First Ginger Beer

[DigitalGiraffe]

Hi peoples,

So I usually make my own beer but thought I'd step into the world of ginger beer for something different. I've searched a few forums and think I have a process and quantity sorted but I thought I'd just run it by some guru's to see if I was going down the wrong path. I'm trying to keep it simple for my first batch but couldnt resist the urge to add a few extra bits...

I have the following thanks to my LHBS:
1x Coopers GB
1x 1kg brew enhancer (75% dextrose/25% corn syrup)
1x 500g bag of Lactose

I have also purchased:
1x 1kg bag of Raw Sugar (was thinking of adding 500g)
Cinnamon sticks (how many should i use?)
375g Fresh ginger

The method I was going to follow was just the one on the can but in addition I was going to peel the ginger and finely slice it and drop in one cinnamon stick.

Does this sound ok or should I be boiling the ginger and cinnamon stick then straining the water into my fermenter?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Paul

[Bum]

I'd swap out the brew enhancer for all of the raw sugar. Save the enhancer for a beer.

The lactose may not be necessary for a kit GB but bang it in if you think you'll like it particularly sweet. The tins don't finish up dry like the all ginger GBs do.

I'd boil up the ginger and cinnamon even if only for sanitation purposes. You can strain or not strain - your call. Some brewers say boiling drives the ginger off. Others don't like the ginger in their primary. I do a long boil and don't seem to have any trouble getting big ginger bite into a very similar recipe to what you're using. One cinnamon quill might be a bit on the light side but that might be all you're chasing.

Best of luck with it.

[DigitalGiraffe]

Thanks for the reply Bum and thanks for the advice, really appreciate it.

I wasnt sure on the enhancer either so thanks for confirming my reservations! Will 1kg of raw sugar give me about 5%? Thats what I'm looking for.

I'll give the ginger and two cinnamon sticks a boil for half hour and then dump it in the fermenter.

Thanks again,

Paul

[Trizza]

Welcome to the Forum!

Coopers makes a great kit for refreshing ginger beer and adding one kilo of Raw Sugar to your batch is going to add about 2% to a 20L brew. The lactose won’t add much to your alcohol, but will increase the sweetness. Taste test once fermentation is complete to see if the brew needs extra sweetness. From my experience, you’re probably not going to need all, if any of the lactose. (+1 for what Bum said )

As a rule of thumb, I usually add between 2-3Kg of sugars to my Ginger beers to give them alcohol content between 5.0%-6.5% (20L batch). If you’re keen to get the alcohol content a bit higher, I’d suggest adding some more brown sugar or white table sugar, brown sugar, honey or dextrose.

Also, I’d recommend increasing the volume of the batch to 23L if you intend on adding the extra 375g of fresh ginger unless you’re keen for quite the ginger kick. You’ll need to add more sugar accordingly to maintain your alcohol content if you increase the volume.

Trizza.

[DigitalGiraffe]

Thanks for the tips trizza.

I've got my ginger and two cinnamon sticks boiling away as I type.

Will boil it for half an hour.

I've decided to follow in your footsteps and I'm now adding 2k of raw sugar and scrapping the lactose.

I'll be making a 21litre batch and see how it turns out.

Looking forward to getting stuck into this over summer!

Cheers,

Paul

[Trizza]

How'd this end up going for you mate?

I've got 2 batches nearly ready for bottling now with some slight differences such as Dextrose vs. Raw to see what makes the best batch... I'll let everyone know my full results once I've done some comparison taste testing...

Trizza.

[DigitalGiraffe]

Hey guys,

So it has been sitting in my fermenter for 3 weeks now and it's still bubbling approx every 15seconds. Is this normal?

Is it safe to bottle?

[Bum]

Hydrometer readings, bloke. Trust the hydrometer and not the bubbles. GBs can take longer than beer to ferment out so going by experience on your first is not the best idea.

[DigitalGiraffe]

Hydromometer reading is down to 1000. It started at 1043. I'll take another reading tomorrow to see if its dropped any further. If it stays the same I should be good to bottle right?

[Bum]

Sounds like it but it isn't unheard of them to go into 09xx - but if your readings are constant then you're good to go. How is the sample tasting?

