1st time brewer; alcoholic GB

[YMHoward]

Hi guys
I plan on making a GB with one of the recipes on this forum but I have a few probs. I would like it slightly sweet but I cannot use lactose and the only yeast I can use is the coopers packet that I have.

Any ideas?

Thanks
YMH

[Bum]

If you're bottling your only option left is to add something sweet when serving - such as a sugar syrup. Anything else will ferment out.

If you're kegging you can just crash chill to stop fermentation when the flavour is right but you'll have to make sure you keep it cold enough to stop the yeast from waking up until it is all gone.

Oh, Bizier was telling me about a plant called stevia which is supposedly a non-fermentable sweetener but I can't any info about it being used in brewing. You wanna be guinea-pig for us?

[YMHoward]

I'm willing but first is this plant sold whole? and what exactly is it?
Let me explain in case your wondering, I am an orthodox jew and my problems revolve mainly around Kashrut(kosher).

On a side I have made a coopers pack GB but I was unimpressed with it, even though the people who I'm giving it out to say its fairly good.

[Bum]

To be honest I don't know what it is exactly but it can be bought as both as a plant or as a powdered extract. I'm guessing the extract would be the best bet for brewing purposes but a little research would be required to see if it has any additives that are not suitable for you. I think health food shops would be your best bet.

Honestly though, the sugar syrup on serving would probably be simplest solution.

As for the Coopers kit - I was severely under whelmed when I did one too but I've recently tried again (after a dud scratch brew (all my fault though)) and with a heap of flavour additions I am very happy with it so far. Also, the straight kit was much better towards the end of the batch than it was at the beginning. If you have the patience to sit on it 'til about the 6 month mark (the last bottle of mine went at around 3 months) you may find it more enjoyable.

[Shine]

I'm from the states and I remember being in the mountains and finding some spicy versions of ginger beer. The hottest one was pretty brutal but it was really good. Any thoughts on making a spicy ginger beer (not chili spicy but ginger spicy)...

[Bum]

Lots of ginger seems pretty obvious to me. Subtle use of chilli can underscore the heat from the ginger.

[Nick H]

Hi everyone. My first post to the forum. I found this forum while searching for alcoholic Ginger Beer recipes, so I'd like to share my findings.
I really wanted to do a 'back to basics' GB and so I researched a recipe from a bloke in Canada-
1 kg ginger
1.5 kg invert sugar
3 litres boiling water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 chopped green chilli
4 whole lemons
Any strong beer yeast.
20 litres cold water

First of all, I grated the fresh ginger root and then boiled it with the sugar for about thiry minutes and poured it into a polybin and added the cold water. When it was cool enough I added the yeast. It started bubbling away in six hours perfectly. The original SG was 1070.
After eight days fermentation (with a warming belt because it's b****dy cold here in the UK) the SG was down to 990 and the bubbling had all but finished. I bottled it in the beer fashion with 2 teaspoons sugar per 2 litre bottle and left it three weeks before daring to open the PET. It took about ten days to pressurise the PET bottles, and when I opened the first bottle ten days after that, there still wasn't a lot of fizz. But the taste is pretty terrific with a good bite to the tongue from fizz and ginger. It tastes great cold, but it's absolutely dry without a trace of sweetness. It mixes well with vodka or brandy, but that wasn't quite the idea. It really tastes like a super concentrated, alcoholic version of Canada Dry. I'd call it a success!
What will I do different next time?
I'll increase the ginger root to about 1.3 kg and boil it a lot longer.
I'll also increase it to three chillis and add them to the boil
I think I'll increase the sugar to 2 kg. It will either increase the alcohol (unnecessary) or improve the final sweetness.
By the way, how do I calculate alcohol yield on this?

[Bum]

You calculate the abv% the same as with beer - by using your hydrometer readings. There a couple of methods of doing this. With the one I follow you take your OG hydrometer reading and subtract your FG then multiply the result by 7.46. When bottling you should add about 0.5% to the final result to allow for the extra fermentation.

Mind if I give some advice on the sugar? Upping the sugar will not make it sweeter - all of the sugar will still ferment out. Also, raw sugar seems to work best for ginger beers. Personally I really like to also make up to 1/4 of the sugar amount as dark brown sugar (as opposed to brown sugar). It seems to not ferment out so dry without seeming to add much sweetness (if that makes any sense).

I find that Thai bird's eye chillies have a much more suitable flavour for a ginger beer than green chillies. Also, a little goes a long way. First I was tempted to bang 5 chillies in instead of the recipe's 2 or 3 (I love it hot) but it ended up being a bit over the top. Burned my lips and tongue - which is fine with food but not so good with something you're sitting down to a big session on.

If you find the lemons are necessary maybe don't use them whole? The rind (white part, not the zest) isn't really the best thing for your beer.

These suggestions notwithstanding, looks like a cracker of a ginger beer!

[Nick H]

Thanks for the advice, Bum.
I'll certainly give your suggestions a go for the next batch - I'm committed to doing it again as people seem to like it particulalry as a vodka mixer.
So if my original gravity was 1070 and it went down to 995, then the differen is 75 (or 0.75, is it?), multiplied by 7.46 gives me about 5.6% ABV. Hmm, probably correct, but it tastes a bit heavier, probably because of the slight chilli 'rasp'.
If I use brown sugar, won't the colour affect the colour of the beer? This batch has cleared very well in the PET bottles and it almost looks like pure water in the glass.
Happy Christmas everyone!

[Nick H]

Right mates, the next batch is at drinking stage, so let me tell you what I did differently.
I used the same amount of root ginger, but five kilos of sugar this time and I boiled it with the juice of 1 lemon for about 80 minutes, waited until it cooled and then added a standard beer yeast. I didn't add the chilli because I forgot to buy the blasted thing.
Anyway I started off at 1100 and it fermented for nine days with a heating belt until it got down to 1995 approx.
I bottled it with two teaspoons per two litres for two weeks and I've just taken a taster.
It still tastes sweet to me, which is a bit of a surprise, but there's a heck of a zapp to it. This time there isn't quite the peppery rasp I got last time, so maybe the chilli is necessary.
I'm going to set a new batch tomorrow morning. I'll use the same everything but I'll add a green chilli to the boil and maybe another kilo of sugar.
Should be fun!

[Finnagann]

Wow, by my calc that's a lil over 14%! It must have some punch to it