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Coopers Ginger Beer Kit


DaneB

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Hey guys,

 

Just checked my Ginger Beer kit that's been going for 6 days now and it's completely stopped bubbling. I checked the SG and it's at about 1.010. Had a taste of it and it's still very sweet (think bundaberg ginger beer sweet). Wondering what your thoughts are? Is it meant to come out this sweet?

 

For reference my recipe was:

 

1 Coopers ginger beer kit

1kg Raw Sugar

1kg Dark Brown Sugar

Kit Yeast

 

Cheers

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Will do! In the mean time I pitched another packet of yeast just incase something had happened to the other yeast and it has started bubbling away again. I forgot to mention that I had two identical Ginger Beers Brewing. The first had stopped bubbling completely and the second was still bubbling away. Thats why I pitched the 2nd packet of yeast. Fingers crossed it comes out ok!

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Ginger beers take a while to ferment out; I don't think it would have finished in 6 days.

 

And ignore the airlock. The fact it is not bubbling doesn't mean it has stopped fermenting. Fermenting has probably slowed down and it isn't producing a huge amount of CO2.

 

It isn't a problem adding the extra yeast but give it more time (like another week or two) and see where it goes.

 

Like Ben 10 I have a non-kit GB down and it has taken about 4 weeks to get to 0.992.

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Hey Hairy,

 

I know you are a wonderful wizard, and could you explain to me a FG of 0.992.

 

Now I know hydrometers are calibrated at SG for water at 1.000 or 1000.

 

But your your FG is reading 0.992.

 

That is truly miraculous, Hairy.

 

Thinner, lighter and less dense than water.

 

Any more tricks in your wizard bag?[devil]

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I've done quite a few ginger beers because my better half just loves ginger. All up itS been 5 variations using Coopers GB and one quite disappointing one using Country Brew GB.

 

I was thinking that 1 kg of raw sugar and 1 kg of dark brown sugar seems quite a bit for an OS yeast to do in a week.

 

I've currently got one with 1 kg raw sugar and 750g dextrose going. It's day 9 for it and is still actively fermenting after I pitched a second sachet of yeast on day 5. The SG today was 1.011 and the airlock is still bubbling every 10 seconds. Most of my gingers stabilise around 1.004 to 1.006.

 

I can understand if the FG drops under 1.000, though, because I just checked and the SG of pure ethanol is 0.787 - but I'm guessing it would be a reasonably high ABV brew.

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HI All,

 

Yes, I admit I was a bit nervous in reading Dane's recipe in #1.

 

2 kg of pure cane granulated sugar!!!!!

 

Rocket fuel or as Elton John used to sing in Rocket Man, "When are you going to come down"[roll]

 

My recipe would be:

 

1 tin of Coopers GB

1 box of BE1

Some lemon zest

 

Now, the ladies would like that.

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Although it is more of a common practice adding large amounts of basic sugars to the gingers and ciders than we would to our beers. I find that treating what I call side projects with the same ingredients and practices as our beer brewing allows us to build a better flavour profile that we would enjoy more than the effects of high octane drinks[cool]

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The reason for the 2kg was that 1kg of raw sugar (as per the kit instructions) would bring the brew out at about 3.5%. I assumed that an extra 1kg of dark brown sugar would bring the abv out at around 5.5-6%

 

So Antiphile, did your coopers kit come out quite sweet? I mean, how sweet is it when all of the sugars ferment out and only the sweetener is left?

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Hey Dane,

 

You always want your GB's to come out in a low to mid ABV range.

 

Remember, it is a ladies' drink. Men drink beer. Right?

 

All those 2kgs of cane sugar will ferment out eventually, leaving you no sweetness. Sorry.

 

If you want sweet, then tip in a tblspn of sugar into the glass when pouring from the bottle. Stir well.

 

Enjoy your brew or tip it out.[ninja]

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You misunderstand what I'm saying John. I'm trying to work out whether the residual sweetness is from the saccharin artificial sweetener in the Coopers Kit or from sugars that are yet to be fermented.

 

And yes, it is a ladies drink. My Mrs likes the stuff relatively sweet, hence why I'm trying to work out the final sweetness level of the brew. It lets me know whether I need to back sweeten it or not.

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If the brew hasn't finished fermenting yet then it's probably due to a combination of both artificial sweetener and yet to be fermented sugars. As others have said, leave it for another week or two, ginger beers don't normally have the body of a regular beer so it's not uncommon for them to finish around the 1000-1005 mark, or under 1000. [cool]

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I just bottled a batch of GB for SWMBO yesterday.

