Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer Clone

[jcoxen]

It's been asked before but not really answered so I'll try again...does anyone have a clone recipe for Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer?

 

[guitarzan_1971]

I would love an answer to this question as well. I just bought ingredients yesterday to wing it but I would like a good guideline.

 

[jcoxen]

I would love an answer to this question as well. I just bought ingredients yesterday to wing it but I would like a good guideline.

Can you post your recipe? And please post updates on how things progress.

 

[Dandolf]

Ha, I was looking for a recipe today as well. I found this recipe on another forum:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3826

5 Gallons:
1kg Fresh grated ginger
5tsp Dried ground ginger
1tsp Cream of tartar
2 lemons
2 limes
2.5kg Sugar
2tsp Yeast nutrient
1 sachet champagne yeast

Translated that's 2.2# ginger & 5.5# sugar. I guess just cane sugar...
That seems like a lot.

His OG was 1045 and his FG was 0994

I think it will end up with a stronger ginger flavor and a lot hotter than crabbie's.

The cream of tartar is suppose to bring out the "zing" of the ginger.

 

[Dandolf]

I'm not really too concerned about making a clone of Crabbie's. I'd rather have an alcoholic version of Reed's extra ginger beer.

This is what I think I'm going to do for a 5 gallon batch:

• 2.5 pounds Fresh Ginger ground up in a blender or food processor
• 1tsp Cream of tartar
• 2 lemons cut up
• 2 limes cut up
• 3.5 pounds of Cane Sugar

30 minute boil

• 1 pound of honey @ flame-out

I think I'll boil using 1.5-2 gallons water and add cool water to the carboy to make 5 gallons @ 80F

I also might add the honey into the carboy when the mixture isn't too hot. I heard that 115F is the ideal temp to add honey. If it's too hot all the unique honey flavors go away so that it's basically the same as adding cheap sugar.

I'm going to leave all the ginger and everything in the carboy and rack to secondary once the fermentation is done.

I'm planning on dry pitching with Red Star Premier Cuvée yeast.

 

[Dandolf]

I'll be bottle carbonating using priming sugar, so this will end up being dry and not sweet.

If you can keg carbonate you can add sugar if you want it sweet.

 

[guitarzan_1971]

I used pretty much the same ingredients you guys did.

1.5 lbs ginger ( only a four gallon batch and I'm not going for hot I want it to be pleasant.)

4 tsp dry ginger
1 tsp vanilla to mellow it out further
Juice and zest of 2 lemons and 2 limes. I didn't cut them up I was concerned about off flavors from the peel.
2 teaspoon cinnamon. It's close to ginger in flavor and I figured I would try it.
1 tsp nutmeg
3 1/4 cup honey
6 cups white cane sugar

I am new with the hydrometer so readings may be off but I got an OG of 1.6

Don't kill me I am new and this is my first time not using an extract kit!

Here use where I am undecided. Not sure if I want to:

A) Ferment it dry and backsweeten with xylitol or lactose to taste then bottle carb with sugar. I figure it will hit 6-8% if I let it go. Might even be ok just like that

B) Ferment till it tastes right but still has sweetness and bottle carb with the residual sugar left in it.

What do you guys think?

 

[Dandolf]

I am new with the hydrometer so readings may be off but I got an OG of 1.6

An OG of 1.06 doesn't sound too crazy looking at your recipe. Remember that most hydrometers are only accurate at 60F. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Hydrometer

A) Ferment it dry and backsweeten with xylitol or lactose to taste then bottle carb with sugar. I figure it will hit 6-8% if I let it go. Might even be ok just like that

B) Ferment till it tastes right but still has sweetness and bottle carb with the residual sugar left in it.

I have no experience with Xylitol or lactose. But here's a thread discussing it. Apparently cider makers use it for backsweetening. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/xylitol-does-not-kill-beer-yeast-72379/index2.html
I've made ciders and meads, but mostly stick to grain beers...

If it finishes at around 1.00 you'll have about 8% http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

Fermenting will eat up all the sugars pretty quickly and I think stalling the yeast could be a little tricky... I think winemakers use campden tablets to stop fermentation.
The problem with having sugar left over is that you're in danger of ending up with bottle bombs. The yeast will convert all the left over sugar into C02 and the pressure will be too great. The caps will fail and a gushing foam fountain will make a terrible mess; worse yet the glass bottles will fail.

You'd have to carefully measure everyday, if not more, until your gravity reaches a point you know you won't have a problem with bottle bombs. I'm not sure what gravity you'd be looking for.

If you want it sweet and you're going to bottle carbonate, the only solution I see is adding sugar to the glass before you drink it. Also, if 8% is too strong you could always dilute it with water. It would probably be best to boil it first and let it cool.

 

[jcoxen]

I've started a 1 gallon batch using a basic recipe that I came up with from reading the Alcoholic Ginger Beer thread the the GingerAle thread. I'll start there and modify as needed.

1 Gallon water
2/3 lb fresh ginger chopped in a food processor
1/2 cup Turbinado sugar
Juice of 1 lemon plus zest
Juice of 1 lime plus zest
Red Star Champagne Yeast

Bring water, sugar and ginger to a boil, turn off heat.
Add zest and steep for 1 hour.
Add juice and strain into fermenter.
Cool overnight and pitch yeast.

Makes 1 gallon

 

[jcoxen]

I've started a 1 gallon batch using a basic recipe that I came up with from reading the Alcoholic Ginger Beer thread the the GingerAle thread. I'll start there and modify as needed.

1 Gallon water
2/3 lb fresh ginger chopped in a food processor
1/2 cup Turbinado sugar
Juice of 1 lemon plus zest
Juice of 1 lime plus zest
Red Star Champagne Yeast

Bring water, sugar and ginger to a boil, turn off heat.
Add zest and steep for 1 hour.
Add juice and strain into fermenter.
Cool overnight and pitch yeast.

Makes 1 gallon

This got me a nice, active fermentation and then everything settled out over about a week. I racked it to a couple of 2 Liter bottles last night. I'm going to backsweeten one with simple syrup and leave the other alone.

 

[matticus1181]

How'd the recipe turn out. Any of the recipes...

 

[jcoxen]

How'd the recipe turn out. Any of the recipes...

I did a small batch and ended up with 2 two-liter bottles of it which i promptly stuck in the fridge. Right after bottling mine frankly wasn't too good. It was too hot and had a harsh aftertaste.

About a week ago my wife poured herself a glass. The harsh aftertaste was gone and what we had was a very dry ginger beer. Apparently it had continued to ferment even in the fridge.

She added some simple syrup to hers - we keep it around for mojitos, etc - and it was fantastic. Not Crabbie's but pretty darn tasty...especially for a first try.

At this point I'm planning to make another batch with the same recipe, wait for it to age/smooth out and then kill off the yeast and back-sweeten to taste. Once I have that process ironed out I'll start tightening up the recipe to make it more like Crabbie's.

 

[matticus1181]

nice, it seems like the back-sweetening process is the most important and difficult part to making one of these. I'm going to try and make one this weekend.

 

[kurds_2408]

Any more word on this jcoxen? Planning on making your recipe tonight. Is cooling overnight necessary? Was thinking primary for two weeks then bottle. I'm planning on back sweetening with a non fermentable sugar and then bottle conditioning with with priming sugar so I can hopefully get something close to crabbies that's sweet and carbed in the bottle. Thanks.

 

[jcoxen]

Any more word on this jcoxen? Planning on making your recipe tonight. Is cooling overnight necessary? Was thinking primary for two weeks then bottle. I'm planning on back sweetening with a non fermentable sugar and then bottle conditioning with with priming sugar so I can hopefully get something close to crabbies that's sweet and carbed in the bottle. Thanks.

I've not had a chance to make another batch yet so nothing new to report.

I cooled overnight simply because it was the easiest way I had to chill a 1 gallon batch - my IC is way too big and I didn't want to rick hot liquid in a glass jug in a water bath.

Definitely check gravity to see if fermentation is done before you back-sweeten and bottle. Don't rely on airlock activity or time in fermenter. Sooner or later that'll get you bottle bombs.

Next batch I'm going to back sweeten and then pasteurize. That'll cover me even if I'm wrong and fermentation isn't completely done.

Good luck and let us know how it turned out. You know, do a better job of follow-up than I've done.

 

[Trillium]

Don't shoot, I don't see any new post on this topic, and this thread isn't that old.

