Ginger Beer

[Brindles]

I'm about to start the process of developing a traditional homebrewed Ginger Beer. With big breweries getting on the band waggon and wowing new beer drinkers with light American beers with a twist of lime or a white beer and orange draped over the glass. I am convinced ginger beer and real wheat beers fermented on real fruit is what I want to enjoy on a hot summer afternoon after mowing the lawn. For example over the years I have been refining a Sour Cherry Wheat beer using the Evan cherries that grow in Edmonton that I am rather fond of.

Crabbies is a commercial example for Ginger beer that is nice but I find it too sweat for my pallet. Alley Kat In Edmonton Alberta Canada made an amazing light dry refreshing example a couple of years ago which is more of the style I want to create. In fact the owner Neil gave me some pointers which I plan to execute this weekend

The first plan is to start with a Frech Saison recipe (i just happen to have a smack pack of Wyeast that i want to use up) and then post condition with juiced ginger. Recipe will follow once perfected

Anybody else out there that wants to add input, experience or just wants to be part of the move towards more "Real Ginger Ale" in the world, please participate in this thread

Guy

 

[Wreck99]

Earlier this year I made a Ginger Wheat beer that everyone loved. Subscribed, keep the updates coming!

 

[xeoxe]

I'm very interested as well...LOVE ginger. And my 2 cents Thick skin ginger is spicier and a little bit of hot pepper (maybe in the mash/boil) would help bring out some ginger zing.

 

[timduncan200021]

I to love people of red headed descent and I love beer. Count me in for the beer and ginger movement!!

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I just kicked a keg of this

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f76/ginger-ale-3rd-place-2009-hbt-bjcp-comp-141080/

Its amazing, its basically a lightly hopped Pale lawnmower beer...with just over 10oz of Ginger it definitely has a VERY pronounced ginger taste...if you like Ginger you will like it.

Its very refreshing.

Also i will save you the time, make sure you bag all the ginger you add to your secondary.
I didnt have a bag handy and just tossed it in, horrible idea. I lost probably half a gallon because my siphon kept getting clogged and it kept sucking air so i stopped.

 

[Brindles]

I love to hear the words LawnMower Beer. If it is the one I know so well it would be the Wheatbeer recipe from 7 Barrels. A yearly delight that never goes wrong. In addition to the Ginger movement as mentioned above the sour cherry beer that comprises of one Lawnmower brew fermented after cool down on 2 Kg's of sour cherries (Evan Cherries to be exact).

I digress

The outcome of my first attempt was good but can always be better. I plan to repeat but try some kind of golden lager and possibly a lawnboy wheat Ale time permitting. I felt I needed a wee bit more malt profile to offset the sharpness of the ginger.

In regards to ginger additions I must share my experience based on advice from the Owner of AlleyKat Brewery in Edmonton.

Instead adding grated or chopped up ginger which sounds a bit messy as mentioned above, I went the route of juiced ginger. Ginger is not the easiest to juice up and has the potential of taking a cheap domestic juicer to the point of meltdown however it makes a whole lot of sense.

My story is I went to my local vegetarian east Indian dosa restaurant that has a giant juicer in the back. I arrived with approx. 1.5 kg’s of ginger root from the local supermarket, sat down, eat my dosa and lentil soup and left with approx. 200 to 300 mils of yellow ginger liquid in a close sterilized pop bottle.

After boil and cool down, I added 75 ml of ginger liquid with the yeast addition. After a week or so of fermenting in a carboy, I added a second 75 ml of ginger. I still had some ginger left and was tempted to just see what pure ginger juice tastes like but thought better of it and threw it away.

After one more week, I kegged the beer and consumed via tap and also I counter pressure bottled a few bottles to pay off my East Indian restaurant owner for future juicing favors.

Glad to hear there are more out there that love real ginger beer.

GB

 

[el_horno]

Actually have a ginger beer at a local brewery the other day and it was quite tasty. I may try to replicate it this summer as well.

 

[Rambunctious]

I have made this several times by creating a starter as described on the following link.

http://mistyhorizon2003.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant

I have simplified the starter by blending a 2oz piece of raw organic ginger with a cooled simple sugar of 4cups water and 4cups sugar. Do not scrub , boil or microwave the raw ginger it is your source of starter yeasts and bacteria.
Once thoroughly blended put under an air lock and aerate at least once daily for the first week it should come to life.

