Wayne (Captain Yobbo) Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Out of you experience and wisdom guys what is better Non alcoholic ginger beer or alcoholic ginger beer im having trouble deciding on which one i will make after my sparkling ale Cheers 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I'd put my money on alcoholic but having made many GBs they never really taste very good without a slug of lemonade. I've used many many different recipes with additions such as fresh ginger, chillies, cloves etc but it alway comes out ok...not great. But as I said a slug lemonade makes it taste much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoobrew Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 I'd love to say that it has aged for ever but...The misses kinda needed a pick me up last night so I cracked one I bottled on the 29th...few ice cubes she likes it...and calmed her down!! That was 1kg of raw sugar, 500g of dark brown sugar and 50g of ground ginger(in a pack dry like malt ;), she lived in QLD for a year and used to drink bundy ginger beer(the alcoholic one) she said to me...thats going to be better than the bundy next week...took 2 weeks in the fv came out out 1005 fg. best alcoholic ginger beer Ive had, loving the idea of ushering in a fantastic Australian spring with some fantastic cooper homebrew ginger beer! Anything that keeps the women happy is good by me anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne (Captain Yobbo) Posted May 31, 2012 Author Share Posted May 31, 2012 decisions decisions might go the alcoholic version still debating but have a sparkling ale going in the fermenter this weekend so we will see in 2 weeks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoobrew Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 Am I an idiot to assume you have done a simple addition like dark brown sugar? and powdered ginger? As a horticulturalist its potentially risky adding raw ingredients like fresh ginger, chillies, cloves etc but it alway comes out ok...not great. Any plant bought at a shop as fresh, needs to be treated as so. Its a living organism, fresh ginger is like onion and can absorb bacteria within minutes of being grated etc without being sanitised. As a horticulturalist I preffered to use a powdered ginger, cloves, chillie etc as it most likely has less bacteria floating around in it than the fresh stuff. If you want good success from using 'fresh' ingredients like herbs or chillies I would completely recommend treating them the exact same as hops...I havnt tested this but science would predict that this is the right thing to do with fresh additives like hops to any brew? Is that about right using logic considering you boil or at least sanitise any kind of hops you put in a brew(as far as I know sanitising ie killing bacteria occurs by keeping any 'fresh' substance at over 60 degrees for more than 6 minutes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gash Slugg Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 you dont sanitise Hops, they have natural antibacterial properties, for want of a better term, its late and I'm drunk lol. Chillies etc. can just be soaked in Vodka or similar over night to sanitise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 I make ginger beer the old-fashion way, with a gingerbeer plant, and never had any problems using fresh ginger provided its peeled. The best way to do it though is to grate it, skin and all, into about a liter of water, bring to the boil and boil for 10-15 minutes, then just use a normal kitchen seive to get all the grated bits out. You can repeat it if you want to get the rest of the flavor out, but it doesn't make much of a difference. I used to just grate it raw into the FV, skin and all, but then you have to get it out afterwards. But still never had any problem with infection etc. Some people will just peel it and dice it into small cubes, but i think grating it is easier. I've never really liked using powdered ginger as it can make a mess of the FV. I'm sure somewhere i have an awesome recipe that you can make in a 2liter soda bottle, well worth a make and ready to drink in 2 days. I'll try find it for anyone who's interested. Its well worth trying, the kids will have a great time helping you (and drinking it), and carbonated like a champion. If I cant find it, i'll just play with what i have brewing and come up with a suitable recipe within a couple of days. Personally, I don't like the coopers Ginger beer kit. I think its got a fake sweetener taste to it and no real kick. But lots of people like it (cos it keeps SWMBO happy I presume) [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gash Slugg Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 That would be great Lord!! I agree the coopers ginger beer has never done it for me either. In the early 90s I remember brewing the