Ginger Beer Brewers

[Gra]

Ok,

lets not have these Ale and lager guys have this forum to themselves...

Let us know who you are, me I have only done a couple of brews, all using the standard recipe. Though I am thinking of making some modifications to the next brew.

So come on lets hear from the ginger beer brewers amongst us

[Cliff Rogers]

...So come on lets hear from the ginger beer brewers amongst us

Same as my Tooheys Old, I buy ready rolled.... hard to beat the Bundaberg stuff. :p

[mic-d]

hard to beat the Bundaberg stuff. :p

Try the Cascade stuff too Cliff. I used to be a Bundy man but it's got a bit sweet for me.
BTW, I used to brew ginger beer using shredded ginger, brewers yeast and sugar, I'll see if I can dig out the recipe. I bottled half of it at half fermentation as a sweet beer and let the rest ferment out which ended up being like a beautiful ginger champagne.
Cheers
Michael

[Gra]

mic-d

That would be great, I have been curious about the old way of doing it

[tameriska]

Ginger Beer.
To make the ginger beer "plant", place in a jar eight sultanas, juice of two lemons, one teaspoon lemon pulp, four teaspoons sugar, two teaspoons ground ginger and two cups cold water. Cover lightly with a cloth. In warm weaher, leave three or four days by which time it should be starting to ferment.
Then each day for one week, add two teaspoons ground ginger and four teaspoons sugar to the "plant". It should be ready at the end of the week to make into beer.
To make beer, place four cups of sugar, four cups of boiling water and the juice of four lemons into a large bowl. Stir untill sugar is dissolved. Strain the plant into it through a fine cloth, squeeze dry. Add 28 cups of cold water and stir. Pour into bottles and cork down.
Leave two weeks before using.
To keep the "plant" alive for another batch of beer, halve the "plant" in the cloth and place in a jar with two cups cold water. Continue to feed it with four teaspoons sugar and two tablespoons groung ginger for one week.

This is one that my father used when I was a child, but I can't remember how it turned out.

[Gra]

tameriska

You are a legend, every recipe I have seen say's add ginger beer plant, but none tell you how to make the plant:doh:.



Will have to try that with my next brew.

[johnc]

Tameriska,

I can't remember if that is the same recipie we used, but my Grandparents, mother and myself all had the plants for our own kids. It turns out fine, but its a bit like those dragons of yours, dont meddle with the brew. I've got memories of bottles left two long in the cupboard blowing their tops, or opened with enough fizz to empty all but the last couple of centimetres of the bottle. For Gra, its great fun for the kids seeing the process and getting to drink the product.

Cheers, John

[Gra]

its great fun for the kids seeing the process and getting to drink the product.


John,
gotta agree there, the last bottling was a production line that consisted of my 18 mth old passing a bottle to my 3 yr old, who added the sugar cube and passed it to me. I then filled it and passed it to my wife, who added the top and boxed it.

Might as well get them involved, as they drink the most of it.

[Tonyz]

Think I mentioned this before but Tameriskas recipe was used by me as a teenager stopped when the corks in the bottles lying on their sides got tired of being there and 'escaped'. Unfortunately dads Mercedes had both the front side windows in the firing line. Not happy is a bloody understatement.

Mic-d share more on turning it into champane. We get ginger wine by the flagon from a MaClaren Vale winery.
Tony

[Gra]

Think I mentioned this before but Tameriskas recipe was used by me as a teenager stopped when the corks in the bottles lying on their sides got tired of being there and 'escaped'.


The joy of these new plastic bottles, I had friends that did the calcs in uni, (Bored/Stoned Eng students will do anything) these shouldn't blow, the amount of pressure they can take is enormous.

[Tonyz]

yeah but you seen the shape they go.:oo:

[Gra]

yeah but you seen the shape they go.:oo:
Yeah but at least they don't explode and send stuff flying around the storage space.... (My first brew exploded 5 glass bottles, embedding glass in the container)

[tameriska]

Ok, looks like I should have aded a warning to that recipie,
Use at Own Risk ,

(and keep it away from Mercs :o )

[Iain]

Yeah but at least they don't explode and send stuff flying around the storage space....

Not quite true Gra, I managed to detonate a dozen of them after misreading the hydrometer on a cider I made, was still in primary when I bottled and started the secondary, was not a pretty sight.
The shed has a nice bouquette for a while though, and the rats were enough that I could round them up and bag them without protest:D

[STEPHEN MILLER]

Coopers make a fine brew for the homebrewer you can go either way non or alcholic which ever takes your fancy the alcoholic one is a very nice drop with a 3% alco content

[Cliff Rogers]

Try the Cascade stuff too Cliff. I used to be a Bundy man but it's got a bit sweet for me.....
Don't ever try the Sweppes one then, it is sweeter than the Bundy stuff.

