No Artificial Sweetener Ginger Beers

[jarryd]

Alcoholic Ginger Beer Base
​

This will ferment out to dryness and is intended to be used as a fizzy 7% alcoholic base to be mixed up with sweeteners and other flavours in the jug. I've been brewing this since just after Easter and it's fairly bulletproof.


Brew for 24 litres

• 3kg bag supermarket sugar

• 50 - 80g powdered ginger depending on preferred heat - forget the supermarket price, get it from your Indian or Asian supermarket for about $3.50 for 500g

• Six heaped teaspoons yeast nutrient - diammonium phosphate - from LHBS.

• Kit yeast from a Coopers or even better use some leftover Nottingham, it loves this!

Mix, add to fermenter and pitch yeast. For the deluxe version you can chuck in a bottle of Buderim Ginger Refresher at this stage as well. Low 20s temperature, let it go for 2 weeks. Bottle and prime as per a lager but it will be good and ready to drink after 2 weeks in the bottle and doesn't seem to improve with age.

This should provide a completely dry, fizzy but neutral and clean tasting ginger base at around 7% alc. Chill to almost freezing before serving in large jug.


To serve:

In a jug, to taste,

A slug of Buderim Ginger Refresher or Bundaberg Ginger Beer Cordial.
A slug of a tropical cordial like Cottees Lime/Mango/Passionfruit
Blend some pineapple rings or a mango to a pulp
Heaps of ice
Mint leaves
Cocktail umbrellas, curly straws, blue plastic swordfish swizzle sticks... you know the deal B)

Serve in a hollowed out pineapple resting in the navel-dimple of a Caribbean golden skinned.......

Is there anything else you can use in place of the yeast nutrient?
I'm out at the old mans house in the bush and won't have access to a homebrew shop till i get home.

 

[buttersd70]

Is there anything else you can use in place of the yeast nutrient?
I'm out at the old mans house in the bush and won't have access to a homebrew shop till i get home.

A nutrient of some sort would need to be used. There are a few options other than DAP, but they're all the type of thing you would need to go to a lhbs for. But, seeing as how it's slow on here at the moment (I don't have any pics to share of my airlock or mixing spoon ) I found this for you on a winemaking site....

Yeast Nutrient Substitute

We recently moved to Africa and I...forgot to bring yeast nutrient.
Do you know any good substitutes? Shannon and Jenny Burke, Thies, Senegal

There are numerous authorities that cite different ingredients and proportions. Proprietary yeast nutrients usually contain DAP (diammonium phosphate), which supplies nitrogen and phosphorus; urea, which supplies nitrogen; citric (and perhaps other) acid; trace amounts of biotin; and yeast hulls. The formulations of these nutrients are not generally public knowledge.

Less secret are the formulations of yesteryear. Pre-World War II recipes used malt extract and lemon juice as nutrient, while many post-war recipes used to use ammonium sulphate, magnesium sulphate, potassium phosphate, and citric acid for yeast nutrient. Both, I am told, worked well enough, but not as well as today's formulations. I would suspect that it would be easier to order a packaged nutrient from an out-of-country supplier and pay shipping than to find DAP and the other constituents locally and experiment with proportions. Still, a chemist (druggist) might be able to mix the following nutrient for you without problem:

* ammonium sulphate...........130 grains
* magnesium sulphate........... 20 grains
* potassium phosphate.......... 70 grains
* citric acid ...........................260 grains

This makes an ounce of nutrient, enough to make four gallons of non-grape wine or two gallons of mead. While not as good as commercial formulations, it still should work well enough. The absolute against-the-wall substitute is malt extract and citric acid (lemon juice) mixed half-and-half.

don't know about the chemists mix, but the malt extract and lemon juice should be easy enough for you to make up.....whether or not it would be sufficient nutrition to give a healthy ferment is another matter. Never tried it, don't know if it will work, but it's the best info I could find.

Now I better go photograph my airlock.... :lol:

 

[jarryd]

Thanks for the reply butters.
It's a shame ive just ran out of all the chemist ingredients and will have to give the malt+lemon juice a try

 

[bolwell]

A word of warning. I made BribieG's recipe 3 weeks ago. Bottled after a 14 day ferment and started to get the most violent bottle bombs 3 days after bottling. About 6 or 8 have gone off now. Problem is the remainder are stacked in my brew cupboard along with around 150 other bottles. Extremely dangerous to get them out of the cupboard and release some gas. What to do ??

 

[cdbrown]

What's more dangerous - leaving them in there to explode at any time, or to get in there and release some pressure? Maybe the ones that have already popped may have been primed a little too much?

 

[flattop]

Consider throwing towels over the lot that way if they pop the towels will dampen the flying glass, isolate the known good bottles out (save your stash) then i guess take them out one at a time and release some gas.

 

[bolwell]

Bit the bullet and got them all out of the brew cupboard and into a large tub of water. That was one scary experience, the force these things go off with is frightening. Tried to let some gas out with just the neck of the bottle out of the water. The Formula One Champagne spraying ritual has got nothing on these gushers. Intention is to let them cool in the water overnight, then try to release pressure. Given my experience with this recipe I would suggest to those considering making it, use PET bottles. You may have a mess to clean up but that's better than being hit in the jugular with a piece of jagged glass.

 

[Croc_TFNQ]

I put one of these mixes down last night and noticed that the Buderim Refresher contains preservative E211. Wouldn't the preservative kill the yeast or is it the case that when made up to 23 ltrs the preservative is diluted enough to allow the yeast to survive?.

Sodium benzoate is added to soft drinks as a preservative and a bacteria-destroying agent. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America states that significant numbers of people report allergic reactions to the compound. The American Beverage Association reports another significant problem with the preservative in drinks: Soft drinks using ascorbic acid along with sodium benzoate, when slightly heated, carry the additional risk of the two ingredients combining to form a known cancer-causing compound called benzene.

Diet Soft Drinks
Sodium benzoate, also known as E211, is a major ingredient in diet soft drinks. The Center for Science in the Public Interest reports that benzoic acid has properties similar to E211 and also creates allergy problems, hives and aggravation of asthma conditions.



Diet Coke made by Coca-Cola does not contain sodium benzoate, a change that was made voluntarily by the company in 2008. Coca-Cola's other drinks, including Fanta and Sprite, continue to use E211 in production. The company states that alternatives to E211 impact preservation and change the taste of the product. Pepsi Max, as well as the diet versions of Mountain Dew, Sunkist Orange, Nestea and Nordic Mist, also continue to use the preservative throughout the world.



Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi and Lipton Diet Iced Tea have shifted to potassium benzoate and citric acid to act as preservatives in both canned and plastic-bottled soft drinks.

 

[Kingy]

So if buderim ginger cordial was added to the boil of a ginger beer it c a n cause cancer.

 

[Croc_TFNQ]

So if buderim ginger cordial was added to the boil of a ginger beer it c a n cause cancer.

I only know what I found and posted after a search re E211 as I did not know what the hell it was. Be mindful these labs test always err on the side of extremem caution.
Here are a few sites
http://www.ukfoodguide.net/e211.htm
http://www.food-info.net/uk/e/e211.htm
http://www.livestrong.com/article/256440-what-soft-drinks-have-sodium-benzoate-e211-in-them/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_benzoate

I leave you to make up your own mind be well aware nearly all presertives have some sort of medical problems in extreme circumstances. But be rest assured that they all have to pass strict guidelines before they can be added.
I am no expert if I dont know what a substance is I try and find out a little about it.