Alcoholic ginger beer

Thanks so much for all the info, y'all!

I'm about to embark on my first brew venture, and here's the recipe:

3.4 lbs organic ginger root
6.7 lbs turbinado
3.4 cups fresh pineapple juice
.84 cups lemon juice
.84 cups lime juice
.5 tablespoon cayenne

This is sneakymeade's recipe, expanded to 5 gallons. I intend to boil the sugar, 2 gallons of water, cayenne and the ginger together for 5 minutes then turn off the flame, and let steep for an hour. Someone recommended not peeling the ginger so I'm gonna go that route but scrub the crap out of the skin before I toss it in the blender to mince it up.

After the mash cools I'll add the fresh lime, lemon, and pineapple juice, strain, add to the carboy, and top off with water. Pitch then add yeast (red star champagne).

I decided not to use cream of tartar cause my research seems to say it's not so necessary... thoughts on the process? Recommendations? Many thanks! Stoked to join the brew-world.

Likefully said:

How did it come out?

Click to expand...

At the moment it has a bit of fire to it, but not too much. Otherwise it is a bit bland, I'm hoping age will make the flavours a bit more complex.

It does have a bit of a flowery taste (it was really strong at first but mellowed), not sure if it's the cardamon and/or honey.

Not horribly bitter either.

I'm stashing a few litres away until summer and thinking of making ginger beer mark two.

idgawomp said:

Thanks so much for all the info, y'all! I'm about to embark on my first brew venture, and here's the recipe: 3.4 lbs organic ginger root 6.7 lbs turbinado 3.4 cups fresh pineapple juice .84 cups lemon juice .84 cups lime juice .5 tablespoon cayenne This is sneakymeade's recipe, expanded to 5 gallons. I intend to boil the sugar, 2 gallons of water, cayenne and the ginger together for 5 minutes then turn off the flame, and let steep for an hour. Someone recommended not peeling the ginger so I'm gonna go that route but scrub the crap out of the skin before I toss it in the blender to mince it up. After the mash cools I'll add the fresh lime, lemon, and pineapple juice, strain, add to the carboy, and top off with water. Pitch then add yeast (red star champagne). I decided not to use cream of tartar cause my research seems to say it's not so necessary... thoughts on the process? Recommendations? Many thanks! Stoked to join the brew-world.

Click to expand...

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 for 15 min is flavor extraction from the ginger and sanitation (hence why you don't need to scrub down unpeeled ginger). Adding the sugar during the boil only increases the potential for a sticky mess, in my experience.

One more thing: make sure to check temp of the fermenter water before pitching yeast. Even after waiting an hour, straining and doubling the volume with room temp water, I've seen batches that were still to hot to pitch (i.e. Over 110 degrees).

Everything else looks good. Let us know how it turns out!

Gingerman - vanilla sounds like an excellent addition, I'll do that next time

Idgawomp - just so you know, I loved how mine came out, but everyone that tasted it said it was too much ginger. And a couple months later, I still have a strong ginger flavor and plenty of heat. To me, this is a good thing, just what I was aiming for. Let us know how it comes out!

UPDATE: I taste tested the brew 5 days in and the flavors were WONDERFUL! The ginger was strong with a hot finish, the pineapple danced off the lemon and lime towards the middle, but the front was REALLY REALLY sweet so I figured I'd let it go an extra day or two. By two days later the sweetness was perfectly reduced, but so were the citrus notes and the ginger. I think next time I'll use a bit less sugar from the start.

Great discovery: leaving the skin on the ginger seemed to contribute no off flavors. AWESOME.

Sad discovery: I racked the ginger beer into a second carboy for kegging but wasn't able to get a keg that evening so I tossed in some campden tabs, covered the carboy with some aluminum foil (I thought it would only be for the night) and left the carboy alone. For 4 days.

I'm worried the brew has gone bad.

There are these weird little droplets floating on the top towards the sides of the carboy. I've taken some pictures and placed them in this album. Any ideas what it may be?

Thanks y'all!

How does ginger beer age by the way? I've got five one litre glass swing top bottles of my concoction stashed in a cupboard which I'm planning to leave until summer time.

ProfessorWoland said:

How does ginger beer age by the way? I've got five one litre glass swing top bottles of my concoction stashed in a cupboard which I'm planning to leave until summer time.

Click to expand...

It probably depends on how you made it... I've seen some folks say it tastes like a saison or belgian after several months.

idgawomp said:

It probably depends on how you made it... I've seen some folks say it tastes like a saison or belgian after several months.

Click to expand...