vodka and orange and bourbon and coke kits (not Coopers) too , they were nasty but I was young lmao Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Can't find it, but I have to knock up a fresh batch anyway, so i'll tinker a bit and try to remember the old recipe and make a batch of that too. I never tried those kits, I remember them but they stopped selling them around here when i was about 13. I can't imagine them being good for anyhing apart from getting you drunk and very hung over. Anyway, I have a Fruit Salad to bottle, IPA to put on, and if i'm not sick of it by then I'll toy around with the ginger beer a bit for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gash Slugg Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Thanks mate, although hungover , I need to bottle my Hop Gobbler today and maybe stick another real ale on. I need a maid... and a beer wench : ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Didn't I mention? its a great hangover cure [biggrin] Anyway, here's what I came up with. It tastes about right. I used some ale yeast because i had it, but this will work with any high temperature yeast like wine yeast, bread yeast, ale yeast, hefeweizen yeast, etc. It will work with lager yeast too, but that'd take too long and it would mean temperature control. I used bread yeast for this in Sydney in the summer and it was good (although tasted a bit like bread yeast). If the empty 2 liter soda bottle was coke or something simila, no need to sterilize it as coke is pretty much star san with sugar. normal table sugar is fine. Cream of tartar is optional. hardware: 2 saucepans, 1 empty 2liter soda bottle, seive, funnel, spoon ingredients : water, sugar, ginger root, a lemon, cream of tartar(optional), yeast In saucepan 1, add 1.75 liters water, 100g sugar, juice and zest (no white) of half a lemon, and grate in 60g ginger root (no need to peel it). Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and sit in a sink of cold water to cool. Add some water to saucepan 2, put your seive in it, boil for 5 minutes. Yay, they're sterilized too now! When the sugar/ginger water is cool, taste it, it should be slightly sweeter than you want the end product to be. If not, no harm, or you could add a bit more sugar, it'll disolve anyway. optional :add 1 teaspoon (4g) of cream of tartar, stir seive into saucepan 2. discard ginger mush, its good for the compost. Add a half teaspoon of yeast (2g), stir. Funnel the liquid into the empty 2 liter bottle, squeeze air out, cap. Leave it somewhere warm until the bottle is very firm (check it after about 12 hours), then put it in the fridge for a day. Enjoy![biggrin] It might not be as you like it the first time, but just adjust the amounts of sugar, lemon, and ginger to suit you the next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gash Slugg Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 thanks mate much appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 No worries Gavin, I'm looking foreard to a glass of it. If you like it, don't discard the trub, just put the next batch on top of it, and the next batch, and the next batch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 As a horticulturalist its potentially risky adding raw ingredients like fresh ginger' date=' chillies, cloves etc but it alway comes out ok...not great.[/quote'] The ingredients are boiled Stoo...I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but I'm not a total fool [cool] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 probably the fastest brew i've seen on here ever. 24 hours and mine is brewed, carbonated, and tasty. It might need some extensive conditioning though, It might not be at its best until breakfast time [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayne (Captain Yobbo) Posted June 4, 2012 Author Share Posted June 4, 2012 probably the fastest brew i've seen on here ever. 24 hours and mine is brewed, carbonated, and tasty. It might need some extensive conditioning though, It might not be at its best until breakfast time [biggrin] Sounds interesting especially how quick it is ready Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Go for it. Worst case scenario, you've wasted 2 or 3 dollars and a half hour of your time... You can leave out the ginger completely for other flavors. Add more lemon and you've got lemonade vanilla for cream soda Apple juice for appletizer (make sure there's no additives like potassium sorbate) Pear juice for peartizer Cranberry + extra sugar makes a fantastic vodka mixer. Grape is ok. I haven't tried it, but i suppose you could use malt and hops and end up with a non-alcoholic malty hoppy soft drink. They drink something similar in Russia but I can't remember the name of it. Almost anything I've tried worked out well (apart from orange or pineapple), just remember to leave 200-300 ml of the 2liter