ginger beverage

Hi Everyone -

First, many thanks to all for the truck loads of information here! It's great - any question I have I've found an answer or opinion...sometimes even 2 or 3 opinions. I have been snooping around learning about apple cider making for about a month, and this morning started to put it to work, with about 7 gallons of apples from a friend's tree, fresh frozen from the freezer, the little apple sauce bombs are now bathing in a campden bath.

ON to the ginger question. As I was looking at the extra carboys, I was thinking - ginger beer/ale. I have been looking up and down the internet and am sorely confused. Most of the recipes seem to be for non-alcoholic ginger beer (a confusing misnomer). I have seen some recipes here for beer which are flavored with ginger (I don't think that's what I'm looking for).

I seem to recall reading that the original ginger beer was about ABV 11% and that because of some British import tax (tea, ginger beer...where does it end?), manufacturers began cutting to 5% to avoid the tax penalty.

SO, this is what I imagine the drink should be: A hot, spicy ginger flavor with carbonation and an abv of say, 8 - 11 %

Help?

Many thanks,

Aaron

p.s. - please don't say. "make non-alcoholic ginger ale and add vodka..." that would be too easy

I will PM you some recipes unless anyone else wants them (then I'll just edit this post!).

With your apples though, you might want to cut them up and then soak them in the campden!

By all means. post some recipes.

I made a ginger cider a few weeks ago - after it had gotten to a gravity I was happy with (about 1.000), I added 100 grams (4 oz.) of sliced ginger that I boiled in 200 mL of water. I know it seems like a lot, but I only let it sit in the fermenter for about 12 hours at which point I racked and bottled it.

After three days I opened a bottle and it had a pleasant ginger bite that has mellowed with time. I added a gram of the sliced ginger to one of the bottles as an experiment, but haven't opened it yet. If you're looking for a stronger ginger 'bite' I would add maybe the same amount (100 grams/4 oz) but leave it in the fermenter longer (maybe 24-36 hours?). From what I've read ginger mellows considerably with age, so it depends on how soon you plan to drink it.

Cheers!

Have you seen this page: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30492

I like the addition of the chilies in those recipes.

I had an extra gallon of pressed apple juice left over, so I combined it with this recipe, which had been suggested:

2 lbs fresh ginger, cut into slices
17 cups sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
3 cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1 vanilla bean, split
1 packet champagne yeast

I halved this recipe. Diced the ginger, skin and all and tossed it in to simmer for an hour. I'd added a half dozen pepper corns, as well. Turned off the heat and found the ginger was still pretty firm, so I put the hand blender in to shred it up and let it steep another 45 mins. Then I strained it, added the suger, cin., etc and cooled. Had quite a bit of heat when I tasted it. I added it to the gallon of apple juice.

OG was 1.075. Would be higher alone, as the AJ came in at OG 1.040 (had some apricots in it, too - no added sugar, though)

Lalvin EC1118 in both. Both are pretty furious, and apple developed a pretty thick krausen by 18 hours and lasted 3 days. It disappeared today at some point.

Do they just sink and get re-distibuted? There was an awful lot of fine apple sediment in that one. Does that contribute to the development? The ginger/apple cider has none to speak of...

Anyway, thanks for the link to the other recipes.

best,

AML