Follow the comments down on this blog my recipe is listed. I have increased the sugars by 1 cup of each table sugar and brown sugar. My last batch had a O.G. of 1.052 and fermented down to 1.020. I have added 2cups priming sugar to the 5 gal batch and bottle in recycled 16 oz plastic soda bottles. Keep in a warm spot for 4weeks and chill for consumption. So far have not had any bottle bombs and get about 4-5% A.B.V. when done.

 

[beersmith88]

I have made this several times by creating a starter as described on the following link.

http://mistyhorizon2003.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant

I have simplified the starter by blending a 2oz piece of raw organic ginger with a cooled simple sugar of 4cups water and 4cups sugar. Do not scrub , boil or microwave the raw ginger it is your source of starter yeasts and bacteria.
Once thoroughly blended put under an air lock and aerate at least once daily for the first week it should come to life.

Follow the comments down on this blog my recipe is listed. I have increased the sugars by 1 cup of each table sugar and brown sugar. My last batch had a O.G. of 1.052 and fermented down to 1.020. I have added 2cups priming sugar to the 5 gal batch and bottle in recycled 16 oz plastic soda bottles. Keep in a warm spot for 4weeks and chill for consumption. So far have not had any bottle bombs and get about 4-5% A.B.V. when done.

Sounds like an awesome recipe. Will have to try this sometime.

Currently I have a gallon batch of ginger beer fermenting. I just made a traditional ginger beer. I am on a major budget so I use the food processor on my ginger root and then steep it during the boil.

Recipe:
12" ginger root
1 lb candy sugar
distilled water
16 oz lemon juice

I boil the candy sugar then steep the processed ginger, and add the lemon last. I pitched champagne yeast to get a drier beer. I need to test it soon to see what the body is like before I add any maltodextrin.

As standard with my brews I will be adding dextrose to prime it and then bottle it.

Made this once before and it was super gingery, but extremely fresh and great for hot summer days. It also makes a great dark and stormy.

 

[Rambunctious]

Just started new batch 8 lbs white granulated sugar, 2lbs dark brown sugar, 2 oranges, 2 lemons, 8 key limes, 16 whole cloves 8oz skinned chopped ginger root, 5.5gal batch total volume. O.G. 1.076 right at the 10% est A.B.V. Mark. Will try to rack off and bottle @ 1.025 and let it finish in the bottle. Using cleaned yeast culture from earlier batch of hard cider presently in bottles to carbonate. Racked them into bottles @ 1.20 started at 1.060

 

[Brindles]

Looking forward to hearing how it turns out. At that kind of strength is it like strong mead where it keeps getting more refined and smooth with age?

 

[Rambunctious]

I have made batches at this A.B.V. before, nowhere as strong as a mead, most meads are 18-20% and are like rocket fuel till aged. This stuff will stay a little sweet and sneak up on you if you are not careful. Just a really strong beer. I have never had any last long enough to age significantly. None has lasted more than three weeks after a three week carbonation hold in bottles. P.S. cleaned sanitized plastic 16 oz soda pop bottles are the bomb for carbonating home brews. Bonus if they become bottle bombs no glass.

 

[elsphinc]

To make real ginger beer you need a GBP (ginger beer plant), a real one not a feed yeast variety. I enjoy ginger and use it daily at the restaurant, grating it on the fine side of a box grater and then squezzing out the juice, i dont like the grainy texture of grated ginger in my fnished dishes. I think ginger flavored beer sounds awesome and plan to add some to a re-brew of my placer county mandarin orange ipa that came out great, albiet a bit powerful, but with a hint of ginger heat and sweet, could be even better.

 

[ProfessorWoland]

This thread is pretty good and it has my experiment (which is starting to taste less weird and will hopefully be great by summertime)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/alcoholic-ginger-beer-91970/

 

[bondra76]

Subscribing to this thread. I am new to brewing, but getting some good ginger beers (yes I'm a redhead and Irish) and Root Beers are my main goals.

After I get going a little bit I plan on trying all kinds of different ginger beer recipes

 

[Rambunctious]

I just racked my 5.5 gal batch of ginger beer. O.G. Was 1.076 now it is at 1.040 still a little too sweet so I will let it go for a while yet before bottling. Taste test it is pretty good will be great when bottled and allowed to carb up. Hoping to have it finish around 1.010-1.015 est. about 7-8%A.B.V. One change I did with this batch was to not use the bark of the ginger when brewing the wort and did not let it ferment for more than the first two weeks with the fruit and spice and ginger in the wort. Used to get a funny smell from the beer when done. It drank well just had a funny smell. Sample tonight crisp clean and refreshing just a little sweet no odd smell.
I agree with a previous comment re real ginger beer plant. I have had good success creating them as described in the link I had previously posted. The method works well and if you light it from below or the side it makes a pretty cool lava lamp. Until need to use it in a big batch of beer.