bottle empty, squeeze out all of the air and cap tightly. It'll get to that first birst of fermentation and the bottle will become rock solid. If you don't squeeze out the air, you don't give the yeast enough of a chance to get started before the pressure builds. DO NOT LEAVE IT OUT FOR LONG AFTER THE PRESSURE HAS BUILT UP! Strong as 2liter soda bottles are, the pressure will eventually burst them and cause a powerhose of lovely smelling sugar laced delight all over your kitchen. Bung it in the fridge to put the yeast to sleep and the pressure will carbonate it beautifully for you over night. And unlike Coke or other fizzy drinks, it doesn't seem to go flat. The pressure builds back up and it recarbonates itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazza77 Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 LordEoin, thanks for your soda bottle recipe. Drinking it now and it goes down very well and was a cinch to make! Will have to try adding a few more lemons for the next time. I wonder if you could make an alcoholic version of this by letting it ferment in the bottle?? Maybe some glad wrap and a rubber band on the lid. Let it ferment for a few days then pour into a secondary soda bottle with sugar for carbonation leaving sediment in the first bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 I'm glad you like it[happy] Yeah, it's a breeze to make and to play with. Now teach the kids and you'll have fresh ginger beer for life. They seem to love making it as much as we love making beer. [biggrin] (but they'll 'sample' half the wort) You can make an alcoholic version no problem, no need for glad wrap or secondary FVs or anything. just - add more sugar to start (cos the yeast will be eating up your sweetness) - fill to about an inch from the top, dont queeze the air out, and don't fully tighten the cork (that creates a Co2 layer and lets the gas out, very similar to using an airlock) - when its a little sweeter than the taste you're going for, tighten the cork and let some pressure build. (a litle sweeter because the yeast will be eating a bit more of the sugar for carbonation) I suppose you could move it to a second bottle to leave the sediment behind, but it's not really hurting anyone so i just leave it. - no need to prime as you've still got sugar in the solution - when you've got pressure, bung it into the fridge to put the yeast to sleep. (warning, you'll have high pressure quickly because of the reduced 'headroom') This part probably a little off as I was only playing really, so my readings were quick and kinda guestimated but it might give you a starting point. I really just wanted to see what was going on in the bottle, kept some rough notes, but they're damn basic (and again, probably not very accurate)[unsure] : 10g sugar to every 100ml liquid puts it to about OG 1.032 After 3 days its down to about 1.010, still had some sweetness, (aprox 2.8%), tasted 'nice' Another batch was left for a week, went fairly clear and ended up at 1.002 (aprox 3.9%), tasted 'hot, strong, no sweetness'. Only suitable for the sink or cooking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrahamB8 Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 Im going to make some of this soda today....if they blow up and make a mess of my kitchen Eoin your coming to Queensland to clean it up Thanks for the recipe mate [kissing] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canadian Eh!L Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 Hey Gang, This is my ginger beer recipe. It is deadly easy to put down and is so spicy & sweet.[love] Ginger Beer 1.7Kg Mexican Cervasa 500g LDM 566g Amber LME 500g honey 500g Fresh ginger root(pounded & boiled for 20mins) 25L water 2 lemons (halved, squeezed & boiled for 20mins) 22g Cascade (20mins) 8g Chinook (20mins) 7g Cooper's ale yeast 200g Dex (bulk prime) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrockOhopter Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 Hey Wayne, Probably a little late for a response on this, but I've been working away & missed this thread [annoyed] . I did the Coopers GB a while ago & set it up so i could have the best of both worlds! I got 2 GB cans & put down the 1st & bottled straight away for the non-alc. version, rinsed the FV, & put the 2nd GB down for the alco batch. All in all, a couple of hours down & both brews going! Happy days! [lol] I thought they were both nice for 'stock-standard' kits. My neices & nephews pretty much demolished the non-alc GB! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 if they blow up and make a mess of my kitchen Eoin your coming to Queensland to clean it up Thanks for the recipe mate [kissing] You're welcome, and I'll happily clean you kitchen if it pops. Just pay for the flights and have a fridge full of cold beer for me and its done [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.