Alcoholic ginger beer

[ProfessorWoland]

As I have only made one batch, I don't know the recipe I followed was the best, but it came out very tasty.

I boiled 15L water with 1.4kg ginger, 1.8kg sugar, .5 teaspoon cayenne pepper and added about a cup of a mixture of lemon and lime into the fermenter. I added a few litres of water to get the total volume in the fermenter to 18L before pitching.

I might try and but with an added 500g of light LME for some body and take to 20L.

What yeast did you use?

 

[gingerman]

Johnny - sounds like a sanitation issue? Is it bubbling or just foul? Make sure to wash everything in a rinse from the homebrew store. I've never messed with tablets but yes that would prevent bottle carbing/pressurizing.

Prof - the red star champagne yeast works best. 1 g/gallon.

 

[ProfessorWoland]

Ok, here's what I'm going to try;

2 kilos of ginger (blended)
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.

 

[Likefully]

Ok, here's what I'm going to try;

2 kilos of ginger (blended)
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.

I used less than a teaspoon of cayenne for the same volume and that was bordering on too hot for most people.

Otherwise this recipe looks good and I would love to hear how it comes out. With that much fermentables and yeast I would guess you are aiming for something with a high alcohol content?

 

[ProfessorWoland]

I used less than a teaspoon of cayenne for the same volume and that was bordering on too hot for most people.

Otherwise this recipe looks good and I would love to hear how it comes out. With that much fermentables and yeast I would guess you are aiming for something with a high alcohol content?

Thanks for the advice! I'll knock it down to a teaspoon on the pepper.

I'd like a high alcohol volume (when I made the Coopers kit one everyone liked the taste but was disappointed by the ABV) but also hoping the malt and honey will do something to combat the bitterness people complain about.

Plus I like the idea of having one big experiment

This will be by first brew which isn't kit based so I'd thought I'd go mental with it.

Any idea what sort of ABV I could expect? I'm still quite n00bish.

 

[dyqik]

Also, those flip top bottles will burp via the rubber seal before they explode so if you must use glass with a sugary bottle carb, use those.

This isn't guaranteed. I've lost an entire batch of natural ginger beer to bottle bombs in flip top 1l bottles.

 

[ProfessorWoland]

With that much fermentables and yeast I would guess you are aiming for something with a high alcohol content?

OG is only 1.050 at 32°C

Just waiting for it to cool to pitch yeast.

 

[Likefully]

OG is only 1.050 at 32°C

Just waiting for it to cool to pitch yeast.

How did it come out?

 

[jon]

Has anyone thought to try adding ginger later in the fermentation? I know some folks rack their brews onto fruit to get more fruit flavor than if fermented with the fruit in the primary.

I just bought a bunch of ginger thinking to make ginger cider. I have a batch that I have neglected in a carbon for a little while, was going to rack to add a few pounds of ginger to it and see what happens. Back sweeten with fresh cider and add lemon juice to acidity if it needs it. Then into the keg...

I'm thinking that doing all the ginger in the primary is just Going to loose a lot of flavor...

 

[ProfessorWoland]

How did it come out?

It's still at primary. I'm going to take a gravity reading later today and I'm looking to hopefully bottle next week.

 

[ProfessorWoland]

Has anyone thought to try adding ginger later in the fermentation? I know some folks rack their brews onto fruit to get more fruit flavor than if fermented with the fruit in the primary.

I just bought a bunch of ginger thinking to make ginger cider. I have a batch that I have neglected in a carbon for a little while, was going to rack to add a few pounds of ginger to it and see what happens. Back sweeten with fresh cider and add lemon juice to acidity if it needs it. Then into the keg...

I'm thinking that doing all the ginger in the primary is just Going to loose a lot of flavor...

Root ginger has an incredibly strong flavour so I don't think you'll have to worry about it at primary.

 

[ProfessorWoland]

How did it come out?

The gravity is down to 1.005. It has a firey kick to it and an almost flowery taste at times. It is missing something though.

I'm going to add the lines and lemon I forgot with the priming sugar when I put it into a bottling bucket and hope that improves it.