[mic-d]

Here is the recipe I based my ginger beer (champagne) on. I just scaled it up for a 20l home brew drum. I let it ferment out for a "champagne" style drink. I added a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle at bottling. Sometimes I would bottle half after a few days of ferment and refrigerate for a sweeter drink.
I used brewers yeast.
http://www.thecontextualvillains.org/ranting/text/gingerbeer.pdf
Cheers
Michael

[BrissyBrew]

from wikipedia.
Ginger beer plant (GBP) is a symbiotic mixture of microorganisms which must contain the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus (formerly Saccharomyces pyriformis) and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii (formerly Brevibacterium vermiforme).[2][3][4] It forms a gelatinous substance that allows it to be easily transferred from one fermenting substrate to the next, much like kefir grains and tibicos.[5]

Better still though this guy sells the stuff http://www.fermentedtreasures.com/gingerbp.html

however as an all grain brewer no way would I let that wild stuff near my brewery.

ps before news gets around, I actually run an online retail home brew store just so people know and its all out in the open. I am bias :)

[Gra]

well post us the website....:D:D, I would be interested in looking

[himzol]

OK heres one I plan to try this weekend,

750g of Ginger root put through the food processor,
1 lemon
1 lime
1 KG of raw sugar

boil this lot for 30 minutes, strain and pour into fermenter

top up 20 liter mark,

Pitch champagne yeast and ferment @ 20 degrees

when the ferment is finished, carbonate on the high side to get a "champagne" style of fizz.

what say you?

And before anybody asks, I use a seperate fermenter for GB's so the flavours don't get into real beer.

H.

[mic-d]

Hi Himzol,
The scaled-up recipe I use would be more like

2kg sugar
400g ginger root
8tsp tartaric acid
etc

Cheers
Michael

[Tonyz]

can I get a fermenter from brew shops and whats champane yeast

cheers hic Tonz

[himzol]

can I get a fermenter from brew shops and whats champane yeast

cheers hic Tonz

Yep fermenters are the same as you would use for normal beer, as for champagne yeast I try and get Lavin Champagne Yeast EC 1118, but there is an alternative which Brewcraft sell which is also quite good, I think it's Red Star dry white wine yeast.

The champagne yeast generally makes for a more dryer tasting GB, there is still some residual sweetness because of the molases in the raw suger (so I'm told).


Hi Himzol,
The scaled-up recipe I use would be more like

2kg sugar
400g ginger root
8tsp tartaric acid
etc

Cheers
Michael

Hi Michael,

thanks for the input, I'll have to redo my numbers and see what they come up like :?

H.

[Hagrid]

I have a little problem with grain and am thinking i would like to make a GB or AS and although i see these mixes here i would like to know if they are alcoholic. (hope so) so could have a drink that i could make and take to parties and not feel out of place. At present i drink wine as a mainstay and this will continue but it would be nice to have my own brew to take.
Any advise would be of great help.


Regards Hagrid

[Gra]

if they are alcoholic.

To make them alcoholic, increase the sugar and ferment for longer..

[Ramps]

Looking for a premix that is not full of artificial sweetners. I used to have one a few years but haven't found it for quite a while so gave up on brewing GB.
Anyone got any ideas.:?

Coopers full of cyclamate
Brewiser full of cyclamate
and various other ones I've picked up also full of cr@p
sorry but the kids don't need low joule GB

In the mean time I'll stick to brewing my dark beers

[mic-d]

Hey Himzol, how did your brew turn out?

Cheers
Michael

[Sebastiaan56]

Here is the recipe I based my ginger beer (champagne) on. I just scaled it up for a 20l home brew drum. I let it ferment out for a "champagne" style drink. I added a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle at bottling. Sometimes I would bottle half after a few days of ferment and refrigerate for a sweeter drink.
I used brewers yeast.
http://www.thecontextualvillains.org/ranting/text/gingerbeer.pdf
Cheers
Michael

I used to do a sparkling mead flavoured by ginger. Brewed out the mead with about a kg of peeled, washed, shredded ginger in the bottom. Racked off, left for a month and then bottled with a little sugar syrup. The finished product had a sweet front pallet but finished very dry with the pungency you would expect. But that was 20yrs ago....

I dont like raw sugar as an ingredient as it is usually made by coating white sugar with molasses and the flavour doesnt do justice to molasses,

Sebastiaan

[Harrison]

Has any one tried the kirks Ginger Beer.
If so look at the ingredients. Its not brewed. it got artificial flavours. what a disgrace to the nation.:o and its realy bitterb in taste

[rrobor]

Thats the stuff we made in Scotland years ago when lemonade bottles had screw tops. A friend wanted to make a stronger brew, fed the thing for 10 or 12 days then bottled up. He blew a cupboard apart one seemed to trigger the next. So yes take care its quite gassy stuff.

[hybridfiat]

I brew mine down at Billabong Brewery in Myree Perth. Its called Tiger and is amodified lager recipe with little malt and heaps of ginger. 4.5% I think and we've had a tasting with Crabbies, Bundaberg, Matsos, and Stones. All have agreed that the Billabong brew is better than all but the Crabbes from the UK.
But Tiger costs me $1.15 per 330ml bottle. Thats $3.45 a liter. Cant beat that with a stick!:2tsup: