Ginger beer

[Midnightpriest]

Hey guys ,hope everyone is well .

I am looking at doing a ginger beer and was wondering what brand to use , my local homebrew shop has brigalow , colony west , coopers ,brewcraft (copper tun ) , mangrove jacks and morgans any suggestions would be very much appreciated

Thanks in advance

Midnightpriest

[ChristinaS1]

Hi Midnight. How big a batch do you want? I have never tried any commercial ginger beer kits because I would never want to have 20L.

 

I made a 4.5L batch of ginger beer once, the traditional way, which is with just sugar and no malt, and it was not very good. I think it would be best to use 70% malt and 30% raw sugar or honey, which is a basic brewing rule of thumb. I would avoid any ginger beer kit that lists sugar on the ingredient list; what would be the point of paying big bucks for sugar?

 

I am curious, what does the Coopers Ginger Beer ingredient label say?

 

Assuming the Coopers kit does not contain sugar, that would be ~980gm of liquid malt extract (= 785gm DME) to 1kg raw sugar, which is equivalent to 44% malt and 56% raw sugar. If it were me, I would use 500gm light DME and 500gm raw sugar or honey instead, which would line up well with my target. Your final gravity would end up a little higher, and mouthfeel would be better. The yeast would be less stressed and it would ferment faster.

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

 

 

[Midnightpriest]

Hi ChristinaS1

I did do a brigalow ginger beer with a few added ingredients like lemon flesh and zest +cinnamon +cloves and real ginger which turned out pretty good .

I have heard from a few people that brigalow isn't very good in their opinion so thought i would try a different brand , 20 litres is ok have plenty of people wanting to try it.

I will be going to brew shop tomorrow so will check out ingredients list for sugar.

I think your suggestion about 500gms light dme and 500gms raw sugar sounds good .

Thanks for the comments .

 

Midnightpriest

[Norris!]

Please post your recipe and tasting notes if it comes out good. I like a ginger in the summer.

[Billy1525230088]

I brew Morgan's GB quite often with a blend of 500g malt and 500g dextrose. Works out a treat however from the hydro reading I calculate the alcohol level to only be around 2.5%.

That's fine for the missus and I use Ginger Beer as a mixer with Bundy Rum (Dark & Stormy) which is a great change from Coke and extends the life of a bottle of Rum due to the added kick of the GB.

 

I Make 20 litres and it is usually gone within 4 to 6 weeks.

 

As for the Coopers GB I thought they stopped making that some time ago. Check out Ebay as sellers are asking big bucks for Coopers GB so buy up and make a buck if you can get it :)

[ChristinaS1]

I brew Morgan's GB quite often with a blend of 500g malt and 500g dextrose. Works out a treat however from the hydro reading I calculate the alcohol level to only be around 2.5%.

 

If you used raw sugar / turbinado instead of dextrose, the ABV would be slightly higher.

 

It would be simple to make a low IBU extract batch, using 30% raw sugar in the recipe, to whatever ABV you desire, but the trick then would be to figure out which form of ginger to use, how much to use, and when to add it; this could involve some trial and error....The advantage of a kit is that they have done that for you.

 

Recently I have been making "oleo saccharum" syrups with citrus zest. Apparently it is possible to do this with ginger as well. https://londoneats.wordpress.com/2014/06/29/oleo-saccharum/ I am tempted to make a both a lemon and a ginger syrup, brew an 8L mild ale, draw off a 250mL sample after fermentation, and then figure out the syrup doses needed for the batch. This would avoid having to cook the ginger and lemon.

 

Cheers,

 

Christina.

[Billy1525230088]

Hi ChristinaS1,

 

Thanks for your reply and advice which is noted and stored for future reference. I feel the need to clarify my post however, due to your possible misinterpretation of my alcohol content comment.

 

Midnight priest requested details of GB that brewers brew. My brew is quick and easy to make. 5 mins after sterilising the Fv and I'm done.

 

I ( by choice) brew a light (low alcohol content) quick & simple Ginger Beer. As I stated, the misses likes it as she can have a few on a hot Sunday afternoon and still keep her knickers on.

 

I like to use GB as a mixer so aloohol content is irrelevant but higher then coke so a plus.

 

In my humble opinion my recipe gives GB a fuller body with a solid yet not overpowering ginger taste, similar to Bunderberg Ginger Beer you buy from your corner store. A full body with a reduced watery taste of some.

 

Midnightpriest,

 

As Previously posted, my wife and I enjoy my quick and simple recipe however if you are looking for more kick and are happy to put in some extra effort ChristiansS1 has some sound advice and a recipe definitely worth a try.

