Ginger beer (alcoholic)

I have made a couple of batches of ginger beer at around 5.5%, but they keep drying out on me. Does anyone know of a way to keep some of the residual sugar or stop the yeast from eating it all so that I can end up with a product that is somewhat sweet, but still has the kick I am looking for? What kind of sugar should I be using (have used corn sugar)? I even managed to bottle it at the right point, but then it just continued in the bottle and fermented all of the sugar out, leaving a spicy, but dry finished product. Help!

Try pasteurizing to kill off the yeast and stop them from eating up all your sugars. See this sticky in the cider forum:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

I agree that pasteurizing the way cider-makers do would be your best bet. Another option would be to let it ferment out and then add Splenda or another artificial non-fermentable sweetener, but I haven't done this personally.

jroth - would you be willing to post or PM me your recipe? My wife and I just returned from a trip to the UK, and she fell in love with an alcoholic ginger beer called Crabbie's. I'm collecting recipes so I can try to duplicate it or come close.

I have been tweaking it to get it where I want it, but the last one (which was killer until it dried out) was:

5 gal. water
2 lbs. Ginger root (peeled and chopped in food processor)
5 lbs. corn sugar
Zest of 3 limes
2 packets dry ale yeast

I boiled the ginger and water together for about 20 minutes just to pasteurize and incorporate the flavor into the water and then added the zest.

Pretty simple and after a week it was awesome, so I bottled, but it just finished out in the bottle. Good carbonation but all of my sweetness was gone.

Does pasteurizing change the flavor significantly?

I am trying to avoid using artificial sweeteners to make up the difference, but haven't had too much luck finding non-fermentable sugars that will work instead. Suggestions?

Yeast will continue to eat up fermentable sugars until said yeast is killed.
Pasturize.
Rack first and add sulfites and force carb
lactose, maltose, stevia, sucralose?, aspartamine.
Or say screw it and mix it with sugar syrup when serving.
or make a non-alcoholic and mix it with rum when serving.
Use something other than yeast that has a lower alcohol tolerance?

I have Made about 12 batches of non alcoholic ginger beer and im just starting to drink my second batch of Alcoholic ginger beer. I found that the first batch i made was really dry, I fermented that one for 2 weeks. With the second batch i have only fermented it for 1 week and there is a dramatic difference in the sweetness. When i try my 3 rd batch i think i will only ferment for 5 days and then it should be a little sweeter. I think that stopping fermentation earlier will give you a sweeter ginger beer. The Alcohol content of the second batch ended at about 5.5%. I am also using organic cane sugar and champagne yeast, I'm using a similar recipe to yours but i'm only using 1 5 gram packet of of yeast.

Not to sure if this will help or not just thought i would give you my 2 cents.

jroth420 said:

I have been tweaking it to get it where I want it, but the last one (which was killer until it dried out) was:

5 gal. water
2 lbs. Ginger root (peeled and chopped in food processor)
5 lbs. corn sugar
Zest of 3 limes
2 packets dry ale yeast

I boiled the ginger and water together for about 20 minutes just to pasteurize and incorporate the flavor into the water and then added the zest.

Pretty simple and after a week it was awesome, so I bottled, but it just finished out in the bottle. Good carbonation but all of my sweetness was gone.

Does pasteurizing change the flavor significantly?

I am trying to avoid using artificial sweeteners to make up the difference, but haven't had too much luck finding non-fermentable sugars that will work instead. Suggestions?

Click to expand...

I made this recipe but added a pound of lactose to sweeten it and one pack of US-05 because it was what I had on hand. I chopped up the ginger in a food processor and am wondering if I made a mistake. The ginger flavor is VERY strong. Does it fade during fermentation or with age?

Also, what final gravity did you get (assuming you let ferment all the way out)?

Well, maybe you might pick a low attenuating yeast?


On my first brew I used Danstar Windsor - dry yeast, never read it mentioned on these forums but it is supposed to have pretty low attenuation - and washed it into a jar. The beer was too sweet and eventually got an acetobacter infection when a fly got into the airlock. At that point I wasn't using alcohol in the airlock. Lesson learned. Anyways, I've been thinking about that sweet beer and the yeast wondering if it would sputter out at a high gravity and leave me with a sweet ginger beer? Just a thought.

