Would this work to make a sweet fizzy gingerbeer?

[Matty2Fatty]

Hi, Now I'm trying to make a sweet, alcoholic, fizzy ginger beer
Now I started off using champagne yeast but the problem I had was that the yeast would eat all of the sugar and leave me with a dry ginger wine, so I would have to go down the route of...
Ferment out, back sweeten with sugar and then pasteurization, to get what I want without have bottle bombs, this would be ok but I have a small kitchen and pasteurization would be a bit of a pain to do,
So to get around having to go down the pasteurization route would this work?

Using Champagne yeast will let me get a higher alcohol level then say beer or larger yeast before the yeast cant handle it any more? yes?

If so, could I say use beer/larger yeast add too much sugar to start with so it would get to as high alcohol volume as it can go before the alcohol is to much and the yeast stops working and would still leave sugar left making it sweet and then force carb using a home made co2 pump getting around not having to pasteurize
If so how high can beer/larger yeast get too and how much sugar??

Thanks for any help on this matter.

 

[WileECoyote]

Hello Matty2Fatty,
I would use Maltodextrine if you want a sweet beer.
Maltodextrine is used largely in low gravity beers, and is a non-fermentable sugar added to the boil (up to 8 ounces in a 5 gallon batch) to add body and mouth-feel to the beer. Maltodextrine does not produce any flavors, and does not add alcohol to your beer.

Cheers
WiliECoyote

 

[jonmohno]

Why not some crystal 20? In an ale? And highly carbonate it some. Use enough ginger it will be ginger beer.Damn now im tempted to pull a 2 wk bottled ginger beer i made and quick chill it! It just sounds good. Yep,now im doin it,damn it.
You can add sugar to boost the alchohol but using more all malt will make it stronger,if you want it somewhat sweet you can use a less attenuating yeast depending on the profile you want for the beer.. Champange yeast for a normal gravity beer will proably make it way to dry.

 

[Captain Damage]

I would use Maltodextrine if you want a sweet beer.
Maltodextrine is used largely in low gravity beers, and is a non-fermentable sugar added to the boil (up to 8 ounces in a 5 gallon batch) to add body and mouth-feel to the beer. Maltodextrine does not produce any flavors, and does not add alcohol to your beer.

But maltodestrin isn't sweet. Not much anyway. It's mostly to add body to a thin beer. If you want a nonfermentable sugar, add lactose.

But I'm mostly Jonmohno on this, make a sweet beer by adding crystal malts and very lightly hopped (hop bitterness cancels out malt sweetness). I've done ginger beer several times and that's the strategy that works. Be sure to "dryhop" with a few ounces of vodka-soaked fresh ginger. Use an ale yeast, not champagne yeast. People have the idea that champagne yeast will make their beer drier and more alcoholic because champagne is dry. But I question the logic behind this. Champagne is dry because champagne must is almost entirely sucrose and fructose. Regardless of what yeast you use, you'll get a sweeter end product by adding nonfermentable sugars to your wort.

 

[Matty2Fatty]

Thanks for the reply's but its not quite answered my question!
I don't really want to back sweeten with a non fermenable sugar as I would like to have the choice of using honey/brown sugar ect and it is also easy to get hold of.
At the moment all I am looking to do is find a way of having quite a strong fizzy ginger beer.

What I have started to do is....

Recipe:
Champagne yeast
500gms root ginger
skin of 2 lemons and the juice
5x tbsp powdered ginger
2x tbsp stem ginger
1x kilo caster sugar
8x liters water
few spices

Cooked it all up, let it cool added Champagne yeast,
All good Fermentation going well,
but ends up very dry and if I was to add more sugar it would still keep on fermenting and getting to strong in alcohol. Dont mind having something like around 10% tops but dont want it to have the same as a wine.

Now if I was was to use Beer/Larger Yeast instead of Champagne yeast would the Beer/Larger Yeast poop out because the alcohol level is to high ( if so how high can this go?) leaving with some sugar left making is sweet?? if there was enough sugar in the first place. Then I could force carb making it fizzy and without the worry of any bombs.

 

[Captain Damage]

To make a fermented beverage sweet, you need unfermentable sugar(s), such as lactose or the higher sugars found in crystal malts. Steep a pound of crystal 10L or 20L in your 8 liters of water before boiling. Or you could add lactose before the boil. You can add to your water until you think it's sweet enough, then add the caster sugar, which will completely ferment out.

I think trying to deliberately kill the yeast with alcohol in order to sweeten above that threshold is a bad idea. At best it's unreliable. At worst, you'll find out what autolysis tastes like.

Sorry, but I have to ask, why even ferment it at all? Why not just mix water, vodka, ginger, sugar and lemon and force carb? No boiling; no fermenting. It would probably taste great and easy to calculate ABV.

 

[WileECoyote]

But maltodestrin isn't sweet. Not much anyway. It's mostly to add body to a thin beer. If you want a nonfermentable sugar, add lactose.

Thanks Captain for correcting me, as Im still new to home brewing and still learning, I thought that maltodestrin was sweeter like lactose.

I like the crystal 20L Idea, I picked up some Ginger to try this in the next batch or two, now that Im reading these post Im thinking about going with some of all 3, maybe 1/2Lb crystal L 20, 1/2Lb maltodestrin and 1/2Lb lactose.

Idk just a thought, I haven't researched any ginger beer recipes yet, but I will be soon.

Cheers
WiliECoyote

 

[greggreg66]

I freestyled a ginger beer recently, was a 5 gallon batch. I didn't have much grain to hand so used something like 3kg of maris otter and 350g of caramalt - this is only what I had to hand. I didn't use any hops but instead used 2kg of finely chopped ginger (couldn't be bothered to grate it!) and added them 1kg at 60 mins, 500g at 30 mins and 500g at 15 mins. I'm not sure if there's any point in adding the ginger at different time intervals as you would with hops, but I thought what the hell! I used an ale yeast that I'd previously used on 2 different beers - again just what I hand to hand! I guess it was one of those 'use everything up' brew days!!

It tastes good but could be a touch sweeter and/or have a bigger body. I think that this is in part down to the fact I didn't have much grain to hand (the OG was only 1.038). But anyway, it does have a really nice ginger quality that is not too overpowering - it is quite strong but not overbearing at all.

Anyway, I'm now thinking of getting some lactose in the hop it'll add a bit of sweetness and *hopefully* fill the gap in the taste of the beer.

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

Thanks for the reply's but its not quite answered my question!
I don't really want to back sweeten with a non fermenable sugar as I would like to have the choice of using honey/brown sugar ect and it is also easy to get hold of.
At the moment all I am looking to do is find a way of having quite a strong fizzy ginger beer.

What I have started to do is....

Recipe:
Champagne yeast
500gms root ginger
skin of 2 lemons and the juice
5x tbsp powdered ginger
2x tbsp stem ginger
1x kilo caster sugar
8x liters water
few spices

Cooked it all up, let it cool added Champagne yeast,
All good Fermentation going well,
but ends up very dry and if I was to add more sugar it would still keep on fermenting and getting to strong in alcohol. Dont mind having something like around 10% tops but dont want it to have the same as a wine.

Now if I was was to use Beer/Larger Yeast instead of Champagne yeast would the Beer/Larger Yeast poop out because the alcohol level is to high ( if so how high can this go?) leaving with some sugar left making is sweet?? if there was enough sugar in the first place. Then I could force carb making it fizzy and without the worry of any bombs.

I dont see how that recipe is "beer" but i see your fermentables are sugar. That is going to ferment all the way out.

Short of using fermentout or back sweetening, your going to have to use unfermentable sugars like crystal or lactose.