I think you are way off track if trying to clone Crabbie's Ginger beer. If you read the ingredient label it pretty much tells you the recipe. The hard part if figuring out the proportions.

1) Carbonated Water
2) Sugar
3) Alcohol
4) Grape juice concentrate
5) Citric acid
6) Caramel (colour)
7) FLAVOUR (including ginger extracts)
8) Yeast <dead or alive???, maybe it's marmite>
9) a bunch of chemicals apparently used since 1801

I am 100% sure that this is not a fermented product. They list alcohol as an ingredient, so it's not a product of fermentation. It's basically just vodka, lime and ginger beer soda aka Moscow Mule.

You could reverse engineer it. De-carbonate it and measure the gravity to determine sugar content, take the PH to figure out how much citric acid to add, but adjust for grape juice acidity. Everything else is guess work.

 

[jcoxen]

Don't shoot, I don't see any new post on this topic, and this thread isn't that old.

I think you are way off track if trying to clone Crabbie's Ginger beer. If you read the ingredient label it pretty much tells you the recipe. The hard part if figuring out the proportions.

1) Carbonated Water
2) Sugar
3) Alcohol
4) Grape juice concentrate
5) Citric acid
6) Caramel (colour)
7) FLAVOUR (including ginger extracts)
8) Yeast <dead or alive???, maybe it's marmite>
9) a bunch of chemicals apparently used since 1801

I am 100% sure that this is not a fermented product. They list alcohol as an ingredient, so it's not a product of fermentation. It's basically just vodka, lime and ginger beer soda aka Moscow Mule.

You could reverse engineer it. De-carbonate it and measure the gravity to determine sugar content, take the PH to figure out how much citric acid to add, but adjust for grape juice acidity. Everything else is guess work.

I'm not gonna shoot. You could very well be right. The Crabbie's website says, "Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer is carefully crafted from a recipe using ginger shipped from the Far East which is cold steeped for up to six weeks and then combined with four secret ingredients to produce its deep, deliciously spicy flavor." So it's entirely possible that it's nothing more than infused neutral spirit.

But where's the fun in that?

 

[burninator]

I'm not gonna shoot. You could very well be right. The Crabbie's website says, "Crabbie’s Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer is carefully crafted from a recipe using ginger shipped from the Far East which is cold steeped for up to six weeks and then combined with four secret ingredients to produce its deep, deliciously spicy flavor." So it's entirely possible that it's nothing more than infused neutral spirit.

But where's the fun in that?

Keep in mind it may also contain capsaicin, which is a common additive for ginger beer makers who want to save money and time by cutting back on ginger.

 

[Trillium]

Good point, maybe that's why they bolded Flavour on the ingredient list

 

[guitarzan_1971]

Interesting. When I started I was using the idea of Crabbies as a baseline as my wife likes it. I agree making it as a non fermented product would be no fun at all. I also started out not wanting to force carb. I wanted to make it old school. Since then I no longer aspire to make anything nearly as sweet as Crabbies. I have found that by adding the acidity of the lemon and lime a product fermented completely dry can be quite tasty.
That being said my!first try s outlined in this thread came out very dry and after it aged for a few months my wife seems to like it quite well. Next batch I may up the acidity even more and add in some Chinese ginger I have found on the shelf at my local grocery. I may also brew an IPA and combine them for what they call a GPA or ginger pale ale. I have pondered combining with hard cider or even a hopped hard cider as well.

 

[Trillium]

I was reading up on how Ginger beer is made. You start off with making a Ginger Bug. Yes bug, it sounds kind of scary and it is. You shred organic ginger, mix it with water and sugar and then let it sit on the counter until it naturally ferments. Apparently with wild yeast and Lacto bacteria. You then use this as the starter for making Ginger beer.

 

[burninator]

I was reading up on how Ginger beer is made. You start off with making a Ginger Bug. Yes bug, it sounds kind of scary and it is. You shred organic ginger, mix it with water and sugar and then let it sit on the counter until it naturally ferments. Apparently with wild yeast and Lacto bacteria. You then use this as the starter for making Ginger beer.

That's approximately how I make it, but you won't get an alcoholic beverage using that method. The dominant fermentation byproduct will be lactic acid.

