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***Yooper*** · 06-07-2011, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillKirk

Ok, so I made some following Yooper's recipe, and I still think I'm doing something wrong.

It still has that strange off taste to it that I just can't stomach for some reason. I followed the recipe to the T, let it ferment for 24 hours, the bottle was hard as a rock. I stuck it in the fridge, and let it sit overnight.

It STILL had a weird and off taste to it, it didn't taste any different than before, maybe I'm using bad ingredients? I got some Red Star yeast so I'll try it with that and see what happens. Maybe the yeast I'm using now just isn't right and it's screwing up the taste of the whole thing?

Part of my recipe IS the correct yeast! If you're using bread yeast, that will give it a bad flavor.

**dinnerstick** · 06-07-2011, 09:47 PM

yooper i couldn't find your recipe in your list, do i have blurred vision or is it gone?
to add my few $0.01 on recent posts i have made similar ginger beers with all types of sugar from white refined to palm to dark brown, to my usual recipe of demerara / raw / light brown + a spoon of molasses, and there are never any off tastes like those described in the original post with any of these sugars. i use either ginger beer plant or safale 04 ale yeast. they give very different drinks, each has its merits, never get anything funky, only occasionally if left a bit too long the gbp starts to smell a bit sour (but never tastes sour) and that is never the case with s04. i never heat any of the ingredients except the sugar in a bit of H2O to dissolve

spetri · 11-11-2011, 01:25 PM

REAL ginger beer is not made with yeast. Instead a fungal-bacteria symbiote SCOBY called "Ginger Beer Plant" is used for the fermentation. It is similar to but biologically different than "Kefir Grains" or "Kombucha Mushrooms" See Links below:

http://gingerbeerplant.net/

http://www.retro-culture.com/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_beer

mjhszig · 01-22-2012, 11:25 PM

I'm glad I read all the way to the bottom, because that's what I was going to say... (dinnerstick, spetri)

Ginger Beer should NOT be made with yeast...
search google to grow your GBP without adding yeast, the wild ginger yeast and bacteria that will grow naturally is prime for making ginger beer...

im currently in the process of doing this myself...
and I know this thread is pretty old...

**dinnerstick** · 01-31-2012, 05:02 PM

i use a ginger beer plant. it's made up of all sorts of organisms, in gelatinous clumps. every now and then someone tells me that it's not a ginger beer plant (it most certainly is), or that i should use this or that and i'm not doing it right (i most certainly am) and i tell them good luck and have a fine day.

Isometric · 02-02-2012, 12:56 AM

Here's something more simpler that I tried once. Make a sugar syrup one cup water, one cup sugar. I made 20oz./600ml of ginger ale with this: put in a pot 350mL of water and 30 grams of ginger cut into pieces. Let it simmer for ten minutes then filter or take out the ginger pieces. Add 4oz. of sugar syrup and water to complete 600ml. Let cool and then bottle and add yeast. Let it ferment/ carb. till the bottle is hard and cool for atleast one day before drinking so the sediments go to the bottom. This tasted good, I used baking yeast and couldn't notice its taste since the ginger flavor is overwhelms the yeast's flavor.

Also you should sanitize the equipment you use. Take 500ml of water add 1/8 tsp bleach, mix then add 1/8 tsp of vinegar and mix. The vinegar enchances the bleach's desinfecting potency, never mix vinegar and bleach together or it will make chlorine gas, always add bleach to water, mix, then add vinegar. Then I put the BWV solution in a spray bottle and spray the bottles and any intrument that is going to be in contact with what I am brewing. Don't sanitize metals with this since the bleach will corrode them.

jimyoung · 02-02-2012, 03:29 AM

Although I am still waiting for my first batch to second-ferment in the bottle, while setting the taste I noticed that I was pretty sensitive to the lemon that I added. Somehow, the sweetness+ginger+lemon just tasted wrong and really bothered me. The good news was that with the GBP, I just waited a few more days and the lemon taste weakened and it helped a lot.

Not sure if this helps!

c_boddicker · 05-01-2013, 05:01 AM

I found using brown sugar did 2 things to my GB.
1.) it's extremely effective. The sugar gets converted in hours, rather than a day or 2.
2.) it doesn't taste right, ends up like treacle flavour

Evochild · 05-09-2013, 07:27 PM

Im trying a non alcohol ginger beer and one with kick. I dont quite know how they will turn out but the one with kick smells awesome after 3 days in the primary.

My non alcohol brew is carbing nicely and the bottles are getting harder every day (platic 1 liter bottles.

If they turn out nice Ill share the recipes.

saramc · 05-11-2013, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evochild

Im trying a non alcohol ginger beer and one with kick. I dont quite know how they will turn out but the one with kick smells awesome after 3 days in the primary.

My non alcohol brew is carbing nicely and the bottles are getting harder every day (platic 1 liter bottles.

If they turn out nice Ill share the recipes.

Stupid question, but how are you making a non-alcoholic product that is naturally carbing in a bottle?