by Captain Morgan » Sunday Feb 05, 2012 5:05 pm
Hey all,
This is my first post here, about my 2nd ever home brew. My first batch was a Coopers Traditional draught that is ok for a first beer, but for my second batch, I've chosen Morgan's ginger beer (tin). Its been fermenting for two days, and my LHBS gave me a sheet of instructions for general brewing. One of the instructions is to leave your brew to ferment for 2 days at 20L, then fill up to the bottom thread of the neck of the fermentor with water, or a container filled with water to minimise air space.
I did this with my Coopers traditional draught batch, but not sure if I should for my Ginger Beer, as it may weaken the taste/ alcohol.
What I did was:
Added 2kgs of white sugar to 2L of hot water, dissolved fully. Added Morgan's ginger beer can into the water, stirred till fully dissolved, added cold water to fill up to 20L (its a 25L fermenter). I then added zest of 4 limes, one diced birdseye chilli, one whole birdseye chilli, and a piece of grated and peeled fresh ginger (about 4 square centimeters). I added these extras into this mesh sack thing I bought from my LHBS and just dropped the lot in.
After a bit of reading I realise it was probably best to boil the infusion ingredients first, but oh well too late.
I'm keen to know if anyone else has tried similar recipes.
I'm also very interested to find out peoples opinions on the quantities of my ingredients - should I add more chilis/ dried chillis, lime juice, more fresh ginger?
It has been fermenting for almost 2 days, so I'm now at the point where I refer to my LHBS instructions (fill up to the bottom thread of the neck of the fermentor with water, or a container filled with water to minimise air space) and I'm not sure what I should do. Should I just leave it on the 20L mark?
The lady at my LHBS said to give it a good stir each day because the yeast tends to just float to the bottom and sit there unless stirred with GBs. Does that seem right? I was a bit concerned about letting oxygen in there - isn't that the point of the air lock??
Please excuse my naivety, as I said I am virtually a newbie when it comes to home brew and have no experience.
P.s I am wanting the GB to have a nice spicy kick as well as strong ginger and subtle lime taste, not overly sweet but not soda water dry. As it is my first attempt at GB I'm going to try (unless I've nailed the primary infusions) infusing small groups of bottles with small/ large pieces of chilli, maybe some honey, and different priming sugars to see what works best.
I'm assuming the fermentation will take a few weeks, at 22-27 degrees.