 

[Hanglow]

I have tried a number of times to get a good alcoholic ginger beer and my most recent batch was the best. The previous ones were far too dry and I didn't want to use malt as a base as I thought that would be too malty/grainy/beery etc and wouldn't suit what I was aiming for. So this time to stop it from drying out too much I tried using rice maltose syrup that I bought from Seewoo - in Glasgow at The Point if you know it prof! It's cheap too at £1 or so for 450g. FG is 1.014, so lots of body.


12l
1kg sugar
2 x rice maltose (900g in total i think)
1.2kg root ginger
3 hot chillis
6 tea bags
juice 3 lemons
nutrient
campden for water treatment
youngs cider yeast

ginger was grated and boiled in the water for about 10 minutes, teabags left in as it cooled along with the lemon juice.

 

[ProfessorWoland]

...that I bought from Seewoo - in Glasgow at The Point if you know it prof!

I know it really well as I go there to get Sui Mai

Hello other Glasgow poster!

 

[Likefully]

The gravity is down to 1.005. It has a firey kick to it and an almost flowery taste at times. It is missing something though.

I'm going to add the lines and lemon I forgot with the priming sugar when I put it into a bottling bucket and hope that improves it.

Perhaps bottle now (before fermentation is complete) and just add the lime and lemon juice. No priming sugar. Leave the bottles out for 2 days and then into the fridge.

 

[Icewalker]

I figured I'd throw in my recipe. As a young lad I used to like the Christmas treat of Stones Ginger wine and lemonade at my Nans. So I figured I'd try to get a ginger beer in that ball park.

Here's where I went for a 5 gallon batch.

2 lbs Root Ginger - grated
4 lbs Dark brown sugar
1 lb white sugar
3 1/2 lbs golden LME (had it lying around)
1 lb Clover Honey
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice
5 tsp yeast nutrient
1 packet gelatin (clarification)
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 packet Red Start Champagne yeast

Brought the ginger root and juices to a boil in 2 gallons of water. Keep on a rolling boil for around 1/2 hour.

Take off heat.

Add sugar, honey and LME - stir in well.

Return to the heat and keep a slow rolling boil for around 3/4 hour.

Chill wort to around 100 Deg

Add to 3 gallons of water in fermenter.

Add yeast nutrient and pitch (reconstituted) champagne yeast.


Absolutely no idea how this is going to turn out. Did it on a whim today Sometimes it's better not to brew with the wife bending your ear. I forgot to take an OG reading

Depending on how this one turns out I'm going to brew another. Will post pics and figure out an ABV once it's done. I'm thinking at least a week in the primary. Then take it from there. I didn't filter at all so the ginger root is still in there.

 

[krackin]

Looks good. I'm finding 4 weeks in the fermenter is a good idea. It doesn't seem to stick around long after bottling. Aging really helps bring out the lime which seems lost otherwise. I haven't tried OJ yet. Cascade late additions are very good too. I just got some MO LME to try but so far I'm like AG better than extract or PM. I use US-05. I'm also playing with real ginger plant from Yemoos, which is a completely different concoction entirely and very very good.

 

[Icewalker]

36 hours and fermentation seems to have ground to a halt. Just noticed that the champagne yeast was almost a year old .... ahhhhhh. What to do?

a) leave alone - up temp on fermenter and see what happens.

b) Add fresh champagne yeast and stir

c) Call it a day - go to secondary and leave alone for a few weeks


I'm kind of leaning towards b only because 36 hours just doesn't seem to be that long. Anyone have any ideas?

thanks

Jeff

 

[gingerman]

36 hours and fermentation seems to have ground to a halt. Just noticed that the champagne yeast was almost a year old .... ahhhhhh. What to do? a) leave alone - up temp on fermenter and see what happens. b) Add fresh champagne yeast and stir c) Call it a day - go to secondary and leave alone for a few weeks I'm kind of leaning towards b only because 36 hours just doesn't seem to be that long. Anyone have any ideas? thanks Jeff

I've pitched yeast too warm before (111 F) and noticed no activity 36 hours later. I just pitched a whole new packet (reconstituted) and stirred to oxygenate for 3-4 min.

One thing I noticed is that you have a TON of sugar in there. I make pretty much your recipe, without the LME. So, about half the sugar (I only ferment for a couple days for low ABV ginger beer though). I know some yeasts have trouble working in too sugary an environment. Not sure if that's the case here, though.

