Ginger Beer

[braufrau]

My mum never added yeast except what was on the sultanas.

 

[drag]

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.

Have you ever tried leaving the ginger root from the boil in the wort & put it all in the fermenter?

 

[sponge]

thats what i was thinking, similar to leaving the peeled apples in the cider i made a couple of weeks ago. they just sat on top of the wort, and because they were boiled initially they had been sterilised.

Doing this would allow more of the ginger and spices to come out in the finished product, and u probably wouldn't have to use as much as if you were to just boil them at the start and strain it off. If it has all been sterilised from boiling then there should be no problem leaving them in the wort from what I would be thinking....

 

[beernography]

Both my batches of GB I have not bothered to filter the wort, even before bottling and had no problems with chunks or the foul taste. One bottle was the bottom of the fermenter and it was dicey, but the rest have been tops. One lot i grated, the other I chopped and boiled and I recommend chopping a) less work B) less dirty musty bits of ginger floating round.

And on that note I'm off to bed, got the fuckin boss riding my conscience and I'm not even at work yet

 

[sponge]

Haha, good stuff son

So did you use a kit for those GB's, or did you use all fresh ingredients?

 

[dataphage]

Have you ever tried leaving the ginger root from the boil in the wort & put it all in the fermenter?

Yes I have and it doesn't quite drop out of suspension in the way you'd hope so you end up with 3 inches of ginger & yeast slurry at the bottom of the fermenter! I did all kinds of experiments getting to a decent ginger beer recipe. I've written up online the first decent success with a fair few pictures if you're really interested:

http://www.dataphage.com/2006/07/great-gin...experiment.html
http://www.dataphage.com/2006/07/great-gin...t-bottling.html
http://www.dataphage.com/2006/08/great-gin...t-drinking.html

I have actually refined the recipe a bit since this, using maltodextrin in place of all that lactose etc. I've found that straining the wort through a grain bag into the ferment and letting the full grain bag drip into the fermenter for a while makes your life a lot easier later.

 

[drsmurto]

I strain the boiled ginger and spice solution thru a fine sieve to keep it out. With min 1kg per 20L batch ginger flavour/aroma isnt an issue. I have played around with malt extract and even steeping crystal malt to get the extra sweetness in. Maybe carapils will get a run next time.

As for chopping i put the ginger thru a food processor, skin and all. Boil that for an hour with spices etc and then dissolve sugars at flameout.

I had considered boiling up some ginger and adding it to secondary for some extra aroma, or even adding ginger late in the boil. Old ginger is very strong, i leave it in the fridge for anywhere between 1 and 3 months and it really ramps up the bite but the aroma disappears so have played around with combo of fresh and old ginger.

A good ginger beer is something i have been experimenting with for more than a year now.

 

[SJW]

As for chopping i put the ginger thru a food processor, skin and all. Boil that for an hour with spices etc and then dissolve sugars at flameout.

Hey Dr. If I am just using the Brewcraft kit (as I have bought it) is there any need to boil up the Ginger? As I wont be doing a boil, just warming the can of goo up prior to dumping in the fermenter. I was just going to grate 500g of Ginger, skin and all into the fermenter?

Steve

 

[sponge]

just a heads up. you probably want to boil the ginger before placing it into the fermenter to kill off any bacteria which is on it to not risk infecting the brew

 

[drsmurto]

As others have noted, the kit dont pack much flavour punch so you need to boil the ginger to extract the flavour. And to sanitise it as sponge said.

 

[maltedhopalong]

While on the topic, I've always wondered what products could be used to give it body without going overboard on the malt flavour?

 

[sponge]

Well, from what my readings have told me, maltodextrin helps to retain some body in brews but is maltodextrin pretty much just a mix of malt and dextrose? (im only guessing at the from the name)

 

[drsmurto]

Maltodextrin isnt fermentable, it adds body to beer.

 

[minxster]

I've used Fresh Ginger. It gets expensive, I used something like 1kg of Ginger for just one 23L batch.

I put it in a food processor then boiled it in 5L of water and strained the water into the fermenter. Next time, I'll just leave the junk in it, it's been sterilised by the boiling, you could get away with less ginger that way, make sure to strain before bottling.

Did you end up doing that batch leaving the ginger in the fermenter? If so, how did that go on taste? How much ginger did you end up using then?


cheers