The colour was not to bad, probably a bit darker than a corona. I could taste the malt as well.

Ever since I tried a GB at Dux de Lux in Christchurch, NZ I've been trying to recreate it. It looked like a lager, had a head like a lager, tasted a lot of ginger and malt. So since I've wondered if it was a ginger beer at all, maybe it was a lager of sorts with ginger through it, as opposed to a GB that had lager characteristics. I guess I was looking for that with the Brewcraft kit. Has anyone tried theDux de Lux GB and know what I mean?

Anyhow if anyone has better luck with the Brewcraft kit let us know...

matt

The big problem is we all want a different result but no one seems to find it !

Is a real home brewed ginger beer the modern day Holy Grail ???

 

[sponge]

does a real home brewed ginger beer classify making your own ginger root thing? (sorry, I'm not really sure what it is called). my mum was wondering what i was doing when i told her i was making ginger beer and boiling up the ginger and other goodies.

one day I'll have to try making it from scratch by planting the root and trying to make it the old fashioned way. Who knows, maybe all these simple k&k ideas are just no substitute for the original...

All it needs is a little TLC

 

[Fatgodzilla]

does a real home brewed ginger beer classify making your own ginger root thing? (sorry, I'm not really sure what it is called). my mum was wondering what i was doing when i told her i was making ginger beer and boiling up the ginger and other goodies.

Your mum is thinking of this - a ginger beer plant


You need:
50g fresh bakers yeast
300ml water
2tsp ground ginger
2tsp sugar

Method:
Start a Ginger Beer plant by placing 50g of fresh bakers yeast in a jar with about 300ml of water, 2 teaspoons of ground ginger and 2 teaspoons of sugar.

Feed the plant each day for the next 7 days by adding one teaspoon of sugar and one teaspoon of ground ginger.

Strain the mixture through fine muslin (keep the sediment) and reserve the liquid. Dissolve 450g of sugar in 600ml of boiling water. When cool, add the juice of two lemons and the reserved liquid and make up the volume to 4 litres.

Bottle, keep for one week, then, either drink quickly or keep refrigerated as it tends to become livelier with age.

Restart the plant by dividing the sediment into two parts and placing each half into a jar with 300ml of water. You now have two plants to feed as above. If one plant is enough, give one away

But how do we make it alcoholic ??

 

[sponge]

Ahh yea thats what she was talking about

She enjoys telling me how much they used to explode when opened and how my homebrew will do the same and wreck her roof....

With the making it alcoholic part, is there any yeast left in the ginger beer solution? If not, is it possible to make up a few of these plants using the same method and produce make a larger batch, say 13L and add additional yeast to the brew?

 

[mattemmo]

The big problem is we all want a different result but no one seems to find it !

Is a real home brewed ginger beer the modern day Holy Grail ???

If it is the holy grail I hope it doesn't take me 2000 years to find it. I've only got 45 good years of brewing left in me...

 

[drsmurto]

Just a few points to make.

1. Fresh ginger doesnt have to be expensive - asian grocery stores sell it for ~$10/kg.
2. Ditch the kit. If you are adding fresh ginger, various spices and a heap of sugar whats the bleedin point?

Cheers
DrSmurto

p.s. someone asked about soft drink style GBs. My best GB to date was 1kg fresh ginger, cloves, cinnamon sticks and lemon + 2kg raw sugar. Champers yeast. Good spicy kick, easy to drink but dry as. Watered down with lemonade a top summer refresher to drink while watching the cricket.

 

[SJW]

Anyone used the new Brewcraft kit? It has yeast, nutrient and sweetener. I picked one up and am going to leave out the sweetener for a dryer Ginger Beer. Looks interesting.

Steve

 

[sponge]

Good point DrSmurto. So what is actually in a ginger beer kit? I'm assuming some sort of ginger flavouring, maybe some malt.... i wouldn't have a clue what else?

If I was to go about making an 'AG' GB (I'm not really sure if you could classify it as AG, but it always sounds nice B)) would I just up the amount of fresh ginger, spices, and malt (possibly some more raw sugar...)? From a newbie point of view, it always sounds nice saying that you made a GB from scratch.

Cheers, sponge

 

[drsmurto]

I have no idea whats in the kits which is the point.

 

[mattemmo]

I have no idea whats in the kits which is the point.

Steve, I have, read my post earlier in this thread (page 1). Pile in the extra ginger...

cheers,
matt

 

[drsmurto]

Steve, I have, read my post earlier in this thread (page 1). Pile in the extra ginger...

cheers,
matt

Re-read your last post. Cant see where you say exactly what the kit contains. You add extra ingredients but the contents of the can is still a mystery - care to enlighten us?

 

[braufrau]

Ahh yea thats what she was talking about

She enjoys telling me how much they used to explode when opened and how my homebrew will do the same and wreck her roof....

the problem with our mum's ginger beer was it wasn't completely fermented at bottling because otherwise it wouldn't be sweet so if you didn't drink it fast enough .... boom!

