Bundaberg GB recipe

[beerdrinker]

Does anyone have a good non alcoholic version close to bundaberg GB? Having kegs now i should be able to carb it up same day? cheers

[Chris]

Sounds like a job for good old Google

[Kevnlis]

Does anyone have a good non alcoholic version close to bundaberg GB? Having kegs now i should be able to carb it up same day? cheers

Yup, easy as, go to Woolies and buy Bundy GB Cordial, follow the directions on the bottle

[beerdrinker]

Would prefer a tried and tested ginger beer with fresh ingredients. Maybe i should make it a bit alcoholic

[Chris]

A few have tried to copy Bundy, but none have ever come up with a clone. Let us know if you find one.

[drsmurto]

Ginger + sugar.

Yep, its rocket science.

[rwh]

I thought they had hops in there, at least that's what "they" said.

[drsmurto]

Kev would be the man to ask.....

I think they use a lot of crystallised ginger but the main flavours are sickly sweet and ginger, both very easy to achieve.

If you want alco bundy GB you will be pushing shit up hill as its virtually impossible to leave sugar in the presence of yeast. Do a search for ginger beer recipes and my name and you'll find a few threads it was somewhat of an obsession last year.

[Kevnlis]

Honestly my easy as, tastes nice recipe is to use the cordial, you can ferment malt extract, then add that to the keg in a 5:1 ratio with the cordial if you like but this only works for keggers as the cordial will ferment if you try to bottle condition.

Bundy uses a molasses like bi-product from the sugar mills and they pickle the ginger in it and age it for a while like this. That is what gives it that special unique flavour, or so I am told.

[Chris]

That ginger and sugar is starting to look a bit like rocket surgery after all, doc.

[beerdrinker]

Thanks for the advise,should i add cloves,cinnamon sticks,lemon etc? am just after a semi close recipe without the bullshit

[Chris]

All those spices work well (as well as many others) in a GB. And lemon is good for cutting some of the sweetness. Aside from that, it is up to taste.

[drsmurto]

Yep, as Chris said use those combo of spices and go easy on the sugar. As long as you dont add yeast it will all be good but carbing it will be the issue. If you keg no dramas (or maybe even a soda stream?).

[Kevnlis]

A bit of honey and a touch of molasses is nice as well, but go easy on both. As for the lemon, I like to use zest rather than juice, the zest of an avaerage size lemon is good for an 18L batch. Ginger I usually age for at least a month in the bottom of the fridge, anywhere from 1 to 1.5 kilos depending on your taste.

[beerdrinker]

Thanks Kev,could you post a GB recipe?you sound like you know what your doing the reason im after a tried recipe has something to do with the 2 cases of country brewer GB made as per instructions that i refuse to drink cheers

[Kevnlis]

Honestly I think GB is one of those things that needs to be made to personal taste. But my favourite recipe that doesn't use the Bundy Cordial is:

1.5 kilos Ginger (aged for a month, peeled and purred in the blender)
2 kilos LLME
zest of 1 lemon
2 cinnamon sticks
300g Leatherwood honey
tbs molasses

For 18L batch, boil everything in 4L water then top up with cold water. Ferment with cider yeast and prime the bottles as per normal.

[beerdrinker]

Sweet ill give that a go! any idea on alc% Kev? Ive just ordered a carbonater cap from Ross so i can do mini batches with the cordial

[Kevnlis]

It is about 4% I think, also make sure you add the honey at flame out, don't boil it (you only need to boil for 5 minutes or so). If you want to use the cordial ferment the 2 kilos of LLME in 18L water, ferment out fully then rack to keg, chill and add 3x bottles of Bundy cordial.