Should've known better

[lethaldog]

500g light crystal malt (I assume he means light malt)

I think you will find he means crystal malt grain, but who knows it does sound like alot of grain

[drsmurto]

I've just started making this recipe, but with some minor alterations - 1kg of raw sugar and 500g of brown sugar instead of the 1kg ofdextrose, a tsp of lemon juice and a pinch of nutmeg, and instead of a wine yeast i have a leftover Coopers Ale yeast. I also only ended up with about 900-950g of fresh ginger, but thats no big deal.

Its going to come out strong, but hopefully its a ripper. Will let you know in oh, say 4 weeks?

Its been more than 4 weeks so come on, how did it turn out. I am super keen to do a HB ginger beer from scratch and want to know how the raw and brown sugar went. How did the ale yeast work out?

Cheers
DrSmurto

[mikey]

I ended up with nineteen bottles of excellent ginger wine / beer. I don't know what the alcohol content was but it kicked arse! The cloves probably had something to do with that. I used cloves in a stout for the first time about four years ago and I overdid it. Two bottles and I didn't want to get off my chair. For hours. Cloves are a natural local anaesthetic, you can use it for tooth ache and stuff like that apparently. Well, it has more of a "general" effect when taken internally, in conjunction with alcohol at least.

Cheers,

Oliver

What amount would be overkill?

[Oliver]

I ended up with nineteen bottles of excellent ginger wine / beer. I don't know what the alcohol content was but it kicked arse! The cloves probably had something to do with that. I used cloves in a stout for the first time about four years ago and I overdid it. Two bottles and I didn't want to get off my chair. For hours. Cloves are a natural local anaesthetic, you can use it for tooth ache and stuff like that apparently. Well, it has more of a "general" effect when taken internally, in conjunction with alcohol at least.

Cheers,

Oliver

What amount would be overkill?

Mikey,

That wasn't actually my recipe. I was quoting someone.

But I'd think the 10 in the recipe in my first post would be a good starting point. Maybe a couple more if you're feeling adventurous, but you can always add more next time, but you can't take them out if you add too many!

Oliver

[NTRabbit]

I tried that recipe, hasn't turned out the best. Lacks the sweetness I was looking for, and is not carbonating as well as hoped.

[drsmurto]

I put down a version of the GB from scratch that Oliver posted.

Slight variation thanks to the input of you lot!


~750 g of ginger (thats what 3 big pieces weighed)
1 cinnamon stick
8 cloves
1 lemon
2kg raw sugar
1 sachet champagne yeast (EC-1118?)

Throw ginger in food processor and chop lemon. Boil everything up for 1 hour (not yeast) in 3-4 L water. Cool in ice water then filter into fermenter, top up to 15 L with cold water, pitch yeast.

Tasted before pitching yeast and its like a sweet bundy GB so with any luck, once the sugar ferments it will be dry and with a little bit of kick. OG was 1046 so wont be potent but still pack enough punch to do the job.

Will let you know how it goes.

Anyone have a similar recipe for a cider? Was thinking of using fresh juice and a yeast. Will have to add a little sugar perhaps? What sort of apples?

Cheers
DrSmurto

[drsmurto]

The GB has finished fermenting, FG 1.000! Very very dry and lacking sweetness so will add some lactose when bulk priming and see how we go, 250g sound about right for the lactose? It tastes nice and gingery tho, with some subtle spices too. Potent tho, SG 1.046 so alc = 6.7%.

Found an old recipe for GB in a very old homebrewing book - all in oz and lbs. bugger all ginger compared to the one i put on and wants 10 lemons!

250g ginger
10 lemons, juice and rind
2.5 kg sugar
650 g lactose.

I assume the extra lactose is to balance out the lemon but i reckon it would need more ginger.

[Pale_Ale]

That is waayyyyyy too much lemon, it would not taste like ginger beer. Particularly if it was boiled too.

I recently did a recipe with 125g grated fresh ginger and that came out with a nice kick. I boiled it for a while though. (Also bearing in mind this is 125g once grated, as you lose alot of the ginger when peeling etc.)

[drsmurto]

Peeled? Didnt bother with that - 750 g in a food processor then strained into the fermenter.

Agree 10 lemons is more like lemonade than GB.

Any thoughts on the lactose - i need to go to the HBS today so i can bottle tonight.

[Pale_Ale]

My thought process behind peeling was that some dirt residue may be on the outer which may pass through the strainer. Whether that's a little over the top or healthy home brew paranoia, I don't know.

