RecipeDB - Powderkeg GB

[lczaban]

Powderkeg GB

Specialty - Bière de Garde
Kit & Kilo

3 Votes

Brewer's Notes

Because this recipe is a highly modified kit recipe, the details are as follows:

- 1 x Morgans Ginger Beer Kit
- 1 x 500g Fresh ginger
- 1 x 250g DARK Brown Sugar
- 1 x 1kg dextrose
- 1 x 750ml Buderum Ginger Refresher Cordial
- 1 x fresh chilli (sliced thinly with the seeds in)
- ~600ml Sweet Vermouth
- ~600ml Sweet Sherry
- ~30ml Lochan Ora

Grate the ginger and soaked in a bowl with the Sweet Sherry, Sweet Vermouth and Lochan Ora for 24 hours. Combined the GB kit, brown sugar, dex and refresher cordial in 3L boiling water in the fermenter and stirred, then added the grated ginger soak (liquid and all), added the sliced chilli and topped up to 23L. Leave for approx. 3 weeks (keeping at a moderate temp of ~20 degrees Celsius) - FG – 0.996 Alc/Vol : 7.0% (Based on an OG of 1.048)

Use the kit yeast and dry enzyme, or alternatively us US-05.

23L Batch Size

Brew Details

• Original Gravity 0 (calc)
• Final Gravity 0 (calc)
• Bitterness 0 IBU
• Efficiency 0%
• Alcohol 0%
• Colour 0 EBC
• Batch Size 23L

Fermentation

• Primary 21 days
• Conditioning 6 days

 

[lczaban]

As much as this is a simplistic K&K derived recipe, it has got a few steps and different ingredients to it. I have brewed this a few times and have observed the following:

- You can substitute other fortified wines for the vermouth, sherry and Lochan Ora. The general idea is to allow the alcohol in these to interact with the volatile oils and flavour components of the ginger during the soaking process to enhance their concentration in the final GB.

- The chilli is vital to create a "bite" on the finish, and is best added to the fermentor fresh just before pitching the yeast.

- The amount of dex can be lowered and the amount of moist, brown sugar increased.

- This GB will retain it's residual sweetness, even though it attenuates out fully. I bottle my brews, and have not had any over-carbonation issues at all.

- The gingery-ness will not dissipate over time. I entered a bottle of this GB from my 1st batch back in February into a local show 6 months after bottling, and it still won!

When drunk young, the flavours of the fortified wines add an interesting depth to the flavour. This depth tends to drop out over time, leaving a really crisp, gingery drink that is great when chilled down and enjoyed on a hot day, or as a palate reviver during a session.

Most people I have shown this GB to have been very impressed with the flavour. Probably the closest ting you could compare it to would be the Bundaberg GB in the ring-pull bottles. One of the key differences though is that this one does have a 7% ABV (although this could be higher with the residual alcohol left over from the Vermouth/Sherry/Lochan Ora). Keep it away from the kiddies and enjoy in moderation! :icon_drunk:

 

[scott_penno]

I've only ever tried a kit GB once and while it was great to drink, the aftertaste of artificial sweetner from the kit (presumably to give the sweetness as it doesn't ferment out) did nothing for me. With this recipe do you notice any aftertaste from the sweetner in the kit?

sap.

 

[lczaban]

I've only ever tried a kit GB once and while it was great to drink, the aftertaste of artificial sweetner fro
the kit (presumably to give the sweetness as it doesn't ferment out) did nothing for me. With this recipe do you notice any aftertaste from the sweetner in the kit?

sap.

It is sweet, but I wouldn't say that there is a noticeable artificial sweetness to it - there is just sooo much else going on over the top it it! I'd say that the key reason why this retains a good level of sweetness is from the fortified wine content. If you were to use something dry to soak the ginger in then it would dry out the resulting GB, whereas if you use something sweeter then it carries over as well.

A lot of guys have asked me for the recipe, and while I have posted this other threads previously it has been getting such a big wrap that it has prompted me to add the recipe to the DB. No doubt there will be a few guys on the forum who have tried this GB and will back-up my claims. Feel free to have a crack at this myself and let us know the results. Cheers! :beer:

 

[bum]

It is sweet, but I wouldn't say that there is a noticeable artificial sweetness to it - there is just sooo much else going on over the top it it! I'd say that the key reason why this retains a good level of sweetness is from the fortified wine content.

I disagree. I make an almost identical GB but without the fortified wine additions (and lots of spice additions instead) and it is still sweet. I have no science backing this position up at all but my thinking has always been that it has something to do with the dark brown sugar. I will agree that you get none of the chemical taste that comes from the artificial sweeteners in the kits.

GravityGuru, do you think that Stones Green Ginger Wine might work as a replacement for your fortified wine component?

 

[lczaban]

I disagree. I make an almost identical GB but without the fortified wine additions (and lots of spice additions instead) and it is still sweet. I have no science backing this position up at all but my thinking has always been that it has something to do with the dark brown sugar. I will agree that you get none of the chemical taste that comes from the artificial sweeteners in the kits.

I haven't tried anyone elses GB's with DB sugar before, but the GB's I have tried with LDME don't seem to have the same "taste" in the sense that the malt tries to come through and dis-stabilizes the cleanness you should get from a GB. What spices do you bum? The thing about a lot of GB's out there is that they tend to finish really dry. I might have to try a "DB sugar only" batch as an experiment and test out what you are saying...

GravityGuru, do you think that Stones Green Ginger Wine might work as a replacement for your fortified wine component?

I have used is as well in a previous batch, and it does the trick pretty nicely. The flavour when young doesn't have quite the same flavour-depth as is the case with our fortified wines, but it ages to the same point. I am undecided as to how much more it contributes to the gingery-ness...