 

PS: Rum and Ginger Beer, give it a go!

If going for a can you can't go wrong with Morgan's.

 

[Beervis]

The Morgan's GB kit confuses me a bit. Haven't tried it personally although I would trust it since they're owned by Coopers and their products review well.

 

What confuses me is Coopers apparent troubles finding a GB recipe that they like, that is affordable to make etc, you'd think if the Morgans one is ok it'd be easy enough to just use that? Since they already own it? which makes me think they may not endorse it?

 

I'm going to give this one a try though. I read another thread somewhere where the OP put a can of Brigalow GB into a dark ale kit - which sounds delicious.

I'm thinking I would prefer the malt backbone, I've tried a bunch of commercial alcoholic GB's and I just don't like them as much as the non-alcoholic Bundaberg style. They always have a gritty ethanol kick to them that I just don't like, and the ginger flavour always focuses on bitterness and none of the sweetness comes through. Possibly that's because they're not using sweet, artificial ginger, who knows

[Swannys Brewhouse]

YOU should grab that coopers ginger beer, its currently unavailable. closest thing to the coopers is the morgans, its quite good

[Happy Chappies]

I've currently got a ginger beer in the FV, made from scratch, after my extended in-laws demolished my current supply over Christmas/NY (They don't drink beer, but they'll readily mow through ginger beer. At least they were happy!)

 

Got a shock when I saw the price of fresh ginger though. $40kg! (And I've seen it up to $50!) Yikes. Would've have meant the 11l brew would've been over $40. More expensive than any beer I've made to date.

 

Ended up utilising jarred ginger, which was half the price. Will be curious to see how it impacts the outcome. Fermenter is certainly murkier than in the past but happily munching through it, bringing the readings from 1.06 to 1.002 in about 10 days.

[DonPolo]

The Morgan's GB kit confuses me a bit. Haven't tried it personally although I would trust it since they're owned by Coopers and their products review well.

 

What confuses me is Coopers apparent troubles finding a GB recipe that they like' date=' that is affordable to make etc, you'd think if the Morgans one is ok it'd be easy enough to just use that? Since they already own it? which makes me think they may not endorse it?

 

I'm going to give this one a try though. I read another thread somewhere where the OP put a can of Brigalow GB into a dark ale kit - which sounds delicious.

I'm thinking I would prefer the malt backbone, I've tried a bunch of commercial alcoholic GB's and I just don't like them as much as the non-alcoholic Bundaberg style. They always have a gritty ethanol kick to them that I just don't like, and the ginger flavour always focuses on bitterness and none of the sweetness comes through. Possibly that's because they're not using sweet, artificial ginger, who knows[/quote']

 

I did the BG dark ale mix. A very delicious, if sweet beverage. If you like sweet and malty it will be for you. You could probably make it a bit less sweet by omitting the extra sugar it recommends but I don't think it would be much less sweet because it has an artificial sweetener in it. The Morgans' one might be the go if it isn't artificially sweetened and you don't add sugar.

[Herbal Alchemy.]

Just my 2cents in regards to the artificial sweeteners in Cooper's gb kits,

I onced brewed a mangrove jack (perry) cider and there was a liquid sweetner that came in a yeast sized satchel within the kit. So you can judge just how sweet you want to make it. This in my opinion would suit us gb brewers as you then have a choice how much if any, artificial sweetener you may or may not want as it could be substituted by more natural sweeteners ..aka (lactose/steva).

 

Ps. Bring back coopers ginger beer!!!! (Its only been a year now lol)

[Mizz]

I've currently got a ginger beer in the FV' date=' made from scratch, after my extended in-laws demolished my current supply over Christmas/NY (They don't drink beer, but they'll readily mow through ginger beer. At least they were happy!)

 

Got a shock when I saw the price of fresh ginger though. $40kg! (And I've seen it up to $50!) Yikes. Would've have meant the 11l brew would've been over $40. More expensive than any beer I've made to date.

 

Ended up utilising jarred ginger, which was half the price. Will be curious to see how it impacts the outcome. Fermenter is certainly murkier than in the past but happily munching through it, bringing the readings from 1.06 to 1.002 in about 10 days. [/quote']

Can you post your scratch recipe for Ginger Beer? The only Ginger beer we find around my neck of the woods is non-alky, not much use for that. I saw a You-Tube video once and copied that guy's recipe, it was really bad .... I'd appreciate a good recipe.

Thanks