My concoction was thrown together with the following:


2 kilos of ginger (I tried to blend but it was killing my cheap blender, so I lost my temper and just chopped it into chunks)
1 kilo granulated sugar
1.5 kilo tin of Dry LME
500g honey
Zest and juice of two lemons
Zest and juice of two lime
1 table spoon cayenne pepper powder
1 table spoon cardamom powder

Champaign yeast and yeast nutrient

Made to 18 litres.

ProfessorWoland said:

How does ginger beer age by the way? I've got five one litre glass swing top bottles of my concoction stashed in a cupboard which I'm planning to leave until summer time.

Click to expand...

It gets drier. Depends on your personal preference you may enjoy it more.

For comparison, I really like dry champagne but I preferred my ginger beer when it was fresh and a bit sweeter.

ProfessorWoland said:

How does ginger beer age by the way? I've got five one litre glass swing top bottles of my concoction stashed in a cupboard which I'm planning to leave until summer time.

Click to expand...

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 and days in the cupboard, handle with extreme care. For real.

In my experience ginger beer peaks after being chilled for about a week. After that it's a slow falloff of intensity of flavor, and with the building pressure as time passes, overcarbonation.

If you are trying to age it, do it in the fridge *set to its coldest setting* and vent every 4 weeks to prevent massive over carbonation. All this assumes a FG of around 1.2-1.24ish (moderately sweet). Your recipe has a **** ton of sugar in it to start with. How long did you ferment it before bottling?

Or, if it's pasteurized, ignore everything I just said and let us know how it ends up.

The FG was very near 1.000, so I don't think I'll have to worry about bottle bombs.

ProfessorWoland said:

The FG was very near 1.000, so I don't think I'll have to worry about bottle bombs.

Click to expand...

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

Here is the source I used to learn how to make a ginger beer plant to make my ginger beer for the last few years. Scroll through the posts and you will find one of my earlier recipes.

http://mistyhorizon2003.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant

Also check out other ginger beer links on HBT. I have posted my most recent recipe and hoping to achieve about 8-10% A.B.V. See link for my recipe on HBT.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ginger-beer-362382/

Thanks to everyone for providing insight and recipes for ginger ale. I've been interested in brewing a mildly alcoholic ginger ale for a while and last night I finally pulled the trigger, brewing something something similar to sneakymeade's recipe in post #37.

My alteration of the recipe was:

3.5 gallons water total (pre boil)

2 lbs fresh ginger (shredded in a food processor and placed into a hop bag)
3 lbs turbinado sugar
1 lbs amber sparkling DME
2 tbs homemade tangerine & almond marmalade
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
a pinch of home grown dried scotch bonnet chili pepper flakes

This was all brought to boil, and boiled for 15 minutes at which point I turned off the burner, put the lid on the kettle, and let it rest/cool for 2 hours. I then removed the ginger (in hop bag) and placed it in a large funnel with built in mesh strainer. This was position over my 5 gallon carboy and all of the boil liquid was poured over it, to drain through the ginger, and into the carboy. I then added:

2/3 cup of key lime juice
1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
1 vial of White Labs WLP715 Champagne Yeast

The carboy was shaken vigorously and placed in a bathroom with a radiator that keep the space around 76 F during the winter months.

This weekend I intend to add gelatin to the carboy and cold crash the yeast in my chest freezer for 2 days before transferring the ale into a 3 gallon keg to carbonate.

I can't wait to mix the brew into a Dark & Stormy with Bacardi Añejo.

Cheers

Here is a video of what a living Ginger beer plant looks like.
http://youtu.be/-7UN8i4qsKk


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Rambunctious said:

Here is the source I used to learn how to make a ginger beer plant to make my ginger beer for the last few years. Scroll through the posts and you will find one of my earlier recipes.

http://mistyhorizon2003.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant

Also check out other ginger beer links on HBT. I have posted my most recent recipe and hoping to achieve about 8-10% A.B.V. See link for my recipe on HBT.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ginger-beer-362382/

Click to expand...

What kind of alcohol do you get with the plant? I am thinking of going this way. After several batches, I either get lots of alcohol and no sweetness, or too much sweetness resulting in gushers.

Back sweetening is a challenge with stevia for example.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

I have had from 4%-8% as I am still tweeking recipe. My current recipe is as follows.
4oz fresh organic Ginger root. "Used to produce G.B.P."
10 tsp granulated sugar. "Used to produce G.B.P."
.75 qt mineral or filtered unclorinated tap water."Used to produce G.B.P."

CULTIVATING A GBP
Using sanitized grater, t spoon and 1qt vessel.
Grate 1oz uncleaned unpealed organic ginger into bowl or 1qt vessel.
Add 2 tsp sugar, water and grated ginger into 1qt vessel. Cover with permeable membrane. "I use a coffee filter and rubber band".
Then shelve for the day. Repeat adding ginger and sugar every other day until you see activity.
Now you have a Ginger Beer Plant. Henceforth known as GBP.