I'd definitely try b first, and then you could always do c. Adding more yeast won't really impact the flavor or anything, from my experience.

Let us know how it turns out! I'm curious about the LME and how it affects the flavor. Maybe you can still get the OG too. I'm curious exactly what all that sugar and LME comes to in 5 gallons. Good luck!

 

[gingerman]

Thanks for pointing me to Crabbies. I wasn't aware of any alcoholic ginger beer in the US. I've been playing with a sessionable (read: 3.5%ish) ginger beer. It's pretty tasty, and makes the best Moscow Mule I've ever tasted, hands down. Here's my recipe, taken from the 'Ginger "Beer" (with wine yeast)' thread.
1. Mix 3 lbs high quality ginger into 2.5 gallons water (I do it in batches in the blender)
2. Add 10 cups turbinado sugar, or 8 c turb, 2 brown sugar. Generally, 2 cups/gallon is mildly sweet. I usually add a few squirts of honey to the boil as well. A little honey goes a long way in this recipe, btw.
3. Add 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper for a kick if you want it, pinches of sea salt and other spices. I've been adding 1 tsp cream of tartar, but I don't think that's needed after reading through threads here.
4. Boil all that for 15 minutes, then cool for 120. Strain, Transfer to fermenter, double the water, and add 1 cup each of lemon and lime juice. Add yeast (Red Star Champagne Yeast) when temp is right (I shoot for 101). Usually OG is around 1.044 here.
5. Ferment for 48 hours (stirring/aerating regularly) for "Ginger Ale" at around 1.3% ABV, or 96 hours for about 3.3%. Go longer for stronger. I haven't yet tried to fully ferment and adding late sugar yet. Alcoholic potency isn't my primary goal. 3.3 sessionable is.
6. Here is where I would advise to bottle pressurize for 24-48 hours, but since you're kegging, just keg that, leaving as much sediment on the bottom as possible. A little doesn't hurt, of course.

As an update to my last recipe in the noble pursuit of the tasty alcoholic ginger beer, I just finished a batch that's my best yet. Building on others' subsequent comments (and more foraging through the forum), here are my changes from my orig recipe above.
- no more cream of tartar. It had no purpose.
- cayenne bumped to 1/2 tsp+ to stand up to the sweeter FG I want (1.024-1.026 at bottling). 1 tsp of cayenne would be a solid, hot ginger beer.
- added 1/2 tsp high quality vanilla just for smoothness; added the zest of 1 lemon to the boil
- 1/2 cup each of lemon and lime, 1/4 cup pineapple juice, added after splarging to 5 gallons.
- Upped sugar almost 50% to 2700g total. This brought the OG to 1.05-1.052. Added sugar after flameout. Also, used ~80% organic cane and ~20% turbinado for a much yellower brew.
- fermented for 106 hours down to 1.024. Bottled for a day, until plastic test bottles were hard, then chilled. ABV was 3.99% before bottling. Likely 4.5% by the time it went into the fridge.

After 24 hrs of refrigeration, it's damn delicious. Sweet and spicy and highly drinkable. It's less sweet than crabbie's (which I couldn't imagine drinking more than one of), with different aromatics. But yeah, this one's the winner so far. And there's probably enough left over sweetness to go higher ABV while still tasting good. But 1.05 down to 1.024 for 4-5% seems to be the best combo I've found so far.

One other thing I've picked up since beginning down this road with sugary ferments is that the fermentation doesn't stop in the fridge, even at my fridge's lowest setting. It slows down significantly, but with all that sugar and the resilient champagne yeast, there's still activity going on (as evidenced by some 3 week chilled, overcarbbed bottles). So I've been putting the "back of the fridge" beers in a bit early in anticipation that they'll mature over the next couple weeks. Those beers I intend to drink sooner, I leave out for another few extra hours to fully carb before refrigerating. The more you know, and so on.

 

[idgawomp]

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.

 

[ProfessorWoland]

How did it come out?

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.

 

[gingerman]

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.

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!

 

[sneakymeade]

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!

 

[idgawomp]

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!

 

[ProfessorWoland]

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.

 

[idgawomp]

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.

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

 

[ProfessorWoland]

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

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.

 

[Likefully]

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.

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.

 

[gingerman]

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.

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.