Henriette
New Member
Hi there.
For those of you who didn’t read my introduction; I’m from the Netherlands so English is not my native language. My apologies in advance for any spell of grammar errors.
After reading for days on this board I think I’m ready to make my own ginger beer.
I want to make Chapos GB from scratch but I have a few questions because some things I don’t know and some other things I would like to know I understood well so please correct me if I’m wrong.
First of all for the abbreviations when using a hydrometer:
ABV = Alcohol percentage?
BG = ?
OG = ?
SG = Start Gravity?
FG = Finsihed Gravity?
I have a hydrometer but these abbreviations are not on the paper that came with mine.
For the recipe I don’t quite understand this:
11] Bring up to the boil. Gentle at this stage. Boil time is 60 mins.
12] Add ginger pulp, zest and cinnamon to hops bag and drop it the boiler.
13] Boil gently for 50 mins. Scoop ginger scum from top of boil. Dunk the bag like a tea bag every so often to get as much ginger flavour to impart to the boil.
Does this mean that the total gently boiling time is 110 minutes, and that I add the ginger pulp, zest and cinnamon after the first 60 minutes boil and boil again for 50 minutes, or do I add the ginger pulp, zest and cinnamon after 10 minutes and boil for another 50 minutes so that it makes a total gently boil of 60 minutes?
Honey
I can’t buy Iron Bark Honey over here so unfortunately the flavour will never be exactly the same. Will any type of other dark honey do? We do have ‘Woud honing’ that comes from forrest trees but is technically not a real honey because its not produced by bees but by other insects in the forrest. But maybe there’s a substitute for Iron Bark Honey that I can buy over here?
Gentle boil
For my first time I want to make a small batch in a 6,5 liter fermenter. It's very hard to boil gently on my gas stove and that's why I purchased a 6,5 liter slow cooker a while ago. The fluid in the SC reaches a temperature of 90-95 degrees C on low-high and is slowly bubbling. The inside pot is suitable for my stove so my plan was to bring it up to the boil on the stove and than transfer the pot to the SC for the gently boil. I guess I will have to take the inside pot out of the SC during flame out because the outside pot stays also hot for a while after unplugging it.
Do I have to leave the lid on during the flame out for 60 min?
Headspace
Given the needed head space (?) above the fluid I want to make a 6 liter batch to go in my 6,5 liter fermenter. Is that okay or should I leave more or less head space?
Fridge
I really love the idea for using a fridge for the fermenter. As soon as I read this a couple of days ago I plugged in my spare fridge. But when I get up at 6:00 in the morning the temperature in the fridge is 15.7 C and the water in the jar is 15.2 C. During the daytime the temperature rises slightly up to 16.5 C.
The yeast I have on hand is US-05, S-33, and T-58.
I was thinking of using the US-05 for this batch but all the packages say Temperature range: 12-25 C. Ideally: 15-22 C. Can I still put my fermenter in the fridge although the temp in it is on the low side? I don’t want to alter the fridge for higher temperatures because I need it for the holidays and special occasions.
Well I guess these were all my questions for now. At least I hope
I hope it doesn’t sound stupid but I just want to make sure I understood well. Many thanks in advance.
For those of you who didn’t read my introduction; I’m from the Netherlands so English is not my native language. My apologies in advance for any spell of grammar errors.
After reading for days on this board I think I’m ready to make my own ginger beer.
I want to make Chapos GB from scratch but I have a few questions because some things I don’t know and some other things I would like to know I understood well so please correct me if I’m wrong.
First of all for the abbreviations when using a hydrometer:
ABV = Alcohol percentage?
BG = ?
OG = ?
SG = Start Gravity?
FG = Finsihed Gravity?
I have a hydrometer but these abbreviations are not on the paper that came with mine.
For the recipe I don’t quite understand this:
11] Bring up to the boil. Gentle at this stage. Boil time is 60 mins.
12] Add ginger pulp, zest and cinnamon to hops bag and drop it the boiler.
13] Boil gently for 50 mins. Scoop ginger scum from top of boil. Dunk the bag like a tea bag every so often to get as much ginger flavour to impart to the boil.
Does this mean that the total gently boiling time is 110 minutes, and that I add the ginger pulp, zest and cinnamon after the first 60 minutes boil and boil again for 50 minutes, or do I add the ginger pulp, zest and cinnamon after 10 minutes and boil for another 50 minutes so that it makes a total gently boil of 60 minutes?
Honey
I can’t buy Iron Bark Honey over here so unfortunately the flavour will never be exactly the same. Will any type of other dark honey do? We do have ‘Woud honing’ that comes from forrest trees but is technically not a real honey because its not produced by bees but by other insects in the forrest. But maybe there’s a substitute for Iron Bark Honey that I can buy over here?
Gentle boil
For my first time I want to make a small batch in a 6,5 liter fermenter. It's very hard to boil gently on my gas stove and that's why I purchased a 6,5 liter slow cooker a while ago. The fluid in the SC reaches a temperature of 90-95 degrees C on low-high and is slowly bubbling. The inside pot is suitable for my stove so my plan was to bring it up to the boil on the stove and than transfer the pot to the SC for the gently boil. I guess I will have to take the inside pot out of the SC during flame out because the outside pot stays also hot for a while after unplugging it.
Do I have to leave the lid on during the flame out for 60 min?
Headspace
Given the needed head space (?) above the fluid I want to make a 6 liter batch to go in my 6,5 liter fermenter. Is that okay or should I leave more or less head space?
Fridge
I really love the idea for using a fridge for the fermenter. As soon as I read this a couple of days ago I plugged in my spare fridge. But when I get up at 6:00 in the morning the temperature in the fridge is 15.7 C and the water in the jar is 15.2 C. During the daytime the temperature rises slightly up to 16.5 C.
The yeast I have on hand is US-05, S-33, and T-58.
I was thinking of using the US-05 for this batch but all the packages say Temperature range: 12-25 C. Ideally: 15-22 C. Can I still put my fermenter in the fridge although the temp in it is on the low side? I don’t want to alter the fridge for higher temperatures because I need it for the holidays and special occasions.
Well I guess these were all my questions for now. At least I hope
I hope it doesn’t sound stupid but I just want to make sure I understood well. Many thanks in advance.
