Anyone have a good Ginger beer recipe

[i4ourgot]

Just looking for something simple ginger, water, sugar, and yeast.

 

[balrog]

I've been looking myself and so far have come across mostly beer w ginger in them, like this one. Perhaps your search fu is stronger, and I wish you luck.

 

[canehdianman]

This is my recipe.

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/2102055/red-head-au-pair-ginger-beer

Going to start trying some different additions, but the base recipe is here.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Ginger beer is not a beer flavored with ginger. it's a type of soft drink that can be made as an alcoholic beverage.

[EDIT]https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/homemade-ginger-beer-357980
https://selfreliantschool.com/how-to-brew-alcoholic-ginger-beer/
perhaps https://duckduckgo.com/ will help your Google Fu. [/EDIT]

 

[jmcquesten]

Are you looking for a fermented alcoholic drink or a strong (non-alcoholic) ginger ale type soft drink/soda?

 

[jmarkkaufman]

What would one call an ale or lager flavored with ginger? If unhopped could it be classified as a Gruit, or would that be reserved for the specific Gruit spice blends? Would one say Pilsner/porter/brown ale etc spiced with ginger? I’m interested because Every time I talk about any of the beverages referred to as ginger beer (accurately or not) I feel the need to explain the differences.

 

[Blacksmith1]

honestly I don't know. and after rereading my response you have my apologies, that comes across much harsher than intended.
Now off to see if I can find an answer to your question (tho you might ask in the beer section of this forum.)

 

[Blacksmith1]

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=alcoholic+ginger+beer&atb=v143-4__&ia=recipes
a couple links to articles that apply. apparently it's just considered a spiced beer. If there is a name for those I don't know. I'm a conservative beer drinker, no fruit or any other foreign substances allowed. And it better be darker than I can piss.....

 

[jmcquesten]

What would one call an ale or lager flavored with ginger? If unhopped could it be classified as a Gruit, or would that be reserved for the specific Gruit spice blends? Would one say Pilsner/porter/brown ale etc spiced with ginger? I’m interested because Every time I talk about any of the beverages referred to as ginger beer (accurately or not) I feel the need to explain the differences.

Maybe a spiced ale or spiced beer? I don't know for sure, but I think of "Ginger Beer" as a strongly flavored/spicey ginger ale type soda. Something like Reed's Extra Ginger Beer.
http://reedsinc.com/product/reeds-extra-ginger-brew/

Now if it's a hard ginger ale recipe (only ginger, water, sugar, and yeast with no grain, fermented for alcohol), I would not call it a spiced beer. Maybe that would be called alcoholic ginger beer.

 

[jmarkkaufman]

I think we are on the right track here. Thinking about making a ginger Pilsner myself. I also love Reeds, the extra ginger variety. And I am intrigued by the alcoholic ginger beer. I will cease to refer to a beer that has ginger in it as ginger beer [emoji41]

 

[jmcquesten]

I do have a good non-alcoholic ginger beer soda recipe. It was kegged and force carbonated and didn't use any yeast. Similar to Reed's, but I haven't quite cloned it. I occasionally make a small keg of it to have something different to drink.

 

[jmarkkaufman]

Any chance you would be willing to share the recipe?

 

[jmcquesten]

Any chance you would be willing to share the recipe?

Yes. I'll try to post it later tonight.

 

[kurds_2408]

I can't get to the recipe right now. But I have a recipe for an alcoholic ginger beer. Like the soda type with no malt. Uses sugar and champagne yeast. I back sweeten it with Xylotol so it's sweet and alcoholic but without the potential for bottle bombs. It tastes pretty close to Crabbies. I haven't made it in a while but will see if I can track down the recipe

 

[i4ourgot]

Sorry not a lot of internet. This is what I ended up doing.
.75 lbs per gallon of sugar. I did 1.5 lbs of ginger for a 5 gallon batch. Added champagne yeast letting it sit for about two weeks.

 

[i4ourgot]

Going for alcohol I think this will turn out to be about 6 percent ish.

