Having a go at Alcoholic Ginger Beer

[shayneh2006]

Ist time poster here guys so go easy on me.

I have been home brewing Beer all of my Adult life (off and on) and at 43yo, have made kit Ginger beer a few times but now, i am going to do it Alcoholic.


So, i purchased 5 Cans of the Coopers stuff ready to try and have a go at it,, and today i did


I have read most of the threads related to this here, and had settled on a boil advised by one of the guys here, but with my own twist.


Heres how i did it (feel free to comment or advise)


The Boil

1x Cinnamon sticks
12 Cloves
225g Peeled Fresh ginger (Net) processed
The grated zest and flesh (diced) of 1 lime
4x small Chillies (Scuds) sliced

Add three litres of water to a sanitised pot with lid and bring to the simmer. Add Ginger, Cinnamon, , Cloves, Chillies and Lime and hard simmer for 40 mins.




14/06/13
Type: Coopers Ginger Beer
Sugars: 2x 1kg bag of Raw Sugar, 500gr dried Malt extract
Yeast: ½ yeast (Ale) that came with it, ½ Coopers Brewmater Pils (saflager)
Temp at SG: 27 degrees
SG: 1052

Check Fermentation:

Finish Date:

Comments:


All ingredients as above.


Added sugars first to fermenter then strained in hot broth. Added contents of can and gave a good stir. Reinstalled strainer and filtered through three cans full of cold water. Gave a good stir.

Added cold water to 20 litres then pitched yeast.

To take my hydrometer sample, I poured ¼ test tube out (to clean out tap) and filled the test tube ready for the test.

I hope i have covered everything here.


Shayne

[Guru]

Hi Shayne, welcome. Most of what you have done looks pretty straight forward to me, although I would have tried to get the temp down lower before pitching the yeast.

I will be interested to see how your additions of ginger,cloves, cinnamon etc add to the final flavour. When I do ginger beer I only normally add some grated ginger. Everything you add sounds like it should work though.

[shayneh2006]

Hi Shayne, welcome

Cheers Guru

although I would have tried to get the temp down lower before pitching the yeast.

The reason i pitched it so high as it is pretty cold here now, and cold where i brew. Fermenter is wrapped in a sleeping bag. That said, to give the yeast a kick start, at this time of year, i always pitch on the higher end of the temp scale.


Shayne

[Guru]

No worries Shayne, let us know how it turns out.

[shayneh2006]

Well, the GB is finished and bottled today .

FG was 0998.

I have been taking readings over the last few days, and it settled on 0998 over two days. I tasted it on all samples, and I will note that it has a good Ginger taste however, somewhat sweet . A bit like the sweetness of a diet soda . I hope that settles down once the secondary ferment is complete.

I will report back after 3 weeks to tell how it finished taste wise


Shayne

[Oliver]

... somewhat sweet . A bit like the sweetness of a diet soda

That would be the Coopers Ginger Beer, which is packed with artificial sweetener, unfortunately. In my experience it doesn't dissipate with time I'm afraid to say.

There are a few recipes on the forum about how to make a GB from scratch. Maybe give that a go next time and compare the two.

Cheers,

Oliver