Alton Brown makes ginger ale

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You won't need to add yeast for carbonation's sake, but you need to adjust the sugars in your recipe to compensate. If you were going for a fermented beverage to ferment out and then force carbonate then you still need that first yeast pitch for fermentation.
 
You won't need to add yeast for carbonation's sake, but you need to adjust the sugars in your recipe to compensate. If you were going for a fermented beverage to ferment out and then force carbonate then you still need that first yeast pitch for fermentation.

So less sugar since it's not going to be consumed by yeast? I was actually thinking of just using Splenda.
 
So has anyone who did the 5 gallon batch ever bottle this like beer??? What do you have to do different to the recipe to bottle this????
 
Well, I made something along these lines tonight. Something close to Yuri's recipe:

4 lbs ginger through the food processor
3.5 lbs sugar
8 or 9 cups water
2 fresh and HOT serrano chili's

made the syrup base and added to 5 gallon corny with water and 2 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice

Tastes awfully good already. Put it under pressure in the fridge to start force carbing it... can't wait!
 
What are you guys paying for ginger to make this come out at a reasonable cost? Supermarket prices would put put a 4lb batch at ~$15/case. If I use Splenda instead of sugar, that's another $2/case.

I found one online bulk supplier that sells 10lbs/$36 - are there better sources?

Or, does cost just not matter once you taste the results?
 
Just finished my first batch with the following recipe:

almost 3lbs ginger - not the best quality, next batch should be better
3.5lbs sugar
8oz lemon juice
8 cups water
1 finger tip - last time I use a hand grater for this much grating

Just put it on gas, but first taste is nice & spicy and not too sweet!
 
Update to my version:

(also, it cost me less than $10 for 4 lbs of very fresh ginger at the produce market I go to)

I didn't let it settle very long and the first few glasses were VERY cloudy and excessively strong. After sitting for a couple weeks now and getting all the sediment out, it is awesome.

Very good with some spiced rum.
 
Making a batch of this (5 oz sugar, 2 oz ginger) right now. Really looking forward to trying it tomorrow.

Edit:yum!
 
A few questions for those of you who are force carbonating your ginger ale:

At what temperature and PSI are you serving? and,

How long and what size are you lines?

I'm very curious as we made our first batch last night, but we've never served soda on tap before :)

Thanks!
 
A few questions for those of you who are force carbonating your ginger ale:

At what temperature and PSI are you serving? and,

How long and what size are you lines?

I'm very curious as we made our first batch last night, but we've never served soda on tap before :)

Thanks!

I don't have any room in my keezer, so I'm serving at cellar temperature into an ice filled glass with a picnic tap. I'll keep it at about 40psi until it's carbed to my liking, then dial it down a bit.

And, I definitely recommend getting some of these: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-your-short-hose-troubles-100151/.

I use them in every keg now. For soda, I use two of them and I can still serve even when its at 40psi!
 
I don't have any room in my keezer, so I'm serving at cellar temperature into an ice filled glass with a picnic tap. I'll keep it at about 40psi until it's carbed to my liking, then dial it down a bit.

And, I definitely recommend getting some of these: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-your-short-hose-troubles-100151/.

I use them in every keg now. For soda, I use two of them and I can still serve even when its at 40psi!

Very interesting! I also found some good reading materials on draft pressure/line length balance.
 
I've seen some responses on here about using Stevia or Splenda, but all of the people wanting to use those alternative sweeteners are going to force-carb their ginger ale.

I don't have the equipment to force-carb (and won't have it anytime soon) but I do have a 2-liter bottle and a couple packets of champagne yeast so AB ginger ale seemed like the way to go.

My wife is diabetic and adores the natural, real ginger ale with the real ginger kick to it, but for health reasons can't drink it all the time as there's just too much sugar in the brands I've seen of real ginger ale.

What I would like to do is cut down the regular sugar to the bare minimum required for the yeast to do its carb thing, then sweeten the ginger ale the rest of the way with Stevia or Splenda. This would produce a ginger ale with a bare minimum of sugar, the closest one could get to a "no-sugar" or "low-carb" homemade ginger ale soda pop.

How much sugar would be needed to carb a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale, where in all other respects the recipe is the same as AB's ginger ale recipe?

I'm interested in this for making homemade low-sugar root beer as well (she adores "Virgil's" but again, too much sugar in it).
 
I've been making non-alton brown gingerale the past few weeks (with yeast to carbonate) and have tried a different way of extracting the flavor from the fresh ginger. It does not involve heat in order to keep all the flavors as fresh-tasting as possible.

Scrape the outside of the hunks of ginger in order to remove the outermost layer of skin. Then cut into ca. 1 inch chunks and freeze. This will rupture the cell walls so heating is unnecessary to extract the flavors. You cut it first since juices flow if you try to cut it after thawing and it's soft.

After thawing, blend with enough water to form a slurry. Let stand overnight. (I'm not sure the best length of time for it to sit.) Strain (pressing in strainer with back of a spoon to get all the liquid), and add to your gingerale recipe. I use ample lime juice and zest in mine too. This solution is cloudy, but it tastes absolutely great - sharper, more gingery than what you get when heated.


How much sugar would be needed to carb a 2-liter bottle of ginger ale, where in all other respects the recipe is the same as AB's ginger ale recipe?

I've been experimenting with this too. My last batch is using 4T of sugar in 2 liters. Plus splenda to taste. As an experiment I've tried 2 tsp sugar in just water with yeast in a 500 ml bottle, and it carbonated eventually, but only after a long wait.

If the 4T (equals 3 tsp in 500ml) works, I'm going to try to lower that amount.
 
Webgiant:
How about making a syrup that you can add to soda water?

While I have been doing that very thing, I'd still like to work out how to make very low-sugar yeast-carbonated soda pop. Here's the situation:

My wife and I like to go backpacking a few times every year, which to be quite clear about this, means carrying everything in (and out) on your back. We've found a beautiful campsite out in the middle of the wilderness, with a fresh clear stream (for water), that is a little more than five miles from any aspect of civilization. The stream is quite cold and chills waterproofed stuff rather well, especially under all the trees.

One thing we've always wanted out there is carbonated drinks. "Make your own ginger ale" would work great for that, since you carry in an empty 2-liter bottle and some light ingredients and yeast, and the water (and its heaviness) is waiting for you at the campsite. We stay a week so there is plenty of time to make homemade ginger ale. Where it doesn't work is the heavy sugar syrups used in all the recipes for the yeast-based method of carbonation, which send diabetics into sugar shock (did I mention we're five miles on foot from civilization and all its helpful Emergency Rooms?).

I don't want to have to carry in, on foot, two heavy 2-liter bottles of club soda (4.4 pounds each at the start, but feels like 100lbs after walking a mile...), especially as pack space is limited. If I could find out the bare minimum amount of sugar required to feed the yeast, possibly even to the point that the yeast consumes all the regular sugar itself, I could provide us with a diabetic-safe homemade fizzy pop out in the wilderness.

Plus it strikes me that anyone who knew how to do the math on this could save his or her work in a text file. Then when someone else says "no you can't do low-carb yeast-carbonated soda pop", that person could stand up, a Genius Among Men/Women, and say "why yes you can make low-carb yeast-carbonated soda pop", and demonstrate their genius-osity by spelling out How It Can Be Done.
 
Have you considered using those keg charging systems with CO2 cartridges? They are small and don't weight much at all, and should get a 2-liter bottle carbonated easily with 1-2 cartridges.
 
For those Canadians who aren't able to see the video due to location restriction, here is the same video.

 
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