Simple GB Kit Recipe

[mike_hifi]

Simple recipe that addresses some of the concerns of the standard Coopers Kit (watery & thin and not much ginger taste)

1 Coopers GB Kit
1Kg Can Brewiser Brewing Sugar (maltodextrin I believe, bought from Coles)
2 inches of grated fresh ginger, boiled for 5 minutes in 1 litre of water & all tossed in
2 Packs of Coopers Ale Yeast (why - because I had them! )

Made up to 21 litres and fermented at 21deg.

There are other posts here about the 'chemical smell' - this is absolutely true but it WILL disappear after 4 weeks.

What I have now is a nice gingery drink that holds a little head and no bad aftertaste or smell. Great as a weekend lunchtime tipple ....

[Chris]

I like to use some malt. That really gets rid of the watery issue.

[corks]

and an extra kilo of sugar...

[rwh]

1Kg Can Brewiser Brewing Sugar (maltodextrin I believe, bought from Coles)

I believe that brewing sugar is generally a mix of sucrose and maltodextrin. At least the Coopers variety is.

[Trizza]

I've got this variation on the Coopers GB kit in the fermenter now:

Coopers Ginger Beer + kit yeast
1.5 Kg Coopers Light Liquid Malt Extract
1.0 Kg Dextrose
500g Yellowbox Honey
200g Fresh Grated Ginger @ 30 mins
1 Cinnamon Stick @ 15 mins
5g Yeast Nutrient

From my previous experience with this kit, it did have an artificial sweetener taste very early on, but this went away. I'm guessing the honey helped a lot too.
In my last one, I didn't let the brew complete fermentation, which is why I'm really taking my time with this one!

I'm racking it in a few days and will let you all know the results.

[yardglass]

I've got this variation on the Coopers GB kit in the fermenter now:

Coopers Ginger Beer + kit yeast
1.5 Kg Coopers Light Liquid Malt Extract
1.0 Kg Dextrose
500g Yellowbox Honey
200g Fresh Grated Ginger @ 30 mins
1 Cinnamon Stick @ 15 mins
5g Yeast Nutrient

From my previous experience with this kit, it did have an artificial sweetener taste very early on, but this went away. I'm guessing the honey helped a lot too.
In my last one, I didn't let the brew complete fermentation, which is why I'm really taking my time with this one!

I'm racking it in a few days and will let you all know the results.

Interested to see how this goes with that much Extract and Dex, I've always had best results with Champagne yeast.

cheers

[dragonphoenix73]

Yeah, I know what you mean about the thin and watery taste....

The GB i've got going on the moment has stopped bubbling again. I took a reading, and will check in a day or so. Had a taste, and it was as described, although the spicy gingery-peppery taste was there - just watery is all. Reading has't gone down that much, but it has only been 4 days.

I used a kilo of dextrose for fermentation, and about 10-11 gm yeast nutrient.

[Trizza]

Gravity is allready down to 1008, and will rack tommrow,
Will keep you posted yardglass...

[Rod]

Ginger beer

I have only made Kit ginger beer , the last being with a morgan kit , coopers works as well ( I think they are the same )
and 1 kg ultrabrew

I made the beer as normal but when it came to bottling I added Buderim ginger beer syrup cordial and dextrose to bulk prime .

I added 180 gm of dextrose less the sugar content in the syrup ( 12.6% on side of bottle ) so as not to over prime
(300 * 12.6% = 40g near enough) so 140g of dextrose.

I added 10 ml of syrup to each bottle or 300 ml to the bulk prime

I then added 5gm of freshly grated ginger to each bottle


Kit
1kg of ultrabrew or sugar of your choose

Priming
140 g dextrose
300 ml buderim syrup
5g of freshly grated ginger per bottle

leave for at least 6 weeks , matures even better

[Trizza]

Gravity is allready down to 1008, and will rack tommrow,
Will keep you posted yardglass...

My ginger beer has turned out really shithouse.
The only thing I can do is try to leave it for a few months to try to get it a bit better with age.
Had a longneck last night, couldn't get through the f---ing thing.

I'm thinking I used far too much LLME, and should of kept it less like a beer, and more like a GB. It's also really syrupy, so some dry enzyme might be the way to go next time.

Trizza.

[Boonie]

Gravity is allready down to 1008, and will rack tommrow,
Will keep you posted yardglass...

My ginger beer has turned out really shithouse.
The only thing I can do is try to leave it for a few months to try to get it a bit better with age.
Had a longneck last night, couldn't get through the f---ing thing.

I'm thinking I used far too much LLME, and should of kept it less like a beer, and more like a GB. It's also really syrupy, so some dry enzyme might be the way to go next time.

Trizza.

I did a Coopers GB with 2kg of Brown sugar to 19 litres. I was trying to get more of a Ginger taste so I filled with less water.

Same problem, very sweet, from fermenter anyway. Still in Fermenter after 2 weeks, cooked very slow.

I am thinking of bulk priming with 2 litres of water and 180 dex to get rid of the excessive sweetness.

What do yo think guys? or should I rack onto some fresh ginger and lemon?

Cheers

Boonie

[drsmurto]

General question for all you people trying to make GB.

Are you after ginger flavoured beer or an alcoholic version of Bundy GB or whatever an old relative used to make from the plant in the pantry?

It seems to me that all the comments about thin and watery GB are misplaced. Traditional, non alcoholic GB is thin and syrupy due to all the fact that the sugar isnt fermented. My non kit GB is thin and watery but very bitey. Exactly as i would expect it to be.

Bundy GB is a super sweet drink. Fermentation converts sugar to alcohol so any sugar you put it will be gone by the end of fermentations.

There are only 3 methods i can think of (no doubt there are more) to make a fermented drink sweet that doesnt involve mixing post fermentation.

1. Artificial sweeteners.
2. Lactose or any other non-fermentable sugars.
3. Racking into a keg and adding a load of sugar, keeping the keg at sub 4degC so as not to allow fermentation.

I dont like option 1 and 2 (and i dont have a keg setup) so i accept my GB is dry and add lemonade post fermentation if i want it to be sweet, more often than not i dont.

If, on the other hand you want ginger flavoured beer then its a piece of piss. Add fresh ginger to the boil, up to 1kg.

Please dont take this as me attacking you for trying to perfect a GB, its half the fun of homebrewing, trying new things. But sometimes it good to take a step back and think about what you are trying to achieve, what sort of beer are you after. But then again, i have been accused many times of overthinking things........

my 2 c.
DrSmurto

[Boonie]

I am after a Alcoholic GB that tastes like ordinary GB....

I want the sweetness but not too much, like the one I've just done, and a real Ginger bite at the back of the throat.

Not too much to ask really.

I was going to go the lemon as people reckon it is nice with GB.

Cheers

Boonie

[FazerPete]

I am after a Alcoholic GB that tastes like ordinary GB....

I want the sweetness but not too much, like the one I've just done, and a real Ginger bite at the back of the throat.

The problem with most GB mixes is that they have the artificial sweetener already mixed in. The coopers one is far too sweet for my palate so I added about 150ml of lemon juice to counteract it. This worked OK but I'm still not big on it.

I highly recommend the Old Fashioned Ginger Beer that you can buy from your LHBS. It has the artificial sweetener in a separate packet so that you can adjust the level of sweetnesss, or chuck it in the bin like me. I add sugar syrup to the keg like DrSmurto said so I can sweeten with real sugar to taste after fermentation is complete.

[Boonie]

I'll give that a go.

Thanks

Boonie