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Hey peoples ive decided to make a batch of dark & stormy for a 50th bday present, its for a good friend who loves alcoholic ginger beer and also rum, hence the d&s. Ive gone with a pre-packed ginger beer (colony west) and brewed it as per instuctions. Then ive put a 700ml bottle of bundaburg red into the fermenter with the mix. not sure how it would go so im thinking about doing another brew as a backup if it tastes crap. maybe holding off on the rum until bottling and adding less sugar but im worrried about getting the 2ndry fermentation right, not overgassing ect. i have 5 months to get it right so if im off base any imput would be greatly appriciated

Did you add the rum before or after brewing the Ginger Beer?

Also, what were your hydrometer readings for the brew?

I'd also look at doing a Ginger Beer recipe that you find on the internet (this site has some good ones) as opposed to following the kit instructions. I've never done just a straight kit as they don't tend to have a terrific popularity amongst brewers, and it doesn't take all that much to dress them up a bit.

put the rum in the fermenter with the ginger beer brew from the start. I thought this may get rid of any sugars in the rum and cause less trouble later when bottling.hydrometer reading would have been a good idea,i am an idiot, too many sherbets while trying not to drink the rum didnt help much

I probably would have brewed my ginger beer as per normal and then rack to secondary on top of the rum for maybe another week, and then bottle/keg when I had a constant SG over three days.

I suppose that you may possibly run into problems when adding the alcohol percentage of the rum before the yeast has a chance to multiply. Guessing here, but that's the reason that I would add it post fermentation of the GB.

thanks mate might run another brew straight after this one and give that a crack
might even get more creative with the gb