Pasteurizing is an option that I've tried, but its a bit of a hassle and frankly a bit scary (heating pressurized glass bottles...).
I think the best option is to use an ale yeast and base the recipe around its alcohol tolerance just as a wine or mead maker would. I 'think' you can still get away with adding a bit of priming solution which brings some yeast back to action, but I'm still experimenting with this myself at the moment (i don't like trying to guess the FG for carbonation, for the usual reasons).

Start with a high gravity and it should finish sweet. If it tastes too alcoholic balance out with more sweetness or more favourings next time until you get it right. I've found so far that its hard to make ginger beer taste too alcoholic; its just a naturally refreshing drink!

Try fermenting 4 to 5 days only, and then bottling without priming. The results should be a sweet ginger beer with a mild alcohol content %. Otherwise, with a few batches I made a while back I let the ginger mixture ferment fully (took about 10 days), and the result was very dry. Also the drink was potent and my guests were getting slammed with a few bottles. I prefer a more of a mild alc% with ginger beer because that way you get to savor the flavor more. When cutting the fermentation time short and bottling, beware of exploding bottles as the yeast is highly active and there may be plenty of fermentable sugars still in the mixture. I had two bottles explode within two days of bottling. No priming necessary. Put them in the fridge to stop the carbonation, and then let them chill for at least a full day before drinking to let the gas dissolve into the beer.

dacaldera said:

Try fermenting 4 to 5 days only, and then bottling without priming.

Click to expand...

As dacaldera goes on to mention, this is pretty dangerous. If you do this make sure you pasteurize or store in a fridge for life. Bottle bombs are not to be taken lightly!

The_General said:

I made this recipe but added a pound of lactose to sweeten it and one pack of US-05 because it was what I had on hand. I chopped up the ginger in a food processor and am wondering if I made a mistake. The ginger flavor is VERY strong. Does it fade during fermentation or with age?

Also, what final gravity did you get (assuming you let ferment all the way out)?

Click to expand...

When do you add the lactose?

So I just brewed my first ginger beer. Used 2lb ginger, 3lb corn sugar, 3lb table sugar, the juice of 10 lemons and the zest of 2 lemons. I put the ginger through a food processor then steeped it in hot water for 3 hours. Boiled that with the lemon juice and zest with 2 gallons of water, added the sugars when it reached boiling and simmered for fifteen minutes, cooled and added water to get five gallons. Added 1tsp of cinnamon. Letting it ferment on the ginger to hopefully get more flavor from it. Using a lelvin champagne yeast and five tsp yeast nutrient. Had an og of 1.060 at ninety degrees. Hopefully the sugar will ferment all the way out and give me about 6-7 percent abv. I then plan to back sweeten with 1lb of lactose when I rack to secondary. Any thoughts?

dcmtnbkr said:

When do you add the lactose?

Click to expand...

I mixed the sugar, lactose, ginger, and lime zest and simmered for about 15 minutes. It started at about 1.053 and fermented down to about 1.001. I thought there would be a bit more residual sugar.

That's the same problem I had, along with bottles exploding (which is a first for me) due to the fermentation continuing so far after it was bottled. It was ideal when I bottled, but just dried out completely. The only reasonable solution that I have found is to bottle, let carbonate and then pasteurize the bottles to kill the yeast and stop the fermentation.

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Let's say if you don't make a big batch, maybe 1-2 gallons, then after you bottle you could store the bottles in the fridge and drink them at your leisure without worry of continuing fermentation and bottle bombs. Am I on the right track here, or should one fear bottle bombs even in the fridge?

alchemedes said:

Let's say if you don't make a big batch, maybe 1-2 gallons, then after you bottle you could store the bottles in the fridge and drink them at your leisure without worry of continuing fermentation and bottle bombs. Am I on the right track here, or should one fear bottle bombs even in the fridge?

Click to expand...

The risk is reduced in the fridge, but not eliminated. I'd use plastic soda bottles, which can handle a lot more pressure than glass bottles and if they explode it's messy but not too dangerous.

Yooper said:

The risk is reduced in the fridge, but not eliminated. I'd use plastic soda bottles, which can handle a lot more pressure than glass bottles and if they explode it's messy but not too dangerous.

Click to expand...

Agreed, the "squeeze-method" is good to check building pressure. I've cold crashed filled soda bottles many, many times though and I've always had them stay at the same hardness over several weeks or months even - so that makes me feel a little bit safer.

I think where I was going with my previous question goes a little deeper into my own thoughts on the fact that I want to move away from ugly PET bottles, to nice shiny glass ones, but worry about not being able to tell if there is continued fermentation even under cold conditions. This is all because I am afraid of the stove top pasturization process.