[DigitalGiraffe]

The samples started out amazing, peaked at about a week but now its sat in there for 3 weeks it has a bit of an alcohol taste to it. It should be alright and as it's my first attempt I'm pretty happy with it.

When it comes to bottling should I bulk prime or prime individual bottles? I have a lot of 500ml bottles so I'm not sure if I should add one or two carbination drops?

[Bum]

Having mostly 500ml bottles is what prompted me to start bulk priming but you could look into doing something like this if you'd rather not go down that road: http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewto ... f=2&t=9784

[DigitalGiraffe]

Cheers for that link Bum I might have to give that a go!

I am literally just about to bottle my first ever cider and my first attempt at bulk priming also. In theory it sounds very easy but i am worried my calculation will be off and I wont get the fizz I want. Oh well it's all part of the process of perfecting the procedure I guess!

Adding 160g of white sugar dissolved in 500ml of hot water to my cider.

[Trizza]

Hey guys,

So it has been sitting in my fermenter for 3 weeks now and it's still bubbling approx every 15seconds. Is this normal?

Is it safe to bottle?

As an update in my side-by-side comparison between a batch with all dextrose vs. all raw sugar; I’ve noticed that the one with all dextrose fermented out after 2 weeks, whereas the one with raw sugar is still fermenting away (23 days now).

One would infer that the less processed nature of raw sugar would require more time for the yeast to ferment into alcohol. If you ended up using 2Kg of Raw in this batch, if would probably take 3-4 weeks for everything to ferment out.

Best idea, use the hydrometer and be patient. Hope that helps.

Trizza

[DigitalGiraffe]

I just bottled it.

It stayed bang on 1000 for 2 days.

Ended up bottling it in 375ml bottles because I had a few packets of carbination drops in the cupboard. Just drank a glass full and even though it was room temperature and flat it still tasted pretty good with a nice gingery aftertaste on the back of the throat.

I'll let you know how it ends up.

Thanks for the advice guys!

[DzRBenson]

My husband bought me a Coopers kit and today, probably something along the lines of the above recipe for Ginger beer, before he uses it for beer

Using the coopers kit and 2kg of Raw sugar, is anything else needed for a nice ginger beer? Not sure if Cinnamon sticks or the Ginger are needed, I know the Ginger and the Cinnamon needs to be boiled, but how does that work from there, do you use the water to brew with or do you add the ginger and sticks to the fermenter?

Sorry very new to this

[Bum]

Nothing at all to apologise for.

Definitely use the water in your brew (but be sure to cool it or keep the volume low so it doesn't make the wort too hot to pitch your yeast). Some people also put in the ginger and cinnamon, some people don't. I've done it both ways and have only noticed a difference between the two when at large amounts - but neither way gives bad results for me. A little extra ginger is nice if you want a real ginger bite but the kit does have a decent ginger presence so it isn't essential - personally, I'll never do it without ginger again. Cinnamon works very nicely - especially with a little cardamom. I used to brew them with 2kg of raw sugar but have since dropped the extra fermentables down to 750g raw sugar and 250g dark brown sugar. They work out fine with 2kg of raw but because ginger beer ferments so much lower than beer it is so much heavier. My 2kg raw sugar, bottled GBs were about 7% which is fine for a beer in the right style but I tend to sip the big beers and drink GBs much faster. I aim for high 4% these days with my GBs.

[DzRBenson]

Thanks for that,

I was thinking about adding some honey to just for some taste not sure but,

So with the cinnamon and Ginger I just boil them and use the water from there, rather than my normal boiled water.

Cheers

[Bum]

Yeah, you can certainly do that. As I say, though, just be careful of volume. If you want to use more than the standard 2L of hot water for the boil then just cool your boiled stuff (lid on) and then add hot water to the kit and sugar like you normally would and add the cooled stuff with your top-up water. If that makes sense.

Lots of people use honey and speak well of it but I don't like honey so I can't help you there.

[DzRBenson]

Well the wife's GB had been on for 6 days now, and the Gravity is still at 1030

I guess this one will be staying on longer,

Mix
Coopers GB
1.7kg Raw Sugar
375mls Honey

Should I open it up and give it a stir, to make sure its mixed correctly with that high G? Mind you it does taste great.