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I've posted a lot in the alcoholic ginger beer thread, but missed this one. Interesting and cool to see the parallel thinking over the years in both threads. The base recipe in the OP is more or less the same as needed for alcoholic ginger beer; to ferment it just add champagne yeast and wait...

Ugh that is a nightmare. Clean exquisitely. Bugs love the sugar water explosions. Re: carbonation, yeah CO2 is way more soluble at colder temps approaching freezing. So that makes sense. I've got a cheap 2nd fridge that gets silly cold, so my intent is to keep it around 34-35 and use as...

Lessons learned since I wrote the above post: - I'm back to adding at least 1 tsp cream of tartar. It's function is adding acidity, which stands up to the sweetness. - I dropped using cayenne. Adding ginger after the boil results in more heat, it seems and cayenne isn't necessary. - I no...

Checking in after a long break. Lots of questions I'll try to answer in a less than timely fashion obviously. But bembel is pretty much right on across the board in the above post. One thing I've been playing with lately is adding the ginger minutes after flame out, for 10ish minutes. A...

Sorry didn't see your follow up questions. Good instincts on boiling the zest, but adding the citrus juice after it's cooled. I do an even split of lemon/lime/pineapple juices. The upper bound for total citrus should be 1.5 cups total. Just one lemon zest though. Yeah 86 the vanilla. If you do...

I highly recommend boiling the ginger as opposed to using raw ginger juice. I boil mine in a hop bag for about the last 6-8 minutes of the 15 minute boil. Boiling/heating the ginger significantly softens/rounds out the pungency of the ginger. An easy way to taste the difference is to have two...

I'm not saying don't pasteurize. I'm saying it's not absolutely necessary, if you refrigerate properly. Also, really you'll have to have the power off for a few days at least before popping bottles would be an issue. In that time you could vent or drink whatever was in there. Shelf stable is...

First, buy a hydrometer and a thief. These are absolutely necessary tools to not only measure sweetness but also check the progress your yeast is making in any batch. Second, use the hydrometer. You want the final grav to be about 1.015-1.02ish. Commercial ginger beers like fentemans are even...

No problem. Glad to help. Let us know how your batch goes if you try it. Re: dried ginger, I'd strongly advise avoiding JUST dried ginger as your flavor component. It's fine to supplement the fresh with dried ginger, but many of ginger's flavor compounds break down in the drying process, so...

I should note that you're shooting for a 1.17-1.2ish FG for a good tasting end product. Or ferment dry and backsweeten to about that level. Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Re: ginger beer plant, yes it's a big difference in taste and a big difference in ferment time. GBP takes much longer in my experience, which isn't extensive. GBP has a more sour/lactic profile than the CY. Both ferment faster around 78-80 degrees. I've actually been leaving my GBP culture in...

Gotcha. Very good! Sorry for the concern - that read like a disaster waiting to happen. Haha. Let us know how they turn out!

Stupid question, but did you pasteurize them somehow? Because unpasteurized, ginger beer ages horribly (in the form of bottle explosions) at room temp. Even in the fridge, pressure builds over time and can ruin an otherwise good bottle after a few weeks. So, if those bad boys are unpasteurized...

How firm were the test soda bottles that you used for the dishwasher method?

Couple things I'd suggest to change in your procedure... I would advise splarging (run your additional water over the strained solids to wash all the sugar into the fermenter),and then adding the citrus juices. Also, you'll be perfectly fine adding the sugar at flame out. The point of boiling...

As an update to my last recipe in the noble pursuit of the tasty alcoholic ginger beer, I just finished a batch that's my best yet. Building on others' subsequent comments (and more foraging through the forum), here are my changes from my orig recipe above. - no more cream of tartar. It had...

I've pitched yeast too warm before (111 F) and noticed no activity 36 hours later. I just pitched a whole new packet (reconstituted) and stirred to oxygenate for 3-4 min. One thing I noticed is that you have a TON of sugar in there. I make pretty much your recipe, without the LME. So, about...

Johnny - sounds like a sanitation issue? Is it bubbling or just foul? Make sure to wash everything in a rinse from the homebrew store. I've never messed with tablets but yes that would prevent bottle carbing/pressurizing. Prof - the red star champagne yeast works best. 1 g/gallon.

Ok as an update to my earlier comments and fermenting GB dry, I tried the one remaining bottle of my hopped ginger beer (made with cote de blanc yeast) this morning, a couple months after bottling and refrigerating. A week after bottling, it was a mess of flavors. The hops were too prominent...

If you used champagne yeast, it's fine if some of it is in the bottles. Can't speak to other yeasts though. I personally siphon into bottles with all the yeast left on the bottom of the fermenter. Then, I siphone the yeast into a big measuring cup, and add a small bit to each bottle to bottle...