Great Simple (strong) Ginger Beer Recipe

[Benniee]

When i did a GB i didn't boil it at all, i had about 100gm's of fresh ginger, peeled it, shredded it then added some boiling water out of the kettle for about 5 mins. Had a great fresh ginger taste.

I didn't peel it and I think that's where I went wrong...

 

[Benniee]

Ok - well I made up a batch of Ginger Beer as per the original post in this forum

Used
1 x Coopers Ginger Beer Kit
2 x 750mL Bundaberg Ginger Beer Cordial
1.5kg Brown Sugar

Topped up to 23L and pitched 2x7g Coopers dry yeast packets.

Took a little while to ferment out - about 12 days.

SG 1.040
FG 0.094

Geeze, doing my rough calcs that makes this brew about 14% by volume (11% by weight). I hadn't planned on something with quiet so high an alcohol content, and without using specialised yeasts it may be a bit of a "hang-over beast" :blink:

I skipped over the extra bottle of cordial at kegging time because I felt it was sweet enough for my tastes.

I will post back in a couple of weeks about how it tastes.

Benniee

 

[Keifer]

Yep let us know how it turs out and how many you need to get smashed!
I prefer GB to be low alc % so its nice and easy to drink, but each to their own

 

[Benniee]

Yep let us know how it turs out and how many you need to get smashed!
I prefer GB to be low alc % so its nice and easy to drink, but each to their own

Yeah, I'd rather have a lower percentage as well. I'm thinking I may cut the brew 50/50 with lemonade or something to make it more drinkable.

I guess the brain should have twigged when I was adding the cordial as well as the sugars, but I didn't stop to think about the SG of 1.040 because it's around the number I get for a normal beer. What I didn't allow for was the lower FG.

Benniee

 

[Stuster]

SG 1.040
FG 0.094

Geeze, doing my rough calcs that makes this brew about 14% by volume (11% by weight). I hadn't planned on something with quiet so high an alcohol content, and without using specialised yeasts it may be a bit of a "hang-over beast"

Don't worry. It won't really be 14%.

Your final gravity must be 0.994 unless you have added some strange substance that will make this far lighter than water or alcohol.

That should still give you a healthy 5.8% alcohol. Hopefully enough for the beast with two backs rather than the hang-over beast. :lol:

 

[Benniee]

Don't worry. It won't really be 14%.

Your final gravity must be 0.994 unless you have added some strange substance that will make this far lighter than water or alcohol.

That should still give you a healthy 5.8% alcohol. Hopefully enough for the beast with two backs rather than the hang-over beast. :lol:

AHHH Of course! I just drew up a little sketch of my hydrometer scale on my pad here at work and you're definitely right! PHEW!

I haven't had a brew go below 1 before so that's why I was a little thrown reading the scale down there. Ahh good, I'm feeling excited about this brew again now.

Fingers crossed for the beast you describe as ginger beer is one of the wife's drinks of choice. :lol:

Benniee

 

[Benniee]

Got to tasting the Ginger Beer and it's pretty sweet. Even after fermenting down below 1.000 it's still quite a sickly, sticky mouthfeel. I'm wondering if the cordial has some unfermentable sugars in there.

It's only realy a 1-glass beer anyway, but the sweetness has wiped out the subtle flavors of the spices. Ah well, keep tinkering I guess.

I'm thinking next time I might only add 1 bottle of cordial to the fermenter, and maybe boil up some extra cloves and cinnamon to give it some extra spice. I'm glad I didn't add the additional bottle of cordial to the keg.

Benniee

 

[Flippo]

Has anyone tried making ginger beer from scratch before? i.e. making a "plant", adding ginger and sugar to it each day for 7-10 days then mixing it all up? A mate and I did it about ten years ago from his gran's old old old recipe and it was soooo bloody nice, I tried to do it again last year and it came out dry as a nun's.

Just wanted to see if anyone else does it this way so I can compare notes and recipes

Cheers

 

[Benniee]

Has anyone tried making ginger beer from scratch before? i.e. making a "plant", adding ginger and sugar to it each day for 7-10 days then mixing it all up? A mate and I did it about ten years ago from his gran's old old old recipe and it was soooo bloody nice, I tried to do it again last year and it came out dry as a nun's.

Just wanted to see if anyone else does it this way so I can compare notes and recipes

Back toward the start of this thread there was a recipe for a ginger beer from scratch. You should check it out.

Thought I'd also update the tasting notes. As the keg level is getting lower I'm noticing the sweetness is fading out. I'm wondering if some of the remaining sugars had settled out in the bottom of the keg and the first glasses were overly sweet because of this.

At a guess I'd say the keg is 2/3 full and now it's a bloody nice ginger beer. Heaps of ginger spice and just the right level of sweetness - although the artificial sweetener taste is still there, but that's a problem to solve in the next batch.

Benniee

 

[Flippo]

The way I was talking about was like this

http://www.abc.net.au/hobart/stories/s512188.htm

I looked at the start of the thread and couldn't see any that were made this way.

 

[Keifer]

I also remember my GB being very very sweet when i first poured one, had to mix with water and still tasted crap. After a week or so, it hit the not so sweet spot and was very very nice. The keg emptied quickly. That was with fresh ginger and no cordial. Am about to do a repeat recipe

 

[FazerPete]

I had the same problem with my Coopers GB. Way too sweet coming out of the fermenter so I put about 100ml of lemon juice into the keg with it. It helped quite a lot.

 

[applecracle]

what sort of alcohol content would you expext following the instructions on the GB kit i.e. just 1kg or brown sugar and whatever fermentables are in the kit) ? im guessing its pretty low (around 3.5%)

Applecracle

 

[FazerPete]

what sort of alcohol content would you expext following the instructions on the GB kit i.e. just 1kg or brown sugar and whatever fermentables are in the kit) ? im guessing its pretty low (around 3.5%)

I haven't tested it but it says 3.5% on the back of the can.

 

[brettprevans]

Not 'all grain' Brissybrew but it has no artificial sweetener and takes the same effort as a K&K.

750 g fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick
8 cloves
1 lemon
2kg raw sugar
1 sachet champagne yeast (EC-1118)

Throw ginger in food processor and chop lemon. Boil everything up for 1 hour (not yeast) in 3-4 L water. Cool in ice water then filter into fermenter, top up to 15 L with cold water, pitch yeast.

Works out to be ~7%. Mixed 2:1 with lemonade to get the sweetness up.

Cheers
DrSmurto

Sumrto, as I dont drink ginger beer and have never brewed it, Im wondering, if your gonna mix the resulting brew with lemonade, could you just leave it in the fermentor (or cube) and take bits out when you want rather than bottling/kegging it? The lemonade should give it the carbonation? Thought I'd make a cube batch for for Grandmother and dont want to use 30 of my bottles for someone else.

 

[TheWineBrewer]

Hey I got a great video showing how to make a Brigalow Ginger Beer Kit:

 

[Bribie G]