Ginger Ale (kegged)

fall-line said:

I'm about to make a batch of this for a party we are hosting next week. Has anyone figured out the best way to scale it up? As mentioned previously, just increasing all the ingredients linearly isn't the right method.

I'm looking to make a 5 gallon batch. Thanks!

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The original recipe is for 2.5 gallons.

Linear scaling should work just fine.

I've made this 3 times, and I'm carbing up my 4th batch now. If I recall, I usually went with 2.5 cups of ginger for a 2 gallon batch, and that was about right. This time I used slightly less than 4 cups for a 4 gallon batch, and I'm worried it will be a little weak.

Regardless, this is great stuff. My Asian friends all really dig this stuff. Occasionally my American friends who only drink Canada Dry will say "I think your recipe is off and has too much ginger" but most people think it's great.

Nice recipe! Thanks for sharing!

Glad you like it!

I am using more ginger, too. Sometimes the ginger is more powerful, sometimes very mild. When it's stronger, my wife complains that it burns her throat. Heck, that's what I am going for!

I gave this a shot. Didn't have any spare kegs so decided to cut back on the water and make a concentrated syrup to add to soda water.

Used 2.5C chopped ginger, 2C brown sugar and 2C tubinado sugar, and 8 C water.
Boiled for 1 hour. Added lemon/lime juice and zest with 10 minutes to go. Cooled and strained the concentrate.

Result: Not too bad. can adjust the intensity and sweetness by controlling the amount of concentrate added. Don;t like using it with the soda water. Loose a good amount of the carbonation getting the syrup and soda adequately mixed.
I think it would have been better kegged than as a concentrate, but the concentrate is still pretty good...and much more versatile. It's really good on ice cream.
When I have a keg open up I will give this another shot.

i'm having a hard time kegging this- the ginger juice sediment sinks to the bottom and that is what seems to hold all the flavor. if i filter it i lose the flavor and if i leave it in the first few pints are overpowering and thereafter the strong ginger flavor is missing. it seems as though it needs to be agitated or something! any suggestions?

It seems you are not extracting enough flavor from the ginger - steep longer, maybe. Maybe increase the temperature of the steep water?

That's where I would start. If the flavor is in the ginger particles, you need to get more of that flavor in the liquid.

you could also "dry hop" with ginger slices in cheesecloth.

A tip from my third time making this, and changing the ginger up each time: don't bother just chopping/dicing the ginger, you won't get the same flavor. Shred shred shred until your fingertips bleed, it's so much more flavor that way.

yup that's what I do. Use the food processor with grater setup to make it way easier on yourself

thanks for the tips guys, do any of you guys use a juicer and use the ginger juice? I tried steeping a huge amount of shredded ginger and it still doesnt seem to have the same flavor as if you combine freshly juiced ginger- I guess I could try to juice the ginger and then steep it to see if I can remove the flavor from the juice. Ahh this is driving me crazy!

yeah juice it then soak the pulp. Also, because ginger varies tremendously in potency, get it from a good grocery store like whole foods. Or like me, go to an Asian grocery store because that's an ingredient that flies off their shelves so it comes in often = more likely fresher

Made this for the third or fourth time now. Things I've learned:

Shred the ginger even if it's a royal pain in the ass. So much juicier that way, so much more flavor. Chopping doesn't get a tenth of the flavor that shredding does, seriously.

As said by others: fresh ginger for the win, don't use old stuff it won't give you good results and will just be sugar water.

This round I've done 3 and a bit cups of shredded ginger (with their juices), it was pretty soggy so may be more if measuring 'loosely packed' style. And 3 cups of sugar. I think one could go down to 2 cups and be fine as well, if your ginger is good and strong.

3 cups of sugar it's still a bit more than some soft drinks for sugar content per volume, though less than some as well. Makes me feel better about having it if it's lower in sugar, for sure. 4 cups was too sweet for my liking.

This current batch is chilling and getting gassed right now, my last batch I bottled after kegging and found it had started to ferment (not sure how, something must have gotten in) so close to bottle bombs....fountains of foam! Be thee ware!

I'm excited to try this!
Does anyone have a weight measurement for the ginger? Or a rough idea? Its hard to gauge cups of shredded from the root chunks in the grocery store.
Also, I'm going to do a 4gal batch (I have a 5gal corney and it seems a waste to just do 2gal), is 6cps a recommended amount?
Thanks!

aqua-ed said:

I'm excited to try this!
Does anyone have a weight measurement for the ginger? Or a rough idea? Its hard to gauge cups of shredded from the root chunks in the grocery store.
Also, I'm going to do a 4gal batch (I have a 5gal corney and it seems a waste to just do 2gal), is 6cps a recommended amount?
Thanks!

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For how cheap ginger root is, just buy like 2 LARGE roots per gallon of intended beer. Like as big as your hand and thick.

I bought maybe 3lbs of ginger the last time and it cost something like 79 cents, I used 3 cups or so and still have a whole root left over

I definitely enjoyed the 3 cups per 2g, so I'd agree that 6 cups of shredded ginger would be good for a 4g batch. Could go higher even though, depends on your own taste buds and how fresh it is.

I just brewed and kegged a 5 gallon batch. I added 7 packed cups of ginger and also dry hopped with 3 cups in a mesh bag in the keg. Force carbing now. Will post on how it comes out.

Psych said:

I bought maybe 3lbs of ginger the last time and it cost something like 79 cents, I used 3 cups or so and still have a whole root left over

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79 cents? from where? it's almost 4 bucks a pound here!

I followed the recipe in post #1 except with 3 cups sugar. Turned out great.

Definite crowd-pleaser!