 

[bum]

Ah, prob not worth it then? Perhaps I'll just bang some in the glass and see if it adds anything positive.

Spice-wise I rely mostly on cinnamon (lots), clove (only a little) and cardamom (lots). Recently been thinking about nutmeg but haven't actually done a batch yet.

 

[kuntushi]

Made this recently without the soaking of the ginger in spirits. Just blended all the ginger and chilli up and boiled it real quick to kill any bugs. Followed the recipe for the rest of it. Bulk primed with 175g of sugar in the end.

Turned out delicious. So much so, we're doing a double batch right now. My OG was a lot lower and my FG higher. Maybe the spirits and/or soaking the ginger changes that. This second batch seems to be dropping to GG's final gravity, so who knows what happened on the first run.

The chilli really helps the flavour stick around. But be careful with pouring any sediment from the bottles into your glass. I've found that the beers I pour and let a little sediment creep in turn out to be extra spicy. It's easy to spot the sediment in this brew though, it's quite dark and thick. That's assuming you don't use a secondary (just syphon to bulk prime and bottle).

 

[damianjthorpe]

G'day Brewers,

GravityGuru, would you suggest racking this brew to a secondary to avoid the "extra hot" bottles when getting close to the trub?

Cheers and happy brewing,
Damo

 

[vykuza]

Thanks for the recipe GG - I just kegged mine today and it tastes absolutely magic.

I used one bottle of (ancient) medium dry sherry (thanks Nanna) and about 1/2 a bottle of dark rum for the ginger soak. I grated, as we don't have a food processor that could handle the job.

However, silly me tipped all the ginger into the fermenter. Thinking that it would settle out with a cold crash like hops. It settled, but didn't compact nearly as much. A silly idea in hindsight. I kicked myself when I was trying to transfer to the keg and kept on having to poke it with a sanitised spoon to get it to flow through the fermenter tap.

Of course, my idiocy didn't stop there. Ginger made it's way in to the keg itself. So when I got the keg in the fridge and hooked up, I wanted to clear the old beer from the beer line and it immediately clogged with a chunk of ginger. <_< The fun didn't stop there.

I then was going to syphon from one keg to another spare I have with a strainer in between to stop it happening again - but I just realised that the only piece of tube I had that was long enough I damaged last weekend - so that was out.

I ended up purging the receiving keg with CO2, putting a sanitised grain bag inside to catch any chunks and just tipping from one keg to the other. I hope I haven't oxidised it too much. Guess I'll just have to drink it quick!

All in all, a great recipe, but strain the goddamned ginger before it goes in the fermenter or you'll have a frustrating morning like I did!

Oh, and to cap it off I used the gas disconnect on the clogged keg to blow out the ginger from the dip tube. It flew up out of the keg in to my face and got a few drops of gingery, spicy ginger beer in my eye. It stings.

 

[tgiacomelli]

Hi GG, I followed your recipe and the GB has been a real hit. Only problem that I bottled it and the carbonation is quite poor, I added 2 coopers carbonation drops to each longneck like you normally would to beer. Have you had any problems like this in the past?

I've been using it as a mixer with spiced rum, fresh lime and bitters and it's great, can get you drunk quite quickly though

 

[The Giant]

Any chance someone could repost this recipe? I'm clicking on the link on the first post but it can't be found.

Thanks!

 

[Bammers]

Any chance someone could repost this recipe? I'm clicking on the link on the first post but it can't be found.

Thanks!

^^^ +1

 

[GABBA110360]

i'm storing this batch

1 can morgans g/b
1kg dex
1kg dark/b/sugar
1 750 ml buderims g/b cordial
750 ml dry cinzano
750 ml dry sherry
1 kg fresh ginger root
small glass of scotch + teaspoon of honey mixed
4 bird's eye chillies
1 dry emzyme pkt
1 us-o5 yeast
hope this helps
sg 1.o42
fg 0.994
plus bottle carbing
cheers
ken

 

[brad81]

i'm storing this batch

1 can morgans g/b
1kg dex
1kg dark/b/sugar
1 750 ml buderims g/b cordial
750 ml dry cinzano
750 ml dry sherry
1 kg fresh ginger root
small glass of scotch + teaspoon of honey mixed
4 bird's eye chillies
1 dry emzyme pkt
1 us-o5 yeast
hope this helps
sg 1.o42
fg 0.994
plus bottle carbing
cheers
ken

bejeezus

To what volume and what (from above) are you adding to it once at ferment temp? Will the booze affect the fermentation?

 

[GABBA110360]

bejeezus

To what volume and what (from above) are you adding to it once at ferment temp? Will the booze affect the fermentation?

23 l

from memory its about 7.1 %

 

[brad81]

Are you adding:
750 ml dry cinzano
750 ml dry sherry
small glass of scotch + teaspoon of honey mixed

Post fermentation??

 

[GABBA110360]

as the recipe went
puree the ginger root and marinate in the above for 24 hrs
then tip the lot into the fermenter with other stuff before the yeast

 

[dunney]

I've been trying to brew a good ginger beer for ages. This recipe nailed it. So gingery. Lots of bite from the chilli.
Many thanks to GG for sharing recipe. Only modifications to original recipe were a brigalow GB kit from woolies, soaked fresh ginger in about 600 ml sweet sherry. Chucked in a couple teaspoons of cinnamon( can't taste at all though) fermented at 17 deg with American ale II that was harvested from a pale ale brewed previously.
Delicious!! Try this if you like a good ginger beer.
Oh yeah also I used my old Biab bag to catch all the floaty bits before going into keg.

 

[greendawgy]

Does anyone have the link to the recipe? I can't seem to find it at the moment and I'm looking put down another batch with some tweaks