Also my mother's plant seemed to mutate over time so the bottles became fizzier and fizzier.
She did this weird ritual where she added a sultana to each bottle and when it floated to the top, that was time to cap!

Anyway, on basicbrewing radio I heard a passing reference to a yeast poison you can add to stop the fermentation half way and then you can store it for awhile.

Anybody know about that?

 

[drag]

the problem with our mum's ginger beer was it wasn't completely fermented at bottling because otherwise it wouldn't be sweet so if you didn't drink it fast enough .... boom!

Also my mother's plant seemed to mutate over time so the bottles became fizzier and fizzier.
She did this weird ritual where she added a sultana to each bottle and when it floated to the top, that was time to cap!

Anyway, on basicbrewing radio I heard a passing reference to a yeast poison you can add to stop the fermentation half way and then you can store it for awhile.

Anybody know about that?

What about killing the yeast by heating solution up to say 50 degrees

 

[drsmurto]

<SNIP>
Anyway, on basicbrewing radio I heard a passing reference to a yeast poison you can add to stop the fermentation half way and then you can store it for awhile.

Anybody know about that?

campden tablets (Na or K metabisulphite) or ascorbic acid should work. I believe the wine industry uses the latter? Not sure of quantities tho, may have to ask my office mate who is married to a winemaker

 

[mattemmo]

Re-read your last post. Cant see where you say exactly what the kit contains. You add extra ingredients but the contents of the can is still a mystery - care to enlighten us?

DrSmurto, I was replying to SJW's post about whether anyone had made the Brewcraft kit, and I had ,so i was referring him to an earlier post I'd made reviewing it. I wouldn't have a clue as to what's in the can, I tasted the contents, wouldn't be surprised it if was a can of very light malt extract and thats it... very keen to be enlightened also!

 

[sponge]

Hey all

I realised I haven't yet thrown out the empty can of goo (Morgans GB) which I made yesty.

Here we go;

Ingredients: Ginger Flavour, Food Acid (330), Sodium Cyclamate (952), Vegetable Gum (415), Sodium Saccharin (954), malt and water added.
Yeast and Nutrient (under cap).
Sulphites Added

Ok, I wouldn't have a clue what just about any of those ingredients are. I think the next GB I do, I'll do it all from fresh ingredients and use a..... cider yeast? Maybe an ale yeast to not dry it out too much? (I'm not really an expert on different yeasts, or on homebrewing for that matter, anyone feel like en lighting me on the yeast section?) And I don't think I'll bother with dry enzyme either.


Cheers, Sponge

 

[drsmurto]

Hey all

I realised I haven't yet thrown out the empty can of goo (Morgans GB) which I made yesty.

Here we go;

Ingredients: Ginger Flavour, Food Acid (330), Sodium Cyclamate (952), Vegetable Gum (415), Sodium Saccharin (954), malt and water added.
Yeast and Nutrient (under cap).
Sulphites Added

Ok, I wouldn't have a clue what just about any of those ingredients are. I think the next GB I do, I'll do it all from fresh ingredients and use a..... cider yeast? Maybe an ale yeast to not dry it out too much? (I'm not really an expert on different yeasts, or on homebrewing for that matter, anyone feel like en lighting me on the yeast section?) And I don't think I'll bother with dry enzyme either.


Cheers, Sponge

So the answer is in - the kit contains....drum roll please..... 4/5ths of sweet FA. Artificial flavour and 2 artificial sweeteners with malt seemingly an after thought.

Ditch the kits ginger beer lovers, fresh ginger, some sugar and.or malt and a sachet of yeast is all you need!

 

[sponge]

Thats just what I'm thinking. No more of this tin GB. Would a mix of fresh and canned ginger be alright or does canned ginger contain nasties which may infect the brew? I'm just thinking of what my wallet would be saying to about all that fresh ginger, although, it would definitely be worth the extra $$

As with the yeast, which yeast would be recommended for this?

 

[drsmurto]

I think the kits and tinned ginger are a false economy. The tinned/jars of ginger contains preservatives. Find yourself an asian grocery store and buy a kg of fresh ginger. Pick up some spices while you are there, cinnamon sticks, cloves etc. Either add malt or in my case, 2kg of raw sugar. I have tried champagne yeast on too many occasions now and really should branch out. champagne yeast leaves it very dry so try an ale yeast. I have 4766 cider yeast in the fridge i may use.

 

[KHB]

I think the kits and tinned ginger are a false economy. The tinned/jars of ginger contains preservatives. Find yourself an asian grocery store and buy a kg of fresh ginger. Pick up some spices while you are there, cinnamon sticks, cloves etc. Either add malt or in my case, 2kg of raw sugar. I have tried champagne yeast on too many occasions now and really should branch out. champagne yeast leaves it very dry so try an ale yeast. I have 4766 cider yeast in the fridge i may use.

I agree go the whole hog and use fresh ginger, canned will be lacking in flavour. Using fresh will mean you wont need to use as much anyway