People that don't drink love it.

And people that aren't big beer drinkers have lots of options...
Mix it with vodka for a Moscow Mule.
Mix it with dark rum for a Dark and Stormy.
Mix it with tequila for a ?

This whole soda making thing is weird. So fast! I kept thinking "wait a minute, I'm done?"

Thanks r2eng for starting this one!

Just made another batch myself!

Glad you like it.

TrainReck said:

This whole soda making thing is weird. So fast! I kept thinking "wait a minute, I'm done?"

Thanks r2eng for starting this one!

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No doubt, eh? It's like spend an hour or so and chill it down, shake it up, bam you've got gallons of soda. Good thing beer making isn't this fast, would go through it like it was water...more-so.

Wow, might make this real soon! Sounds awesome and refreshing!
Maybe a touch of mint in it also!

Has anyone had a problem with separation with shredded ginger? I use fresh ginger juice (pushing ginger through a juicer) but I keep having a problem where the ginger will sink to the bottom of the mixture, does this happen when you shred it? The problem is that when the ginger beer separates the bottom part of the keg is super gingery and drinking it tastes like the fires of hell and then other parts are like sugar water. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am going to try this, it is very similar to recipes that I used to make in 2 liter bottles except I always added a small amount of red pepper flakes as well. I have been wanting to make ginger all to keg and force carb but didn't really know how to switch my recipe up to make that much. Thanks for sharing!

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I'm on my second 2L batch of this. The first batch, scaled the ginger down directly to 1/2 Cup. That was way too much. Tasted good, but was HOT. The second time around, I cut it down to 3 Tablespoons, or just short of 1/4 cup. Ginger Flavor is still there, but not so spicy.

I didn't scale the lemon/lime as much; it's pretty difficult to juice 1/8th of something. I just did 1/2 of each.

I was thinking about making a 5 gallon batch of this but I would like to try a concentrated syrup of maybe 1.5 gallons then dilute it with cold water in the keg. Think this will work?

That is what I do.

I heat up a gallon on water on the stove to dissolve the sugar. I bring it just to about boiling. Remove from heat, and add ginger. Cover and let steep for one hour.

Put a strainer over keg and pour in, top off with cold water.

Refrigerate and force carbonate.

I'm making 3 gallons (3 gallon keg).

You may want to use more water with the additional sugars and ginger for a 5 gallon batch.


Chris

How much sugar and ginger do you use? How much would you recommend for five gallons?

As soon as my ginger iipa is gone I'm going to make this. I have a juicer so I shouldn't need to strain it, I will only add juice. If it turns out good I will take some to 4th of July get together along with skeeter pee for the grown ups

I would go with the original posters (r2eng) recipe and just scale it.

I lost my recipe and notes, so I kind of just winged it today.

This is what I made today (I force carbonate in the keg):

3 gallons of ginger ale

Peel and grate ~230 grams of fresh ginger root

Heat 1 gallon of water to dissolve the sugar.

~1020grams sugar (this is what I had on hand)
3cups white sugar
2 cups of cane sugar

Bring to a boil or close enough, remove from heat and add ginger, cover and steep for 1 hour

Pour into keg with a strainer, top of with fresh cold water.

Juice of one lemon directly into keg

I think my proportions are good, but again I was just winging it.

I'll know more in a few days after it is all carb'd up.

I will probably go with the 1/2 brown sugar option next time.

Chris

I'm going to clear a keg out and make this, this weekend.

Well I never got around to making this but I just bought the stuff now so I will make it tomorrow night. After reading through the thread I am going to cut the sugar by a third and use half brown sugar. I'm also going to juice the ginger and just use the juice, that's how I do it when I make ginger beers. I made an awesome ginger iipa that way. Can't wait to try this.

On mine I didn't like the addition of the lemon (made me think of 7up or Sprite). Plus not nearly enough ginger. Still tasted good, just not what I was expecting or wanting.

Perhaps to much sugar as well, but if ginger was stronger it may have balanced out.

I think the freshness of the ginger may play a big role in how much you use/need.

Good luck.

Chris

I used to make ginger ale in two liter bottles with lemon honey ginger and bakers yeast for carbonation. I don't remember how much lemon was in it but it always tasted like ginger ale and was good. I already bought everything for this batch but if it is to strong I will cut back and possibly use more lime next time.

I used to add a bit of red pepper flakes also for extra kick. I want to make something my wife and girls will drink right now though.

That's the beauty of soda - you can taste it and add as necessary.

And, yes, if the ginger is in the right amount, you do not get that 7-UP taste at all. It just makes it more complex.

I have been making ginger ale in two liter bottles for awhile but other than that I haven't experimented with soda. I'm assuming you can make a 7 up like soda by just leaving the ginger out and maybe increasing the lemons right? I'm not a big lemon lime fan but my girls love it.

II am almost done now, for a five gallon batch I ended up using juice from 4 medium unpeeled ginger roots that equaled just under three cups, 3 cups brown sugar and 2 cups turbinado sugar. Other than that I followed original (doubled)recipe. I will update in a few days how it turns out, thanks for the recipe and advise from everyone who provided it.

Well it's good but not carbonated at all. I have it set to 30psi, I will go in and get a longer line for my tap and see if that helps.

May also up the amount of lemon and lime or cut back on the ginger for the next batch

It takes a bit longer on my system to carb, too. For soda, I do use the shake method (30PSI, shake like hell for about 5 minutes, place in kegerator, set at 18psi). I also run longer lines for soda so I can keep it carbed better.

Ok thanks for the advise, it has been at 30psi for five days now I will shake it when I get home from work and then hook it back up