sharxbyte
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2015
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Been brewing occasionally for the last 5 years or so, and I've recently begun to get more serious about it, and more formulaic.
My general recipe is 2 pints of plant/starter/bug to 4 gallons of water plus ingredients, which comes to almost exactly 5 gallons. I boiled the ginger after mincing it, and made a strong ginger tea, then boiled sugar syrup and mixed the two, cooling it by adding the remainder of the water, and finally adding the plant. This worked reasonably well, and gave great flavor.
initially I brewed them and carbonated them in gallon water jugs or 2 liter soda bottles, but the last batch was the first that I bottled. I've been going without primary fermentation in order to keep the beer sweet and low ABV. It's a bit risky, I know, but I was watching closely, and storing them in a rubbermaid with a towel over the top to help contain any potential bombs. For some reason about half of the batch either failed to carbonate, or took longer, and it could have something to do with the way I cleansed the bottles. I soaked them in hydrogen peroxide, and then ran them through the dishwasher.
This time around, I went ahead and bought a high pressure hose nozzle (little big shot from HD for ~$10) to blast them with, then soaked them in a bleach bath (1 tsp/gallon) for 20 minutes, and finally ran them through the dishwasher. Maybe overkill, but I wanted to be sure I was free from contaminants.
The batch I started last night is:
2 medium-large granny smith apples
2 lemons
1/4 of a lemon peel
(these were all raw, and run through a Champion juicer
4 gallons of water
2 pints of plant (water, ginger, champagne yeast)
4 lbs of brown sugar dissolved in lukewarm water (included in the 4 gallons)
This all went into my new fermenter, which is a 5 gallon camp jug with a cylindrical bubbler.
I'll keep you all updated on the process.
Cheers!
Oh and here's my label:
My general recipe is 2 pints of plant/starter/bug to 4 gallons of water plus ingredients, which comes to almost exactly 5 gallons. I boiled the ginger after mincing it, and made a strong ginger tea, then boiled sugar syrup and mixed the two, cooling it by adding the remainder of the water, and finally adding the plant. This worked reasonably well, and gave great flavor.
initially I brewed them and carbonated them in gallon water jugs or 2 liter soda bottles, but the last batch was the first that I bottled. I've been going without primary fermentation in order to keep the beer sweet and low ABV. It's a bit risky, I know, but I was watching closely, and storing them in a rubbermaid with a towel over the top to help contain any potential bombs. For some reason about half of the batch either failed to carbonate, or took longer, and it could have something to do with the way I cleansed the bottles. I soaked them in hydrogen peroxide, and then ran them through the dishwasher.
This time around, I went ahead and bought a high pressure hose nozzle (little big shot from HD for ~$10) to blast them with, then soaked them in a bleach bath (1 tsp/gallon) for 20 minutes, and finally ran them through the dishwasher. Maybe overkill, but I wanted to be sure I was free from contaminants.
The batch I started last night is:
2 medium-large granny smith apples
2 lemons
1/4 of a lemon peel
(these were all raw, and run through a Champion juicer
4 gallons of water
2 pints of plant (water, ginger, champagne yeast)
4 lbs of brown sugar dissolved in lukewarm water (included in the 4 gallons)
This all went into my new fermenter, which is a 5 gallon camp jug with a cylindrical bubbler.
I'll keep you all updated on the process.
Cheers!
Oh and here's my label:
