Bread yeats and Ginger Beer

[aj47]

First of all I'm a complete beginner so exuse my lack of knowledge and abundance of questions on the subject.

Anyway as i'm new to this, I thought I would start off with what looks like a relativley easy ginger beer recipie that I found.
Somewhere in my house I found a big demijohn and a plastic curly tube thing, (think its called an airlock??) is this all I need?
Every recipie I've looked at seems to use either champagne yeast or brewers yeast. Is this purley for taste or otherwise. i.e. would I be able to get away with using bread yeast even if it is horrible.

And finally is it really neccessary to stearalize my containers with chemicals or would boiling water do the trick.

Help would be much appreciated. thanks

 

[BootYtRappeR]

Welcome to the board!
If this is your first brew, you may want to read up a little here.

as for bakers yeast...I would highly discourage using it. I never have and I'm sure most of the brewers here haven't either. But, you could try and let us know how it turns out

 

[sonvolt]

Don't use Baker's Yeast. I think that I read somewhere that in the early days of homebrewing, folks used bread yeast with some fairly bad results. Primarily, this practice was the result of a lack of brewer's yeast supply - folks simply couldn't get it. With the abundance of strains, availability, and affordability, why would you not get an appropriate yeast for your project????

Get some good yeast . . . as it is essential to the flavor of what you are making. If there is no LHBS near you, get it from an online source. If you can't do this, I'm sure that someone on the list would mail you a yeast packet that would work better than baker's yeast.

Now, take that baker's yeast and make some pizza dough so that you'll have a good meal with which to enjoy your first bottle of homebrewed ginger beer.

 

[aj47]

the bread yeast idea was just for convinience as I couldn't find anywhere near me that sold any brewers yeast, but ive ordered some of the internet anyway.

One more question... Once I have bottled it, is it really neccessary to keep it air tight. I have an air lock but I cannot find any info on how to use it etc, most recipies just say you need to cork it or bottle it keeping it complelty air tight?

 

[Lou]

One more question... Once I have bottled it, is it really neccessary to keep it air tight. I have an air lock but I cannot find any info on how to use it etc, most recipies just say you need to cork it or bottle it keeping it complelty air tight?

the airlock is for fermentation. primary fermentation does not take place in bottles. what recipe are you referring to?

 

[Walker]

would I be able to get away with using bread yeast even if it is horrible.

ummm.... why would you want to brew something that tasted horrible?

I might be jumping to conclusions in my head, but.... are you under 21 and just looking for a way to get drunk, regardless of how nasty the alcoholic beverage tastes?

I would be hypocritical if I said you shouldn't drink under 21 (in fact, I think the drinking age law is REDICULOUS). I think I drank in larger volume before I was 21 than after I was 21, so...

Party on, but do yourself a favor and get some actual brewer's yeast.




-walker

 

[aj47]

No I was just wondering if the yeast was primarily for taste or if the differnet strains had a different effect on the fermentation process.

And yes I am under 21, I am 19 but I live in the U.K so I have been able to drink legally for over a year now.

Even though I don't drink it, 99p White lightning is for getting drunk

 

[Walker]

Even though I don't drink it, 99p White lightning is for getting drunk

:rockin:

-walker

 

[aj47]

the airlock is for fermentation. primary fermentation does not take place in bottles. what recipe are you referring to?

http://thefoody.com/drinks/gingerbeer.html

 

[Lou]

http://thefoody.com/drinks/gingerbeer.html

that's awful... like the bootytrapper said, read this: http://howtobrew.com/intro.html

 

[Radarbrew]

I did a batch of Ginger beer for the kids, just screwing around, and we used bread yeast. It wasn't bad, but there was a LOT of carbonation. You gotta open them slow. For god sakes DON'T shoot them with a paintball gun at a distance of less than 20 feet....it was a VERY boring Sunday, and cold outside.

 

[Walker]

I did a batch of Ginger beer for the kids, just screwing around, and we used bread yeast. It wasn't bad, but there was a LOT of carbonation. You gotta open them slow. For god sakes DON'T shoot them with a paintball gun at a distance of less than 20 feet....it was a VERY boring Sunday, and cold outside.

Bored or not, if you shoot your kids with a gun, that's abuse.

-walker

PS:

 

[Radarbrew]

Hey, they drew down on me first...

 

[Walker]

ahhh. self-defense. That's fine then....

 

[aj47]

that's awful... like the bootytrapper said, read this: http://howtobrew.com/intro.html

So to make ginger beer, is it basically the same process as making beer from hops barley etc?

If not could one of you point me in the direction of a good but preferrably simple receipe for ginger beer. Thanks

 

[m_f]

http://thefoody.com/drinks/gingerbeer.html

rootbeer, that's more like rootbeer.

 

[aj47]

hmm what about

http://www.netcooks.com/recipes/Beverages/Dave's.Ginger.Beer.html

 

[BootYtRappeR]

aj47, if you want to make alcoholic ginger water then brew your recipe. It will do something although I can't imagine it will taste very good. But I'm biased-i hate ginger.

give that recipe a whirl...what's the worst that can happen? at least you'll have a little experience with the fermentation process. although you might want to give it a little longer than 24 hours.

 

[aj47]

true but why not get it right the first time anyway

 

[Lou]

aj47, if you want to make alcoholic ginger water then brew your recipe. It will do something although I can't imagine it will taste very good. But I'm biased-i hate ginger.

give that recipe a whirl...what's the worst that can happen? at least you'll have a little experience with the fermentation process. although you might want to give it a little longer than 24 hours.

and maybe get a proper fermenter with lid/airlock instead of using a piece of cloth to cover your fermenter. also, don't strain your beer through an old t-shirt or whatever they suggest...

 

[BootYtRappeR]

true but why not get it right the first time anyway

it's only right if you like the taste.

everytime we brew it's like a science experiment.

 

[aj47]

Ok thanks, again sorry for all these questions but how does this sound....

I carry out the few steps but instead of covering it, I place in a demijohn with an air lock and ferment for a week. Then place the beer in a seprate air tight steralized demijohn and age for another week?.

 

[BootYtRappeR]

Ok thanks, again sorry for all these questions but how does this sound....

I carry out the few steps but instead of covering it, I place in a demijohn with an air lock and ferment for a week. Then place the beer in a seprate air tight steralized demijohn and age for another week?.

sweet! you got it!:rockin:

keep us posted as to how it's coming along

 

[aj47]

lol ok I promise on my life this is the last question..

After fermenting for a week, could I just swap the air lock for a bung instead of placing in a new demi john or does it have to be steralized again?

 

[BootYtRappeR]

Welcome to the board!
If this is your first brew, you may want to read up a little here.

first, you don't want ever plug it up air tight until it's in bottles or kegs.

second, the reason for racking from primary to secondary is to get it off the dead yeasties that have collected on the bottom of the primary. things will continue to settle while in the secondary(usually three weeks for beer). from there you'll want to move it to a bottling bucket or some such for priming (if you want carbonation) and bottling.

the best thing you can do is read as much as you can about brewing.

and don't forget about searching for topics on the board!

 

[Forestgrover]

I swear I have heard someone say that brewing with baker's yeast produces trace amounts of methonal...can anyone confirm this or were they mistaken? I only bring it up since methonal is highly poisonus and can make you go blind.