Anybody has any good recipes for a ginger beer?

I looked around on the internet and I found some varying recipes. So far this is the best one I found....

• 
  
  * Exported from MasterCook *
  
  Ginger Beer
  
  Recipe By : Harrowsmith Reader
  Serving Size : 20 Preparation Time :0:00
  Categories : Beverages
  
  Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
  -------- ------------ --------------------------------
  2 gallons boiling water -- 256 oz.
  2 lemon -- thinly sliced
  1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
  2 pounds sugar, granulated
  2 ounces ginger -- chopped
  1/2 teaspoon yeast
  
  Boil the water in a stainless steel or enamel pot. Add all remaining ingredients except the yeast. Simmer 20 minutes. Cool to lukewarm and taste. Add more ginger for a livelier flavor.
  
  Dissolve yeast in one cup of the mixture and stir back in. Cover and allow to ferment 34-36 hours at 65-70F, i.e. mix it in the morning and bottle the next evening. When a slight white skin of foam appears on the top of the brew it is ready to bottle.
  
  Siphon or pour into sterlized bottles removing any lemon slices. After capping age the bottles upright for one week at 60-65F then store in the refrigerator or basement cool room below 60F. NB: This cool storage is very important.
  
  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
  
  NOTES :
  Instead of sliced lemons you may use 4 tbsp. lemon juice. Instead of chopped ginger you may use 4 tsp. powdered ginger. The resulting beverage was very fizzy and seemed to become more fizzy the longer it was stored. Our supply was gone in a month and by the end the caps were almost removing themselves from the bottles!
  

I am not sure what the abv would be. I think this is looking to be around 1 or 2 % abv? I am not sure how much fermentables I should add.


What would you change or add to this recipe?


.

That's not even really beer. It'll make you a fermented beverage... but that beverage definitely won't be beer seeing as it's devoid of any malt or hops. What you've got is Ye Olde Timee Gingere "Beere." If that's your thing, cool. But if you'd like to make an actual beer that has ginger in it well then just pick your favorite style and add 2 ounces of ginger at the end of the boil. Mr. Calagione's book Extreme Brewing has a delicious recipe for a ginger saison that, sadly, I can't post due to copyright reasons and respect for intellectual property.

Hope that helps and I'm not making myself look like an ass because you were actually looking for a recipe for Ye Olde Ginger "Beer"

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

That's not even really beer. It'll make you a fermented beverage... but that beverage definitely won't be beer seeing as it's devoid of any malt or hops. What you've got is Ye Olde Timee Gingere "Beere." If that's your thing, cool. But if you'd like to make an actual beer that has ginger in it well then just pick your favorite style and add 2 ounces of ginger at the end of the boil. Mr. Calagione's book Extreme Brewing has a delicious recipe for a ginger saison that, sadly, I can't post due to copyright reasons and respect for intellectual property.

Hope that helps and I'm not making myself look like an ass because you were actually looking for a recipe for Ye Olde Ginger "Beer"

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yeah I know its not a real beer. thats just what its called by popular masses. I could call "fizzy ginger flavor drink" but ginger beer works well for short. Root beer isnt really beer either. I get it.

Im not sure what style it would go best with. That beer you mention sounds delicious, but we all applaud you for your respect of intellectual property. Keeping knowledge secret and hidden from the stupid masses of people is a good thing.


Ginger always reminds me of the holidays as does cinnamon. So that would be an interesting spice to add to the boil. Also cloves and nut meg. I will try to make a recipe that tastes good and post it.

pjewell said:

... but we all applaud you for your respect of intellectual property. Keeping knowledge secret and hidden from the stupid masses of people is a good thing.

Click to expand...

Er, it is available at your local homebrew shop or bookseller (my Barnes and Noble has Sam's book). Sam is one of the pioneers of craft brew and deserves the sales of his book.