What a freaking dilemma!

Ended up at about 1.000 so the sugar fermented all the way out. Back sweetened with 1lb lactose, but it didnt add much sweetness. It's in secondary now to clear out. Per my calculations based on temp and fg, im getting about 8.4 %, figure in i added about 3 cups of water with the lactose, and im probably at about 8.2 or so. Very strong. Anyone have any ideas for a sweetener i can add when going to keg? Something very sweet without too much after taste.

So I have a bottle of crabies here, and it says that it is a malt beverage. Since malt doesn't ferment 100%, has anyone tried doing this with malt instead of sugar?

Took a shot a Ginger beer today while my HLT is waiting for me to figure out how to wire my HERMS panel. Anyway. Here's what I did and the plan based on all the threads I've read...

5.5 gallon batch

4.5 lbs table sugar
1 lb brown sugar
2 lbs ginger peeled (mostly) and grated in the food processor
2 sticks cinnamon
1 TB cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
5 whole cloves
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp orange peel
1 vanilla bean scraped and split
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Zest and juice of 3 limes

Brought a little over 5.5 gallons to a boil and added the ginger for 15min
Right before flameout I added the sugar and spices, cut the heat, put the lid on and let steep for 2 hours. Temp was still 180+ 2 hours later so I dropped in the copper chiller and brought it down to pitching temp within maybe 10 min. Put the zest and like juice in the fermenter (which seems wrong given how anal I am about everything else but oh well, it's only 5 gallons) I pitched 1 package of S-05.

OG was just a hair above 1.055 at 80 degrees. I'll ferment for 4 days, then bottle for 2 days in 22's, then pasteurize at 180 for 20min (which sounds like it will get me there based on what I have found... I'll wear goggles and try and avoid flying glass). Tasted great and very sweet out of the Boil kettle - that 1/4 tsp of cayenne goes a long way when mixed with that ginger bite...

I'll post results in a few weeks memory willing...

I know this post is dead, but I'd like to throw my two cents in. I've been in a pinch financially, and have had to resort to cheaper ingredients for making alcohol. I stick to ec-1118 because it's cheap, and strong. I also use table sugar. I buy the 10 lb bags at Wallie world. I find that I can calculate out how much sugar the yeast will be able to handle based on mead recipes for ec-1118. I then use a conversion table to change that to sugar. So I can dose my sugar to taste. Then I have one of two options: bottle early hoping my calculations were right and no bottle bombs occur (seems fine so far). Or add so much sugar that there's no way the ec-1118 can ferment it all. I have to bottle after about 1 &1/2 to 2 weeks or the yeast will go inactive. Both are risky, but require no extra work! The only complaint I have with the second method is it can be too sweet.

So I followed my recipe above and after 4 days I was at 1.028. Bottled, let carb for the 2 days and then pasteurized at 180 for 20 min (note, the temp started dripping and I turned on the burner for a bit - terrible idea and exploding bottles everywhere in the kettle - lesson learned).

The taste almost 3 weeks from bottling very nice, sweet, and about what I wanted. My only gripe is that I am getting some yeast flavors still though that have mellowed now vs. a few days after pasteurizing (mostly if you burp)

Next batch, I am going to up the sugar, try and do a secondary rack (or maybe cold crash to get some more yeast out of suspension before bottling) I also might try to pitch two versions with one using a different yeast like a champagne variety.

All in all a good first effort.

My roommate loves Crabbie's, and I wanted to brew something that she'll enjoy. I've made a few things, but it's been a while, so I thought I'd run this by the hivemind.

5 g water
2 lb ginger
3 lb light pilsner DME
2.5 lb corn sugar
S-05

I'm lactose intolerant, so using that to boost sweetness is a no-go. We both like strong ginger flavor. We have a storage area that stays at 67° in summer, so that's a plus!

Any thoughts or tips?

I don't think corn sugar will help boost sweetness unless you are stopping the yeast somehow. It will only bump ABV. What if you used a maltodextrin DME to boost body? I'm not one to use artificial sweetener but if I was lactose intolerant I bet I would use em.

I'm building the recipe off others in this thread. Most seem to have used straight corn sugar, with lactose to sweeten, as it comes out dry. Crabbie's is a malt ginger ale, but very light and sweet--almost soda-like--so I've taken half the corn sugar (and a bit more) and turned it to DME. If I had an all-grain set up, I'd do something like that.