5 gal batch ingredients list.

2 oranges
2 lemons
2 limes or 8key limes
12 whole cloves
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper (optional)
Approx 8-12 oz fresh ginger root pealed and chopped."this time I will try to reserve 4oz chopped for dry hopping in the secondary "
5 gal Cold fresh clean mineral or filtered tap water. Make ice out of half the water.
8 lbs white sugar
2lbs dark brow sugar

Directions.

Slice oranges, limes and lemons in half

Brew kettle

Add
2.5gal water and all the rest listed " lemons, limes, oranges, cloves, sugars",bring to a boil for 8min skim off scum that formed and discard, pour remaining mash over ice into fermentation bucket with air lock
When cooled to 80deg F or less sample for hydro reading should be about 1.080 add GBP and agitate vigorously.
Let ferment for 2 weeks and rack off of the solids into a carboy with an air lock for an additional 2weeks approx or until you get to target gravity or happy place flavor your choice.

For bottling I rack into bottling bucket onto 2lbs dark brown sugar let settle for a couple of days and bottle. Check bottles after two weeks for carbonation level and refrigerate, pasteurize,consume as I see fit. It has never lasted long enough to worry about pasteurizing.


Good luck


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Well I brewed a new batch today following previously listed recipe. O.G. was a match at 1.076. I plan to stir twice daily for the first week then let it go for two more. After that I will rack off the fruits and will dry hop so to speak with another 2 oz chopped ginger that has not been boiled to see If that gives a little more ginger heat. Will keep you posted.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

So my GBP is totally coming along. A lot of things I have read leave you with needing to halve it and share. How do you do this with your 5 gal brew? Just looking ahead. I freakin' love ginger beer!


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

I usually do not worry about it as I have been able to produce one at will so many times.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Rambunctious said:

Well I brewed a new batch today following previously listed recipe. O.G. was a match at 1.076. I plan to stir twice daily for the first week then let it go for two more. After that I will rack off the fruits and will dry hop so to speak with another 2 oz chopped ginger that has not been boiled to see If that gives a little more ginger heat. Will keep you posted.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Click to expand...

Today I racked the above Ginger beer into secondary and added 3oz chopped skinned fresh ginger. I have heard uncooked it will impart more of a hot ginger flavor. Hydrometer reading of 1.056 if my math is correct it is at ~2.7% A.B.V. tastes pretty good. Will let it go for a couple more weeks and test again.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Thanks for keeping this up, Rambunctious. I am very interested to see how it comes out.

Can you tell me, is there a "yeasty" taste to it? All the brews I have made with brewers yeast impart a pretty strong yeast flavour, which doesn't taste as clean as I would like it.

Thanks

No yeasty taste at all. Sweet, sharp like a ginger ale.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Has anyone brewed with ale yeast vs a ginger beer plant?
If so what would the differences be?
Any major flavor profile differences?
Would the ferment time be the same between the ale yeast vs the ginger beer plant?

I brewed a batch of your recipe a couple of days ago, and pitched my GBP. Not terrible vigorous in the way of fermenting way, like with an ale yeast (for example). Is this normal?


Johnny Rains

Reading through the thread gives wide range of variations
seems like you want a og around 1.5
~3.5-4 lb ginger. Chopped, blended, etc.
3/4-1cup lemon juice +zest (optional)
3/4-1 cup lime juice + zest (Optional)
Champagne yeast, 1 packet.

If Jamaican style, add cayenne or other spices.
I don't really want any cayenne as I prefer "regular" to Jamaican.

Would you say that would be a good base recipe?

There's lots of warnings of bottling this though. What if I reduced the og to about 1.35-1.4 and just let it ferment out to 1.1 or less than primed it at bottling time and let that go? I'll be using for dark and stormy, and will just add simple syrup to taste as back sweetener.

Captain_Bigelow said:

I made the Austin Home Brew Ginger Ale recipe last year. I must admit that it was one of my least favorite recipes. I could hardly taste the ginger. Next time I would double or triple the dried ginger content.

Click to expand...

I recently made their honey lemongrass ginger ale and will be bottling this week.
I added more ginger than the recipie called for.

pricelessbrewing said:

Reading through the thread gives wide range of variations
seems like you want a og around 1.5
~3.5-4 lb ginger. Chopped, blended, etc.
3/4-1cup lemon juice +zest (optional)
3/4-1 cup lime juice + zest (Optional)
Champagne yeast, 1 packet.

If Jamaican style, add cayenne or other spices.
I don't really want any cayenne as I prefer "regular" to Jamaican.

Would you say that would be a good base recipe?

There's lots of warnings of bottling this though. What if I reduced the og to about 1.35-1.4 and just let it ferment out to 1.1 or less than primed it at bottling time and let that go? I'll be using for dark and stormy, and will just add simple syrup to taste as back sweetener.