 

[Rambunctious]

Dark and stormys with this batch of ginger beer were great may have converted a few people.


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[Rambunctious]

I have started a new ginger beer plant. My method uses organic ginger root from the local food store. In a sanitized bowl using a sanitized microplane I grind the untreated, unwashed ginger root 1.5-2oz . This is now transferred into a quart jar 2/3 full with filtered water then add 2tsp white granulated sugar. I cover it with a coffee filter and rubber band to let it breath. Keep it in a warm place out of the way. Then feed it daily additional ground fresh ginger and sugar as described previously. After 5-7 days if the jar is illuminated you will see little bits of the ginger moving about much like a lava lamp of old. This will let you know you have a live G.B.P. I have used this method 3 times and it has always worked. One time I just added all the ingredients that would have been in the final plant into a sanitized blender and just waited it worked but was difficult to use and remove from the final product due to the ginger being pulverized.


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[Rambunctious]

Here is a video of what a living Ginger beer plant looks like.
http://youtu.be/-7UN8i4qsKk


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[Rambunctious]

I have now racked the latest batch to the bottling bucket O.G. 1.076 tested today as 1.045 est A.B.V. ~4%.
I could wait no longer for a dark and stormy. My last batch finished started at 1.076 and finished at 1.040
I thing this will finish the same in the bucket before I bottle or consume it all.


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[PDXNewBrewer]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forums and excited to be able to learn how to brew my own beer.

I decided for my first attempt at fermentation to try simple ginger beer recipe. The plan is to make a "ginger bug" or "ginger plant". I found this recipe for a fairly basic fermentation recipe requiring no special equipment needed.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Ginger-Beer-Alcoholic-Version/?ALLSTEPS

I do have a few questions before i get started, hope I can get some advice to get me going in the right direction.

Firstly, I am wondering what percentage of alcohol this recipe will make? Based from my simple inexperienced understanding of fermentation I gather it is also a variable depending on the amount of sugar used.

Also, instead of using ginger powder, we are using fresh ginger root. It seems like the author of the article doesn't even really know exactly how this process works, suggesting using raisins, claiming they don't exactly know why, other than perhaps wild yeasts?

We don't have any raisins but we do have a bottle of Hansenns Belgian Experimental Raspberry Lambic with about an inch of alcohol, yeasts, and sediment at the bottom. I particularly enjoyed this bottle, and put a cork in it about six months ago in hopes of preserving the bacterial and yeast strains, I checked it today and if anything the amount of yeast and bacteria in the bottle has increased, and it still smells pleasant. Is this something we could possibly introduce to the mixture to create an interesting result or is this asking for disaster?

Also, I would like to hear opinions from you folks about the instructional, if you personally would do it differently, perhaps if you know of a simple recipe like this that we can try without investing in brewing equipment that may work better for us we are open to suggestion. The goal, or should I say hope, is to achieve something with lots of carbonation, and a high alcohol percentage 6% or more, and very DRY.

After this experiment, we are planning to invest in a carboy and basic brewing system if all goes well. Any tips or suggestions, alterations to the recipe all welcome and encouraged. Thanks in advance.

 

[Rambunctious]

I use fresh organic ginger root and follow the process described on the following link.
http://mistyhorizon2003.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant
My last two batches finished at 4-4.5% A.B.V.


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[Brindles]

I just ordered a batch of GBP from the UK I think it is time to experiment as opposed to the comforts of home brewing with malt and reliable yeast


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[bondra76]

I just ordered a batch of GBP from the UK I think it is time to experiment as opposed to the comforts of home brewing with malt and reliable yeast

That's awesome - do you mind sharing your source?

I am watching and testing ginger beers myself. My goal is to make both a Crabbies clone and a non-alcoholic ginger beer.

I'm assuming I could use ginger beer plant for both and just keep on halving it?

 

[Rambunctious]

If you use a ginger beer plant how do you plan on making it non alcoholic? The by products of fermentation create alcohol. Will you distill this to drive out the alcohol and force carb?


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[Brew_Dude41]

So my wife started a batch of ginger beer last week using GBP we got online.
Funny thing is that this is bubbling away inside of the fermenter, but the airlock is actually sucking back? I took the airlock off to reset the pressure, and it is still pulling the liquid up towards the fermenter. Has anyone else seen that before.
I am guessing that we killed the GBP and the bubbling in the jar is just the GBP breaking down. I am not sure what temp it was when she "pitched" the GBP but the jar was quite warm to the touch when i got home.