homebrewandbeer.com

Hey crew

I am about to put on a ginger beer, but I want to increase the alcohol content. The can says it wil come out at about 3.5%, but I want to boost it to at least 5%. I was considering adding an extra 500g of sugar, but I don't know if this will make it too sweet. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
David.

allonblack wrote:Hey crew

I am about to put on a ginger beer, but I want to increase the alcohol content. The can says it wil come out at about 3.5%, but I want to boost it to at least 5%. I was considering adding an extra 500g of sugar, but I don't know if this will make it too sweet. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
David.

The sugar (dextrose/glucose/sucrose) should ferment out ok.
If anything it'll make it dryer rather than sweet(er) assuming that the yeast hangs in there and chomps its way through everything.

I asked the good people at Coopers about this, wanting to boost it to 6-7%, but concerned the added alcohol would drown out the gingery spice and make it watery.
The bloke who replied agreed it would probably destroy the taste to add 1kg of dextrose but adding a 1.5kg tin of liquid malt extract would probably work.
I did just that, and it worked a treat, same flavour pretty much, but with a lot more warmth in the aftertaste.
I really recommend the malt, but then, maybe you can get away with 500g of dextrose if you only want 5%.

I've done a few batches of Coopers Ginger Beer & have been adding up to 2.5kg of sugar plus the kit.

Also try some fresh ginger root, peel, slice, then simmer with a bit of sugar & water then chuck the lot in the fermenter.

allonblack, adding sugar to your brew will not sweeten it. The sugar is fermented down to alcohol, leaving almost zero residual sweetness. It is the best way to kick the alcohol without effecting the percieved sweetness.

I like to use 2 kg of raw sugar- especially when Coles does 2kg bags for $2.

Chris wrote:allonblack, adding sugar to your brew will not sweeten it. The sugar is fermented down to alcohol, leaving almost zero residual sweetness. It is the best way to kick the alcohol without effecting the percieved sweetness.

I like to use 2 kg of raw sugar- especially when Coles does 2kg bags for $2.

Chris, have you ever measured with hydrometer to test final alc content?

Umm, yes. I do that for every brew.

Chris wrote:Umm, yes. I do that for every brew.

What did the 2 kg's of Brown Sugar come in at?

9.1% by volume.

Chris wrote:9.1% by volume.

Aye Carumba

That'd be a good one to knock your socks off

I use my Hydro and Max i read was 6% for Coopers Sparkling but I think my Belgium will hit 9's

I added a bit of LDM as well to keep the body up a bit, and some more ginger for a better bite. And it IS a good winter warmer. It almost reminds me of Stones Ginger wine- fantastic stuff, highly under-rated.

Chris wrote:I added a bit of LDM as well to keep the body up a bit, and some more ginger for a better bite. And it IS a good winter warmer. It almost reminds me of Stones Ginger wine- fantastic stuff, highly under-rated.

Not underrated in my house, Stones is excellent

Will try the LDM as I bought .5kg 2day.

Love the Stones. Great neat, but also good with a bit of whiskey.

As for the ginger beer, I really recommend adding grated ginger root if you like it stronger, as the flavour can be a bit weak. Otherwise, you can reduce your volume a bit.

Chris wrote:Love the Stones. Great neat, but also good with a bit of whiskey.

As for the ginger beer, I really recommend adding grated ginger root if you like it stronger, as the flavour can be a bit weak. Otherwise, you can reduce your volume a bit.

I use Coopers in about 21 Litres with 1 KG of Brown/Raw Sugar.

What do You use Chris?

whats the difference between raw, white and brown sugar?

Well i just put in a chimay blue and i can tell you there is alot of difference, Main thing i noticed ( i used dark brown sugar) was the strong smell of molasses and the almost wet feel of it, it was sticky and clumped together, White sugar is very dry and has bugger all smell, almost like the goodness has been completely sucked out of it, This is what i noticed but as i dont use sugar very often, its probably a pretty vague description

Raw sugar and brown sugar are traditionally less refined than white sugar. Hence, the molassesy stuff is still there in differing amounts. Obviosly more in dark brown sugar than in raw.

Technically, brown sugar is white sugar to which molasses is added now days, as they decided it was cheap to manufacture this way.

But the brown stuff- molasses and other impurities add flavour and even some body to your brew in a similar way to malt (but to a much lesser extent). It will give a degree of residual sweetness to your brew, as well as a toffee/caramel flavour (depending on the amount used).

Boonie, my last recipe for ginger was:

Coopers GB kit- got a stack of them for $4.00
2kg raw (but substitution of some brown for raw works well too)
500g LDM
2 inches of grated ginger root
2 lemons worth of juice
5g of all-spice

It's a hell of a ginger beer.

Chris wrote:Raw sugar and brown sugar are traditionally less refined than white sugar. Hence, the molassesy stuff is still there in differing amounts. Obviosly more in dark brown sugar than in raw.

Technically, brown sugar is white sugar to which molasses is added now days, as they decided it was cheap to manufacture this way.

But the brown stuff- molasses and other impurities add flavour and even some body to your brew in a similar way to malt (but to a much lesser extent). It will give a degree of residual sweetness to your brew, as well as a toffee/caramel flavour (depending on the amount used).

Boonie, my last recipe for ginger was:

Coopers GB kit- got a stack of them for $4.00
2kg raw (but substitution of some brown for raw works well too)
500g LDM
2 inches of grated ginger root
2 lemons worth of juice
5g of all-spice

It's a hell of a ginger beer.

4 bucks, lucky bugger.

Showed my neighbour the recipe as he loves the GBeer and he is keen to help.

Where did you get the Ginger Root? No not that Ginger from Gilligans Island....

Unfortunately I got it from the greengrocer. His name is Con...

Chris wrote:Unfortunately I got it from the greengrocer. His name is Con...

Nice one Chris, Coupla days , I'll try the local shop to see what they have. Unfortunately mine is a chain grocer, but the fruit etc.. is OK..

My mate recommended Vanilla root for another style of beer, but I am buggered if I can find any.

Does the Ginger Root really spice up the Ginger Beer?