If you want a spicey beer, try one I concocted for the fall, which was freaking excellent (for my palette). Just drank one!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/joie-de-vivre-fake-imperial-pumpkin-154242/#post1772714

Ginger, cinnamon, cloves... you like spiced beer? Try my "Punkin' Ale" recipe in my drop-down... it's a real winner.

passedpawn said:

Er, it is available at your local homebrew shop or bookseller (my Barnes and Noble has Sam's book). Sam is one of the pioneers of craft brew and deserves the sales of his book.

If you want a spicey beer, try one I concocted for the fall, which was freaking excellent (for my palette). Just drank one!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/joie-de-vivre-fake-imperial-pumpkin-154242/#post1772714

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yeah I was just picking at envy's post. Thanks for that recipe.

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

Ginger, cinnamon, cloves... you like spiced beer? Try my "Punkin' Ale" recipe in my drop-down... it's a real winner.

Click to expand...

Sweet. I am making this for the women in my family who just dont appreciate the malty flavors of beer. Also I enjoy drinking carbonated beverages and being ginger ale is one of my favorite drinks, this would be a healthy alternative to the high sugar store bought beverages.

Search the forums for "ginger beer plant" for the real thing. There is also a basic brewing radio show on the topic in their archives.

I got the plant and made a few batches. It's a snap for a beer brewer, quick turn around and you can really play around with the recipes.

ghack said:

Search the forums for "ginger beer plant" for the real thing. There is also a basic brewing radio show on the topic in their archives.

I got the plant and made a few batches. It's a snap for a beer brewer, quick turn around and you can really play around with the recipes.

Click to expand...

Agreed, ginger beer plant is the only way to do it right. There's another thread about ginger drinks in the soda forum here with a few different recipe attempts https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f95/alton-brown-makes-ginger-ale-113780/

I have made a ginger beer many times. I follow BM's centennial blonde, add 2-3oz of ginger and 1 lb of muscobado sugar. I slice the ginger, freeze it, then I thaw it before I add to the boil. The slices get all juicy and mushy, I add all that to the boil at 20 minutes. Sometimes I'll put some coriander in there but only .25 oz.

ghack said:

Search the forums for "ginger beer plant" for the real thing. There is also a basic brewing radio show on the topic in their archives.

I got the plant and made a few batches. It's a snap for a beer brewer, quick turn around and you can really play around with the recipes.

Click to expand...

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but last week when I was about to order one, I got a 404 error at www.fermentedtreasures.com.

I'm guessing that they are out of business. Does anyone know of another source?

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

I can't post due to copyright reasons and respect for intellectual property.

Click to expand...

IANAL, but apparently you can post ingredients, but any "substantial literary expression" has to be in your own words.

This is a work in progress but the last batch (1 Gal.) was one lb. light DME and 8 oz of scrubbed ginger root shredded in a food processor. Boil for 45 Min., strain, cool and ferment. In secondary I added one tsp. dry ginger and 1/2 tsp. white pepper. You can sweeten with Splenda but I like fine as is. I still thing the amounts in the secondary are too small I want more ginger "bite".

Thanks guys for the replies. I am going to post my final recipe this weekend.

me, too. even with the harpoon ginger thing they did, it tasted like only powdered ginger.
(I had made a comment on their site about hoping for "dry gingering", no go.

so, add fresh to the primary.

maxhavoc said:

IANAL, but apparently you can post ingredients, but any "substantial literary expression" has to be in your own words.

Click to expand...

Wow, that's really nice to know. Thanks havoc, even if you're not a lawyer

Ok so I made it yesterday. Its not a traditional beer. No grains or anything like that.


Ginger Beer



Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 gallons boiling water -- 256 oz.
2 lemons juiced. (im using Myer lemons
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 pounds sugar, granulated
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Cinnamon
5 ounces ginger -- grated
100 mL slurry of US-05 Ale (only thing I had)

Im letting mine ferment until the sugar is out. Then I will bottle with priming sugar. Oh I put in a lot more ginger. I am not a wuss like the previous recipe. The OG is well above 1.030 will ferment down to 1.010.




Wish it luck.