Alco Ginger Beer

A few people on the chat have asked me to post up the recipe for an alcoholic ginger beer. It's all in metric as that's what I know. The brew is not finished fermenting yet but the samples are great especially if you want a to feel the heat of the ginger. I didn't create the recipe, just followed one developed by Chappo on aussiehombrewer.com

2kg brown sugar
1kg honey
Juice of 3 large lemons and 3 limes
Zest of 2 lemons and 2 limes
4 cinnamon sticks crushed
1.25kg fresh ginger root grated or shredded in food processor
2 tspn yeast nutrient
US-05 yeast

Chappo does a full size boil but I just did it about 10L of hot water.
Add the honey and sugar and bring to boil
Once at a gentle boil add ginger, juice, zest and cinnamon (you could use a hop bag)
Boil for 50mins
Add yeast nutrient and boil for 10mins but this time vigorous
Flame out and chill
Strain when transferring to fermenter.

Top up with cold water
My OG was 1.055 and heading down to around 1.013

Top up to how many liters?

Sorry mik - I topped up to 23L.

This has really fermented out. I'm thinking my OG measurement was wrong based on a dodgy hydrometer. OG around 1.048, FG now at 1.000. You can stop it earlier and dump into a keg if you want it sweeter rather than dry. And this is very dry and hot. Looking forward to this being on tap next week.

sounds good. I love Blennheims ginger ale (NA) out of SC... they have a red cap spicy version that is Tabasco hot and amazing as a mixer... might as well home brew it!

To get some additional heat don't be afraid to add a chopped up birds eye chilli (including seeds) added to the fermenter.

brewed up a 1gallon batch tonight..
OG was 1.053 .. so a bit higher then your revised estimate...
i boiled water and then just poured that over all the ginger and zest and then added the sugar and honey..

I let it steep until it cooled to room temp then strained out all the bits and into the jug it went. i think im just gonna let it ferment and forget about it for a while.. if its too hot after carb, ill just add a bit of simple sugar to the glass when i have a bottle

this is the scaled down version i used for anyone who wants a smaller batch to start off with:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 1.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 5.3 SRM

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item
0.50 items Lemon Zest
0.50 items Lime Zest
0.75 lb Ginger Root
1.00 items Cinnamon Stick
1.00 items Lemon Juice
1.00 items Lime Juice
0.75 lb Brown Sugar, Light
0.40 lb Honey
1/5 Pkgs SafAle California Ale US-05

Edit: wow the sample is REALLYREALLY spicy. if it doesnt mellow a bit during ferm, im gonna have to mix in some water before i bottle.
this is a fun little experiment