CrankyOldLibrarian

Recipes 

Later this week, I'm going to brew a few liters of Ginger Beer using some ale yeast. And, the one thing that I cannot figure out is what do you do with the yeast after the short fermentation? Do you rack it like when you transfer beer to the bottling bucket or keg (leaving the slurry behind) or do you just put the soda bottle with the yeast in the fridge and drink it when it's cold?

Thanks!

vapor2020

Recipes 

You will not have much slurry. You don't need much yeast in the beginning, and it ends up eating very little sugar. In the bottle you end up with a little yeast residue just like when you bottle condition beer. You just pour let that settle in the fridge and you pour gently as to not mix it back in when you are drinking it.

vapor2020

Recipes 

And if you use glass bottles for the natural fermentation, make sure that you bottle at least one in a plastic soda bottle so that you can feel the firmness of the bottle to know when to refrigerate it.

CrankyOldLibrarian

Recipes 

Thanks for the information. How much yeast should I use for a liter of Ginger Beer?

I brewed it on Thursday, using 1/2 teaspoon of yeast per liter. The result was good, but not great. I blame it on my recipe. I think that I needed more simple syrup and lemon zest. However, this was easy to remedy with another spoonful of sugar in the glass along with a shot of Goslings!

vapor2020

Recipes 

Th soda recipe I have calls for 1/8tsp per gallon. I doubt it matters too much.

giligson

Recipes 

Here's my recipe - this is per liter so adjust as needed and to taste:
One hunk ginger root - 200 grams
2 tablespoons table sugar (sucrose)
pinch salt ( to taste - very little)
cayenne pepper extract - two drops (obviously this is not very quantitative)- use little red peppers in vodka to make (needs to soak for at least a week), don't use tobasco or frank's red hot as they have vinegar in them.

grate the ginger with a fine grater or food processor until it is a fine pulp, use your hand to sqeeze the juice out of the pulp.

Add all ingredients and FORCE CARBONATE. If you yeast condition then you will have to add priming sugar as per your experience etc.

I also like to add the juice of one lemon to this but please note that the more lemon you add, the less ginger bite you will taste (acid kills the "bite")

Cheers.

left field brewer

Recipes 

A friend in the local brew club had a great recipe that he brought last meeting. It contained lemon and lime juice as well as a little zest. You could play around a bit with citric acid/ascorbic acid, just don't overdo it.His tasted more like non-alcoholic ginger beer than ginger soda. It had just a hint of sweetness(he used lactose to sweeten w/ small amount of cane for priming) and had a nice strong ginger bite with a citric/floral finish. Bottle carbonating is great, but for small batches that you can carb quickly, get a Carbonator two liter cap(mine has gotten enough use to be worth the $15-juices, sodas, seltzer, and beer sampling).Cheers!

CrankyOldLibrarian

Recipes 

So, I've brewed a few batches since I last posted. Since I have a juicer, I have been juicing the ginger. Also, I've been using some simple syrup instead of sugar.

The first one wasn't really good. I used way too much ginger. The next batch was much better. I'm going to try some of the ideas/ingredients mentioned by giligson & left field brewer. Some cayenne pepper is definitely going in to my next batch.

I'm going to experiment a bit more over the next month and post my best recipe (as soon as I discover it).

vapor2020

Recipes 

You should stop using a juicer unless it's one you don't mind tossing. I have a friend who owns a restaurant and she has ruined many a juicer with ginger. The juice is pretty frickin caustic and will eat away at the parts. I have had a lot of luck extracting ginger by chopping it up real small and steeping it for an hour or so.

CrankyOldLibrarian

Recipes 

I was wondering why no one mentioned using a juicer. Now I know! Thanks for saving my juicer.