Ginger Beer - boil?

[Gill]

Hey guys,

halfway through having my first crack at a GB

Recipe was:

1 tin (980g) Cooper's Ginger Beer
350g LDME
650g Dextrose
100g brown sugar (would have liked more but cupboard was dry)
150g golden syrup (see above)
1/2 small bottle of minced ginger (maybe 100g?)
cinnamon from the shaker, just went crazy, about 50 shakes
Water to 20L (or was it 23?)
yeast from the kit, unsure of pitching temp

I put all the fermentables and the ginger in a pot with a few L of water and brought that to the boil, then began cooling before adding the kit and cinnamon

OG. - 1036

Tested it out today, 3 days in, SG. - 1012

its coming along nicely, but is still a little sweet and not enough bite.

The sweetness should go away with further fermentation, yes?
After carbonation, will there be more bite?
Should I have boiled the ginger or added it after with the kit? (Note it was not boiled for any amount of time, just brought to)
Next time i will certainly add more I think

Any comments on the recipe? It was my first crack and I just made it up as I went.

[Gill]

Just remembers I also added the juice from 1 lemon as an afterthought, didn't write that down

[Oliver]

Hi Gilly,

Any comments on the recipe? It was my first crack and I just made it up as I went.

1/ OG is fine if you are happy with it and what you were aiming for. I would have added a bit more dex to boost it slightly.
2/ I would've used a stick or two of cinnamon rather than the already-ground stuff. But that's probably personal preference and it shouldn't matter.
3/ I'll be interested to hear what you think about the golden syrup addition and whether it's contributed much in the way of flavour. You probably wouldn't have wanted to use much more as a starting point.
4/ Any reason you chose to use the kit rather than make the GB from scratch? While I haven't done one, it seems pretty simple. I have, however, done one of the Coopers kits and found that it had a distinct taste of artificial sweetener.
5/ I probably would have used fresh ginger than the minced ginger.
6/ You could have added a bit of honey in there, too, if you'd liked.
7/ Also, you could have added some lemon zest.

The sweetness should go away with further fermentation, yes?

Yep, when fermentation is finished it'll be less sweet. The SG will drop a fair bit further from 1012, I'd think.

After carbonation, will there be more bite?

No, but once it's fermented out fully there will be because there will be less sweetness.

Should I have boiled the ginger or added it after with the kit? (Note it was not boiled for any amount of time, just brought to)

Did you add the ginger to the fermenter or just boil and strain it in?

Excuse the length of my reply ... I've had a few beverages!

Cheers,

Oliver

[Gill]

Oliver, length of reply is applauded rather than excused.

1/ The plan is to add rum for dark and stormies, so low alcohol isn't a big issue
2/ it came down to last minute availability (what's in the cupboard that might be nice?)
3/ no bloody idea, and won't have for some time as this is my first GB
4/ seemed easier and cheaper for a first brew (considering I'm a poor uni student and ginger was $18/kg)
5/ again, seemed cheaper, though can't be sure. Also I thought it may be stronger, you don't think so?
6/ next time
7/ see above - what does the zest add different from the juice?

Did you add the ginger to the fermenter or just boil and strain it in?

No straining, everything went in. Figured any solids would sink, if not who cares, especially in a GB.
I was just a little worried boiling the ginger may have destroyed some taste (as with hops and its aroma).

[Oliver]

Jeez, you've got an answer for everything

All sounds good.

Re the fresh v processed ginger, my experience with these sorts of products (ginger, as well as garlic and basil) is that while they taste similar to the real thing there's something not quite the same about them. As an analogy, think the results possible with brewing from a kit versus brewing AG. But I'm sure it will be fine. By the way, what else does the ginger contain? I'm tipping there's at least some preservative in there, but probably not enough to cause you any problems with the fermentation.

Zest will add a different flavour (make sure you don't get the white pith under the outer skin though, though, as this is bitter and not in a good way); you just want the yellow layer which contains the lemony compounds. Wash the lemon before you remove the zest because unfortunately lots of fruit is waxed to make it look nice.

I'm sure that you're going to end up with a ginger beer at the end of this!

Let us know how it turns out.

Cheers,

Oliver

[Gill]

Well all the mates are excited about the ginger beer, so I'll definitely be putting another on and soon.

I'll definitely try these ideas in the next one.

This brew is still bubbling away nicely, probably the most amount of activity I've had.

Let you know in a few weeks

[Captain Morgan]

How did it go? I'm currently half way through my first GB.

http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewto ... 12#p110204

[Gill]

Certainly drinkable, but room for improvement. The problem is hard to describe, especially considering it was so long ago, but I suppose you could say it tasted a bit dirty instead of a nice sharp and crisp after taste. I blame the yeast, might use US05 next time.
Unfortunately I have been busy over Christmas and haven't brewed, so havent had a second go. In fact, I have a beer that's been sitting in the fermenter in the fridge for about 2 months I haven't bottled yet, not sure if I will.
As a uni student, I find that during uni is a lot slower than holidays where I work as much as possible, uni starts back in a few weeks so should be back in the game.