The quantity of ginger could probably be decreased where it is being boiled. Good example would be go and get some ginger tea, put one bag in cold water and one in boiling. I think the boiling one would releae the ginger flavours better. Again, just what I do, don't know if it's right.

[drsmurto]

I strain through pantyhose (boiled to remove dyes and sanitise) and they are reasonably fine, stops most things getting thru. i gave the ginger a bit of a scrub first to get rid of most of the dirt. Am super impressed the FG got down to 1.000 (triple checked this) and its very very dry so with a bit of lactose i reckon this will be a pearler! Perfect new years eve drink, may even add some CC for a little bit more kick

[drsmurto]

Couldnt wait! Cracked one open last night and bloody hell its got a kick. One glass and you could feel it, super dry stuff, prob could do with a dash of lemonade. Will be taking it along for new years for sure!!!!! Defo something i will be doing again, cheap, easy and damn tasty!

[coloneldom]

One quick question fellas, what the hell are cloves?? Cloves of garlic?? I can't wait to try a GB for my 3rd brew so your blokes inout has been invaluable

[rwh]

Cloves are a spice. They're used a lot in curries and stuff. Look a bit like a dried flower or something.

[drsmurto]

Yep, cloves are a spice used to make mulled wine and also in a lot of asian. middle eastern cooking. Supermarkets sell them but asian grocery stores are much cheaper.

Thought i would update you all on this beast.

I put down a version of the GB from scratch that Oliver posted.

Slight variation thanks to the input of you lot! Very Happy

~750 g of ginger
1 cinnamon stick
8 cloves
2 lemons
2kg raw sugar
1 sachet champagne yeast (EC-1118?)

15L. Works out to be ~7%. Mixed 2:1 with lemonade and is very popular, so much so i have 2 bottles left! Boxing day and NYE wiped out my stocks, everyone wanted some and mates have now asked/paid me to brew them more. I reckon $1 a tallie is fair....... who do i need to pay royalties to Oliver? Calling it Two Docs Ginger Beer.....

Have 2 batches fermenting right now. Decided to cut down on the alc and up the sweetness. So i upped ginger to 1kg and volume to 23L with the addition of 200g of lactose to the boil. 3 lemons. the 2nd pot has 250g of lactose and only 2 lemons.

Thanks again for the recipe and help with ideas.
DrSmurto

[velophile]

<snip>

I put down a version of the GB from scratch that Oliver posted.

Slight variation thanks to the input of you lot! Very Happy

~750 g of ginger
1 cinnamon stick
8 cloves
2 lemons
2kg raw sugar
1 sachet champagne yeast (EC-1118?)

<snipage>
DrSmurto

Hey Doc, is that fresh, pre-minced from a jar or ground ginger?

Also, I've found my GB was very slow to start fermenting. Like over 48 hours with no activity. Unlike a malt based beers that usually start within 4 - 12 hrs. I added some yeast nutrient to the last batch & it started a lot quicker. This is with the Coopers GB kit yeast which I suspect is the same as their other beer yeasts.
Does the Lavin EC-1118 fire up on sugar alone?

[drsmurto]

Fresh whole ginger put thru a food processor.

Champagne yeast (EC-1118 and also the current batch i have which is from craftbrewer and has no strain info on it) chewed thru my 7% batch in about 3 weeks. Started straight away. My 2 batches now are bubbling away merrily and started about 5 hours after i sprinkled the dry yeast onto the wort. No extra nutrient is required.

Hope that helps
DrSmurto

[velophile]

Thanks.

I've been wanting to do a kit free GB. Most recipes are for the old 'grow a plant' type of thing. I have been adding fresh & ground ginger to my Coopers kit batches with great success. The only trouble has been the lag with the yeast starting. I have used the Lavin 1118 to finish off a triple & had thought that a wine or champagne yeast would be better at eating sugar than the kit beer yeast.

I'll be trying a 'from scratch' recipe soon

[drsmurto]

Good luck mate, homebrewed GB sans kit and artificial sweeteners is the perfect summer drink. You will be popular! This recipe is very easy. And cos you arent using hops you can strain thru a normal wire mesh sieve! As long as you dont over process the ginger.......

[d_banger]

Follow can directions exactly except add 220gm packet processed Buderim Ginger Chips to the fermenter. (Chips are much smaller than regular-sized ginger pieces so a greater surface area per gram)


Where can you buy them?