Ginger beer please!

[Moonshae]

I've made a number of ginger beer sodas, and I like the ginger flavor to be hot and forward. You can tweak the sugar to make it more or less sweet and the ginger to make it more or less hot.

2 lbs fresh ginger, sliced (with or without the skin; with the skin results in a slightly darker brew but won't affect flavor)
5-15 cups cane sugar
1 whole lime, sliced into wheels
1 stick of cinnamon
1 tsp fresh allspice, crushed
1 tsp cream of tartar

Bring 5.5 gallons of water to a gentle boil, add the cream of tartar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and lime (a grain bag works great for easy removal). After 60 mins, cut the heat, remove the bag of spices/ginger/lime pieces, add the sugar, and stir until it is all dissolved. Cool, keg, and force carb.

 

[jfalk]

I was thinking of that as well. How did it work out?

For carbonation (of test batches) . . . I'm thinking what might work good is a seltzer bottle like this one . . . I already have one of these and they run about $50. Probably not worth it if you'd only use it for testing soda recipes, but if you also happen to enjoy making drinks that call for seltzer water (e.g. mojitos) it might be worth it.

 

[saramc]

Try this for your base (1 liter, multiply for larger batches of course):
1. liter water or 28/32 fluid ounces
2. 120-180 grams or 1 cup sugar (experiment with sugar types)
3. 4 grams ginger or 1 teaspoon
4. 1 gram cream of tartar or 1/4 teaspoon.
5. Slice of fresh lemon or tsp of lemon juice
And you would traditionally use your GBP at this time, but since you want to force carbonate you don't add you GBP, or ferment....so beyond this point I cannot make any suggestions. Good luck and keep us posted!!

 

[snccoulter]

The zombies are back to collect their thread. ...
I gave this a try today, well I loosely followed the directions. 2lbs of ginger, 2 small limes, 1 lemon, some cinnamon, 10 cups sugar, some cream of tartar, some all spice and some all spice chunks. took a taste of it as I was poring it in the keg. It tasted good. I have it under 40lbs for a few days and will see it how it tastes. If it is a loss oh well it was fun playing with...

 

[Jeffries55]

The zombies are back to collect their thread. ...
I gave this a try today, well I loosely followed the directions. 2lbs of ginger, 2 small limes, 1 lemon, some cinnamon, 10 cups sugar, some cream of tartar, some all spice and some all spice chunks. took a taste of it as I was poring it in the keg. It tasted good. I have it under 40lbs for a few days and will see it how it tastes. If it is a loss oh well it was fun playing with...

Definitely curious as to how it turns out! I've been trying to come up with other stuff to keg, and I love ginger beer!

 

[ATXmusic85]

The zombies are back to collect their thread. ...
I gave this a try today, well I loosely followed the directions. 2lbs of ginger, 2 small limes, 1 lemon, some cinnamon, 10 cups sugar, some cream of tartar, some all spice and some all spice chunks. took a taste of it as I was poring it in the keg. It tasted good. I have it under 40lbs for a few days and will see it how it tastes. If it is a loss oh well it was fun playing with...

And how did this one turn out? What do you think?

 

[Leblais]

I plan on trying this soon... I will probably add in some peppercorns. Can anyone tell me what the cream of tartar is for?

I've made a number of ginger beer sodas, and I like the ginger flavor to be hot and forward. You can tweak the sugar to make it more or less sweet and the ginger to make it more or less hot.

2 lbs fresh ginger, sliced (with or without the skin; with the skin results in a slightly darker brew but won't affect flavor)
5-15 cups cane sugar
1 whole lime, sliced into wheels
1 stick of cinnamon
1 tsp fresh allspice, crushed
1 tsp cream of tartar

Bring 5.5 gallons of water to a gentle boil, add the cream of tartar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and lime (a grain bag works great for easy removal). After 60 mins, cut the heat, remove the bag of spices/ginger/lime pieces, add the sugar, and stir until it is all dissolved. Cool, keg, and force carb.

