HomebrewandBeer.com forum

Hello All,

I've recently had my first attempt at fashioning a gingerbeer without the use of a kit, using a variation of recipes i found on this forum.
Using the old "have a taste when taking a gravity reading" trick, i noticed that though it had plenty of the ginger "bite", it was severely lacking in flavour.

recipe:

1Kg Sliced ginger root
9 cloves
1/2 stick of cinnamon
~1.5kg Raw sugar
~0.5kg Dark Brown sugar
500g Lactose
100g ground ginger
Wine yeast + yeast nutrient
OG - 1.060
FG - 1.001
Bottled yesterday (still lacking flavour).

After my second gravity reading (where i noticed a lack of flavour), i decided to buy a GB kit and add the flavouring. This helped a little, but still has less flavour than anyone would want.
Has anyone else had a similar problem?
Any ideas?
Suggestions for my next attempt?

Cheers,

Stu.

It is still early days, bloke. Try not too read too much into the final product based on early gravity sample tastings. It will develop over time.

Having said that your recipes appears as though it shouldn't be severely lacking in flavour so I dunno. If it is still a bit lackluster when you've reached final gravity try adding a bottle of Buderim's Ginger Refresher and waiting for that to ferment out again. It does seem like cheating but I add one to every kit GB I do at the beginning of primary and it does seem to bring out a fuller GB.

Hi Stu! Yes, I've had that problem, with or without using a kit - and the same with apple cider. I've now given up on GB. The last batch I made was drinkable but only because of the extreme fizz and the alcohol content! The longer I left it the fizzier it got, until the last bottle I opened (5 months old) showered everyone with GB!! Just as well I didn't keep them any longer. Anna

Yeah, i definately haven't written it off yet (and i probably never will), but i was mostly just wondering if anybody else had similar experiences.
Thanks for the tip about the Ginger Refresher though, i might have to track some down.

Cheers.

Reminds me of the 13 year old ginger beer that I still have in the shed. Pity it was a kit to start with. Cracked one open last year or the last - still drinkable.

Just a thought Stu - how many litres did you make it up to? GB is usually only made up to 17L (not that it helped mine!)

I filled it to 22L (thanks Anna, i forgot to mention that), but i don't think thats the real problem. Even if i should have filled it to 17L, i wouldn't imagine that the extra 5L would have made such a drastic difference (when i say lacking in flavour, i mean it has almost NO ginger flavour. Even after adding the kit flavouring).

i've made several GBs from kits before, some were delicious, others......not so much. The best batch i've made was also highly explosive, leaving it with the affectionate name of "nosebleed" Ginger Beer

Anyway, hopefully this one is just a late bloomer, and if not, i'll probably just add some ginger cordial or ginger refresher (thanks Bum) on drinking.

I'll let you all know how it turns out.

Seems fairly common with ginger beer i would add some malt dry or liquid it will give it some body as it wont fully ferment out

Do a small boil say 4-5lt with ginger, cinnamon,and other goodies for 30min then srain into fermentor.
I would also suggest using an ale yeast US05 is good as it wont ferment as low as a wine yeast.

Wrighty.

BTW - forgot to have a stir about the "Binger Beer"! LOL.

Anna wrote:BTW - forgot to have a stir about the "Binger Beer"! LOL.

With a bottle ABV of around 8.5% (if my maths are right) then it may very well be aptly named for a binge session

Doh! I completely missed the pun - very clever (if indeed it was intentional?)

Hahahaha.

I only just noticed. Not intentional, but certainly aptly named.

Freudian slip perhaps?

Almost certainly

I used to buy my root ginger from the local supermarket but I've been put off recently by the fact that it just looks dry and tired. For the last batch, I bought ginger at a Philipino vegetable store that was plump and fresh. I think that makes a lot of difference to the flavour.
I grate my ginger root rather than slicing it, so that there's more surface area to contact with the liquid. And then I give it a good 1 hour boil with the sugar, lemons and cinnamon stick. I also add a chilli or two to the boil to give the brew a bit of aggression, and I don't bother with the cloves because I don't like them.
If the mix isn't boiled for long enough, the juice from the ginger won't be extracted from the root and into the brew.
But, as Bum said it was very early days when you tested it. How does it taste now?

For my last batch, I used 7 kg of sugar and 1.3 kg of grated ginger. It only took two weeks to ferment from 1170 to 990 which was a lot quicker than I expected. I don't think I've got the calculation right for ABV. You subtract the final SG from the original SG and then divide by 7.49, don't you? The resultant beer tastes good and ginger-y with a clean chilli finish that you can feel as you breathe out. I would have guessed it was 15% or so, but my calculations (which have to be wrong) put it higher.
Can someone advise me how to calculate properly?

Do you mean 1070 by any chance? My calcs for 1170 are so high that I'm not aware of any yeast that'd get you down to 990.

In terms of your specific question - there are different methods to work out a rough abv% and they're mostly equally valid. Just pick one you like. The one I use is the same as yours except I divide by 7.46 and I add up to .5% for bottle conditioning.

The ginger you're talking about is it that yellowish, tight skinned looking stuff? Personally I prefer the flavour from the older, darker, more papery skinned stuff. Flavour seems a bit more present with it to me.

Bum, you're absolutely right. I meant 1070 not 1170. Doh! So if I calculate that correctly, it comes out about 11%ABV. Not bad.
For the yeast, I used a "Super Strength Wine Yeast and Nutrient" that I bought locally and used it at the rate of 1 teaspoon to a gallon.
If you use the drier type of ginger, do you have the boil it for longer? I used the yellwish type you described and it seems to have plenty of juice in it.

The young ginger (yellowish stuff) is a bit juicier but I find I get a little more bite and lingering gingeriness out of the aged stuff. No reason not to use the young ginger, as I said it's just my preference. And as you say it is tasting good so who am I to argue with that?! An 11% GB sounds like really bad news to me though. I made a 7% one once and with GBs I just can't help myself from pounding them down, one after the other. Is there such a thing as chain drinking? Anyway, lesson learned is that the way I drink them I should aim at around 4.5% these days and I'll probably go lower for summer batches.

Bum wrote:An 11% GB sounds like really bad news to me though. I made a 7% one once and with GBs I just can't help myself from pounding them down, one after the other. Is there such a thing as chain drinking? Anyway, lesson learned is that the way I drink them I should aim at around 4.5% these days and I'll probably go lower for summer batches.

Totally agree Bum

GB is too easy to drink. I could imagine an 11% GB becoming untidy very early in the day (especially over summer). My 4%ish version suits me fine.

Planner

Well yes, I probably agree with Bum and Planner about the ABV.
But I first got interested in brewing ginger beer because I read an article about alcoholic ginger beer brewed in Victorian London. Apparently some brands were as high as 20%, and I sort of accepted the challenge to get up there with a GB that was half the strength of vodka . . .