Ginger Beer

[HenryPicoBrewery]

Hey guys, I know this may be heresy on a Beer forum, but I have been brewing non-alcoholic ginger beer for about three months now.
I have a problem with loosing some carbonation during the bottling process, so I started to look into how home brewers carbonate their beer and I saw you guys just put a little extra sugar in the mixture just before bottling and let the mixture carbonate in the bottles.
So, my question is, what is the first fermenting period for? is it for flavor or mostly alcohol?
I'm trying to decide how to keep more carbonation without making my drink too alcoholic.

Thanks,
Jackson

 

[burninator]

What are you using for carbonation? Yeast? Ginger bug? Lactobacillus?

 

[bobeer]

Have you checked out the soda forums yet?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=95

Might have some further info in there.

 

[HenryPicoBrewery]

I have been using yeast. I haven't heard of those other things you mentioned

 

[seagondollar]

Hey guys, I know this may be heresy on a Beer forum, but I have been brewing non-alcoholic ginger beer for about three months now.
I have a problem with loosing some carbonation during the bottling process, so I started to look into how home brewers carbonate their beer and I saw you guys just put a little extra sugar in the mixture just before bottling and let the mixture carbonate in the bottles.
So, my question is, what is the first fermenting period for? is it for flavor or mostly alcohol?
I'm trying to decide how to keep more carbonation without making my drink too alcoholic.

Thanks,
Jackson

What recipe are you using for your ginger beer?

 

[burninator]

When I use yeast for my ginger beer, I don't allow any fermentation time at all. It's straight into plastic bottles for priming. Once the bottles are tight, they go into the refrigerator.

 

[HenryPicoBrewery]

What recipe are you using for your ginger beer?

Makes 4L

Ginger Syrup:
1 cup water
just under 2 cups of brown sugar
no more than 1 tbs honey
Zest 1 lemon
1.5 cinnamon stick
about 6 tbs ginger

low heat until all the sugar is dissolved

finishing up:

ginger syrup
14 cups of water
6 tbs of lemon juice
1/4 tsp of brewers yeast

put all of that in a plastic bottle, then let it ferment for 4 days, then put it in the fridge for about 1 week, then strain it and serve or strain and put in bottles. But the problem is that I loose carbonation there, so I may just go straight to priming in single serving bottles

 

[burninator]

So you're wanting the ginger beer to be alcoholic, is that right?

I'd consider straining first. Allow it to steep long enough to extract all the flavor you need before transferring to your bottle(s).

 

[Thanks_Yeasties]

You are letting them carb up, then chilling them, opening a large bottle and straining it into individual serve bottles?


If this is a correct understanding you are losing the carbonation when opening and straining. You could leave the individual serve bottles out after straining until they harden up again and you should be at the right carbonation level.

You may notice a reduced sweetness as the yeast is going to consume some more of your sugars, so you could add a bit more to compensate for this if you would like.