Click to expand...

3.5-4lbs ginger? Wow that is a lot of ginger. My recipe may use up to 1lb at most.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

johnnyrains said:

I brewed a batch of your recipe a couple of days ago, and pitched my GBP. Not terrible vigorous in the way of fermenting way, like with an ale yeast (for example). Is this normal?


Johnny Rains

Click to expand...

Make sure to aerate for a couple of days at first pitch if it is in a bucket fermenter will sound like a fresh poured seven up.
Mine has slowed significantly from racking with recheck gravity this coming weekend and rack into bottling bucket if any makes it to bottles from there who knows i have been out of this for 4weeks now and a dark and stormy is sounding really good.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Rambunctious said:

3.5-4lbs ginger? Wow that is a lot of ginger. My recipe may use up to 1lb at most.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Click to expand...

Just roughly averaged the recipes posted, several call for 1.5 kg, 2kg and 3.5 lb of chopped ginger.

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 the oven with the light on the past cold week. Perfect 80 and bubbling away.

Either way, go lighter on the sugar in the GBP recipe, or give yourself a lot of time for it to work. And check your SG regularly, as temp variance plays a huge role in both bugs' metabolism.





Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

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

Thanks for the response gingerman

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 use the best best fresh (or fresh and frozen) ginger you can find.

I was the champion of the large (3+lbs) ginger quantities earlier in the thread, but I've tested and verified that 1.5-1.75 lbs of high quality ginger is plenty for 5 gallons. There's a slight increase in intensity for higher amounts, but on the order of a few percent more intense at double the ginger. 1.5lbs still makes a fine brew, in my experience.



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

I racked a frankenbrew to secondary today, no idea how it'll turn out. Got 10l in total

I used a couple of litres of porter wort that I had frozen, sugar, maltose syrup, lots of ginger and a sparkling wine yeast. It should be about 10% so I'm going to let it age for 6 months or so before bottling it

Rambunctious said:

Today I racked the above Ginger beer into secondary and added 3oz chopped skinned fresh ginger. I have heard uncooked it will impart more of a hot ginger flavor. Hydrometer reading of 1.056 if my math is correct it is at ~2.7% A.B.V. tastes pretty good. Will let it go for a couple more weeks and test again.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Click to expand...

Well another two weeks has passed I pulled a sample and tested S.G. today it is at 1.050 has not moved much but is moving. Flavor is very good and crisp. Dry hopping fresh ginger into the secondary has added a little more tongue bite. Est. A.B.V. ~3.3%.
I guess I will just let it keep going for a while yet as long as I still have air lock activity.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

I have now racked the latest batch to the bottling bucket O.G. 1.076 tested today as 1.045 est A.B.V. ~4%.
I could wait no longer for a dark and stormy. My last batch finished started at 1.076 and finished at 1.040
I thing this will finish the same in the bucket before I bottle or consume it all.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Hello everyone. I have read page up and page down on this thread. And I am going to attempt to make my first batch of ginger beer. Hopefully with an alcohol percentage of 5-8%.

It seems the recipes are so different from each other that Im just going to try something, based on my overall impression. Please correct me if Im making a mistake here. But I just want a simple, ginger tasting, sweet and refreshing beer. No malt, spices or anything.

Is this gonna work?

500 g of fresh grated ginger
500 g of sugar
10 liters of water
Juice of 5 lemons
Champagne yeast

1. Boil ginger with 1L water for 30 minutes
2. Add sugar, lemon juice and rest of fresh water
3. Let cool to right temperature
4. Add yeast and let sit for room temperature for a week
5. After a week, add more sugar? About how much here? Before bottling right? Let sit for a week. Cool it. Drink it.

Do you need a clearing tablet for this recipe? I dont mind a little foggy residue. After browsing several recipes, it seems okay to keep sugar and ginger about equal?

I´ve never brewed before, but I´ve become so addicted to Ginger Beer I have to learn how to do it myself. Im thinking of skipping the bottles completely and just buy a keg and give it a place in the fridge.

Looks good to me. You may want to let it sit for 2 weeks instead of one. As for the sugar you won't need it if you are kegging because you can force carb with co2. That's the rout I would go. You might want to ferment a little cooler than room temp. A little bit of honey may not be a bad addition either say maybe 12-16oz.

If you go back a page or two and find my recipe it's pretty solid for a "dry gingerbeer". If you're force carbing I would recommend a campden tab to kill the yeast (maybe unnecessary), cold crashing it to take the solids out of suspension and compact the bottom layer a bit more, and to add a little bit of sugar as fermenting it dry makes it a little strange if you're used to store bought as it still has some residual sugars in it.