 

[Leblais]

ok ... I just made it. Took me about 2 hours in total with cooling process, force carb and cleanup! SO, IMO I would add in about 2 times the ginger and definitely add in 1 tablespoon of uncracked pepper corns (which I did and really liked it). I think 5 cups of brown sugar would be perfect sweetness. I used 5 cups brown and 1 cup white (all i had on hand otherwise I would have used 5 white and 1 brown) but I liked the brown sugar, just a little too sweet for my taste. I ended up using my vitamix to blend up the ginger (unpeeled) with some water. Also, I brought the mixture to a boil then just steeped it. Not sure that makes a difference but I didnt think that boiling it made much sense. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Either way, I think this is a great start !

 

[Rock_Toy]

So, I was just handed a brewing death blow. Turns out that I have chronic liver disease and can't drink alcohol any longer. So I am probably going to sell off all of my brewing equipment and transition to Ginger Beer and maybe Root Beer.

Has anyone on here experimented with flavoring their Ginger Beer? I am guessing that citrus is a no brainer. But how about berries? Should I try using concentrates?

 

[Vaughancider]

Just for fun and for the brew of it, I made a ginger beer for the purpose of making Moscow mules. I wanted to make a gluten free alcoholic ginger beer. Made it simple and it turned out a lot better than I expected.
1lb of minced ginger root in a steeping bag
3lbs of sugar
Champagne yeast.
That's it. Brought it to a boil and let it steep for 30 minutes. Added the sugar, quickly chilled and added the yeast.
Back sweetened after 5wks and force carb in the keg. Was great. I will get more technical as I make more. 5 gallons didn't make it through the Halloween party even with four other beers and ciders on tap.

 

[MrFoodScientist]

So, I was just handed a brewing death blow. Turns out that I have chronic liver disease and can't drink alcohol any longer. So I am probably going to sell off all of my brewing equipment and transition to Ginger Beer and maybe Root Beer.

Has anyone on here experimented with flavoring their Ginger Beer? I am guessing that citrus is a no brainer. But how about berries? Should I try using concentrates?

I rarely do anything with as much bite as a ginger beer, but Schweppes has a raspberry ginger ale that tastes pretty good that I'd like to simulate some day.
Apple goes pretty well with ginger, too. Force carbonating 5 gallons of this is always pretty popular at our house, though it's kind of heavy on the sugar once you consider what's already in the apple juice, so I usually tone it down a bit for the larger batch size. I leave the chunks of ginger in the keg to get more of a ginger bite. Also adding a bottle of RW Knudsen Just Cranberry to the keg makes it perfect for this time of year.

 

[GoodBookBrewer]

So, I was just handed a brewing death blow. Turns out that I have chronic liver disease and can't drink alcohol any longer. So I am probably going to sell off all of my brewing equipment and transition to Ginger Beer and maybe Root Beer.

Has anyone on here experimented with flavoring their Ginger Beer? I am guessing that citrus is a no brainer. But how about berries? Should I try using concentrates?

Sorry to hear about your health issues. A soda brand called Cock'n'Bull makes a Cherry Ginger Beer that is DELICIOUS. It has a sweet cherry flavor up front, and then the fiery ginger bite comes in behind it. Like others said, Schweppe's does raspberry. I've seen cranberry around the holidays. I'll bet pineapple would be good, especially with some cinnamon added in.

 

[buMbLeB]

So, I was just handed a brewing death blow. Turns out that I have chronic liver disease and can't drink alcohol any longer. So I am probably going to sell off all of my brewing equipment and transition to Ginger Beer and maybe Root Beer.

Has anyone on here experimented with flavoring their Ginger Beer? I am guessing that citrus is a no brainer. But how about berries? Should I try using concentrates?

Sorry to hear it. Would you consider liquorice root? If you've not tasted it, don't think of black liquorice (which I love, but it's not like that), think of sweet herbal floral earthiness. As a bonus, I believe it's supposed to be good for your liver, but I'd follow that up on your own - IANA doctor.

But I think those flavours totally go together.