 

[D.Freeman]

https://www.homebrewsupply.com/learn/make-alcoholic-ginger-ale.html

I made this one this summer and it turned out pretty good. I upped the ginger and limes to give it some extra bite. I bottle carbed and after about a month in he bottle it tasted great for about a 5-6 weeks then seamed to start going down hill. Not bad but just not as good. I still have some now and it has seamed to level out and isn’t getting worse. Still very drinkable. Fermentation temp may have been a little high being summer as well for the S04 I used. Next time I might make a half batch since the ginger was a little strong for the wife and I am drinking all five gallons. It’s a tough life. Hope this helps!!

 

[theinterneti]

5 gallon batch -- A hard ginger "Beer" with no hops or malt.
-----------------

2 lbs Diced ginger
5 lbs Organic cane sugar (or half white half brown sugar)
5 ct Limes
(fill to) 5 gallons with (pre-boiled) water
yeast nutrient -- follow mfgr instrns
yeast -- clean fermenting yeast, s-04, US-05 (champagne yeasts are often suggested) follow mfgr instrns

Boil 5 gallons of water.
Stir in sugar and yeast nutrient until well dissolved.
Once the sugar is dissolved add the ginger root, lime zest, and lime juice.
Steep for 15 minutes.
Cool to pitching temp
Strain the mixture into primary fermenter and top off to 5 gallons.
OG should be about 1.045.
Aerate
pitch selected yeast.
Ferment for 2 weeks, you should have reached a FG of around 0.996 and you’re ready to backsweeten.

I crafted this recipe based on a few I found around. I've done it twice.

Most of the lime seems to ferment out for whatever reason.

The first time I used about 75% more ginger, 2 serrano chilis, and I didn't strain it. It was a bit much and the unstrained ginger left a earthy/root flavor. Not really enjoyable on it's own, but GREAT for "Moscow" drinks using equal parts booze, ginger beer and sour mix.

Second batch was exactly this recipe. Sadly I did it before I started kegging and (fearing bottle bombs) I didn't backsweeten. These are drinkable straight from the bottle but would be real winners if they were a bit more sour and good deal sweet.

I will try backsweetening with limeaide concentrate when I next make this. Gotta add that to the brew plan.

 

[bleme]

This is my ginger soda recipe. I keg and force-carb to drink either alone or with vodka. I don't see why you couldn't add nutrient and yeast to ferment it though. Personally, I'll stick with the vodka route though.

 

[MMBB]

I've made two batches of ginger beer so far and my last one was the most successful. I've had terrible luck with bottle pasteurizing so I elected to ferment dry, stabilize chemically, and back sweeten.

13oz of fresh ginger, grated
5 lemons, halved
5lbs of white sugar
1 packet of Safale S-04
4g spring water

~1g of water into a pot.
Squeeze lemons into the pot and drop in the halves
Add ginger to pot

Bring to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes and let cool to pitching temp.

Transfer to fermenter via funnel that has a screen and pour water through the ginger until there are 4 gallons in the fermenter and add yeast.

I let this ferment until dry. I did not have a way to cold crash as my fermenter won't fit in my fridge. I let it sit for an extra week so most of the yeast dropped out.

I transferred the ginger beer to a keg and stabilized using:
1.9 grams of potassium metabisulfite
8.2g of potassum sorbate at least 12 hours after adding metabisulfite

Let sit for ~2 days to ensure that everything is stabilized.

I wish that I still had my notes on back sweetening but I somehow misplaced them. I added in probably 2.5lbs of sugar and enough make up water to get to 5 gallons. I carbonated to 3 volumes but sadly most of the CO2 came out during bottling. I've got a counter pressure filler on the way to hopefully avoid this next time around.

I am going to do this again, albeit in a smaller batch, and take better notes. I'd also add yeast nutrient as it took S-04 a TON of time to chew through the sugar. I'm talking in the neighborhood of fiveish weeks. This might also have something to do with pH as well. I'm betting the lemons lowered the pH by quite a bit. Leaving out 1g of water to dissolve the back sweetning sugar probably isn't necessary given I'm shaking the hell out of the keg at the start of force carbination anyway.


I do have a few questions though.

Has anyone used a masticating juicer instead of using blended/shredded fresh sugar and stabilized the juice with campden? I'd like to compare the flavor of ginger beer that hasn't seen any heat vs. making a ginger tea.

Is there any advantage to adding the lemon juice before fermentation as opposed to after? That may also help the yeast so it doesn't take 1+ month to ferment.