 

[jcoxen]

That's approximately how I make it, but you won't get an alcoholic beverage using that method. The dominant fermentation byproduct will be lactic acid.

There are non-alcoholic Ginger Beer recipes on the net that read more like Kombucha or natural vinegar than beer. For instance - http://www.instructables.com/id/The-REAL-ginger-beer-recipe/. I don't know any way to make one of those alcoholic short of just pouring in grain alcohol so as far as I can see we're back to either fermenting (as in beer) or infusing.

 

[burninator]

There are non-alcoholic Ginger Beer recipes on the net that read more like Kombucha or natural vinegar than beer. For instance - http://www.instructables.com/id/The-REAL-ginger-beer-recipe/. I don't know any way to make one of those alcoholic short of just pouring in grain alcohol so as far as I can see we're back to either fermenting (as in beer) or infusing.

I've made ginger beer with yeast before, but fermentation was only used to carbonate, not to add (much) alcohol. Theoretically, you could employ processes common to cider making by sweetening to the SG you're seeking, allowing the yeast to do it's thing, and then adding more sugar, carbing, and pasteurizing.

For me, part of the allure of a lacto-fermented ginger beer is being able to break some out at the dinner table and pour everyone a glass, so I like my current process.

I think the idea of making beer and then adding a ginger tea is interesting, though.

 

[kurds_2408]

Just thought I'd give an update on my ginger beer. I followed jcoxen's recipe, thanks so much man. I let it ferment for 2 weeks. Then to try something different I back sweetened to taste with Xylitol, which is non fermentable, and bottle conditioned it. In two weeks I popped one open, perfectly carbbed. It tastes almost exactly like crabbies. I had them side by side and mine was a little spicier and not quite as sweet but really close. I could make it right on with more back sweetener. The color is different but Crabbies says on the bottle they add coloring. This is gonna be a regular in my house cause it's so easy to make. Thanks jcoxen.

 

[skepticalbrewer]

I know this is a dead thread but I'm hoping someone will chime in.

So I have the crazy idea of using a high temperature mash (about 160F) to provide unfermentable sugars as a way of "backsweetening" as well as some of the sugar for the main body of the ginger beer.

I am curious how much backsweetening people have done with xylitol or lactose.

 

[Pscdouglas]

I'm trying my hand at this. While I don't expect this to be the spitting image of Crabbies, my goal is to get something equally as drinkable with a little higher alcohol content, a clean but malty body, fresh and firm ginger flavor, and plenty of carbonation. I think it should end up being close but the interplay between the ginger and carbonation will be a chore to nail down. Also probably going to have to wrestle with some sort of back sweetening but we'll see.

The base recipe:

8 lbs Pilsner
4 lbs Vienna
2 lbs Rye

2.33 oz Select Spalt, leaf (backyard 2015) 60 Min

Czech BudeJovice Lager WLP802

I brewed this today to 6 gal of 1.063 wort. That little extra might come in handy to dial in the front end sweetness, if it is needed.

I plan to ferment like a normal lager to 1.015 or so, and then add a "honey tea" of the fresh grated ginger and a few lemons. I'll heat up the honey and steep increasing amounts of ginger until i feel like the right.

I'll try to remember to update this thread with some pics as it progresses. I think this should be just swell. Whataboutyou?

 

[Trillium]

I made a near identical Crabbies Clone.
75% Ginger Ale
25% Jamican Ginger Beer
and one ounce Vodka.

 

[Pscdouglas]

Heating up 1.5 cups of honey with 100g of freshly grated ginger in it. It sat in the honey at room temperature for a day already. Its pretty mild. I'll try to keep it around 125 F to keep the flavor from burning off. Should I dose the "tea" with meta before I add it to the primary? or do you think it will be fine? Gotta buy some lemons...

 

[Pscdouglas]

So This was bottled and carbed up nicely, he Ginger flavor is pretty subtle, not sure if its because my ginger was grated or if I just needed more of it. I will double the amount in the next batch. It's a great beer and will be swell in the heat of the summer, assuming the ginger flavor doesn't significantly fade. It's like a great pils but with that ginger flavor that is in ginger ale. Not heavy but slightly sweet, grainy. I forgot about the lemons when I did the steep, but I sliced one up to serve on the glass and it really makes a big difference. I need to remember that