It started at 1026, and got down to 1002.

Kept it at room temp the first week, then cooled it some the second to slow it down and settle.

 

I gave it two weeks in the FV; well actually the first week in a food grade bucket, as the FV was holding my Coopers APA, but when I bottled that I transferred to the FV for a week of conditioning, and to make it easier to pour into the bottles.

It does of course have some bitterness to it, but it's better than the last batch I made.

 

I made the previous batch from scratch, from some recipe I found online, improvised a little too much, used some home grown ginger, powdered ginger, and even some minced ginger from the fridge and I think some turmeric may have sneaked in too.

I used whatever sugars I could find with that batch, so some raw sugar, some caster sugar, even some malt and honey.

It turned out drinkable, but you had to add ginger beer cordial to the mix to make it taste like ginger beer!

It had more bite than a pit-bull, and was just as attractive!

 

For my money, stick to Coopers kits and just add a little of what you like, but you can't go wrong with the Coopers GB with the recommended 1 kg of raw sugar.

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So Antiphile' date=' did your coopers kit come out quite sweet? I mean, how sweet is it when all of the sugars ferment out and only the sweetener is left?[/quote']

 

Woohoo! After a frantic day I'm back online [roll] One of the network bridges died and I had to setup a new one.

 

Dane, sweetness is very subjective I suppose, but after full fermentation, I find the Coopers GB to be plenty sweet enough. The only thing I need to change is the addition of more of a ginger taste to keep Brunhilda happy. I've now settled on steeping 400g finely sliced and chopped raw ginger at about 80C for 45 mins. It becomes the colour of strong tea, then I strain it it to the FV after a little cooling.

 

Like Zaphod, my current batch looks like it will go down to at least 1.002. Yesterday it was 1.004 and still bubbling every 30 secs or so.

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  • 1 year later...

I just brewed my first batch of Coopers Ginger Beer, thought I'd share the experience. As this was my first ginger beer kit (I've been brewing regular beer for many years) I followed the recipe on the can, using 1kg granulated cane sugar and a brew bin equipped with an aquarium heater set at 28°C.

 

I lost track of the time, but I checked the gravity when the bubbling stopped, very close to 1.0, so I transferred to a keg (there was very little yeast sediment in the bottom of the brew bin) with 100g of granulated and allowed to stand for 48 hours before bottling.

 

Two weeks later I had my first taste - absolutely superb! Sweet, but not overly so. Exactly how I'd hoped it would taste, but sadly not as alcoholic as I would like. I'll use more sugar next time, maybe 1.5kg - already ordered the kit!

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28C is a bit warm although maybe it's not such a problem with that kit. Obviously in this case it's worked out alright.

 

Also no need to transfer to a keg or whatever, just leave it sit in the fermenter (brew bin) until you're ready to bottle it.

 

In any case, glad to hear it turned out well. A few people report sub-par results with that kit due to the artificial sweetener in it.

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Probably the low 20s. High ferment temps can lead to fusel alcohols which not only taste like crap but they lead to terrible hangovers as well.

 

It's not the only way - however, if you use this method I'm about to describe the brew won't be very alcoholic. With the kit it's irrelevant due to it already having artificial sweeteners in it, but if you brew a batch from scratch you can simply ferment it in PET/soft drink bottles and then fridge them once they go hard. I suppose you could do this with a brew already fermented out by adding another kg of sugar or whatever to it instead of ~200g for carbonation.

 

I've yet to really brew any 'soft drink' type drinks so I'm just going off what I've read elsewhere here.

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28C is a bit warm although maybe it's not such a problem with that kit. Obviously in this case it's worked out alright.

 

Thanks for the advice Otto' date=' 28C has worked well for me with other brews, definitely no problem with hangovers, but I'll try a couple of degrees cooler next time, see if I can taste a difference.

 

Also no need to transfer to a keg or whatever, just leave it sit in the fermenter (brew bin) until you're ready to bottle it.

 

I find it easier to bottle from the keg, I use one of those wands with the valve at the bottom. Makes bottling less of a chore. biggrin

 

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If you reckon 28C is doing a good job then you'll be blown away if you start fermenting around the 20C mark. It will be a vast improvement. biggrin

 

I'm a bit confused about the next part though... if you have kegs, why are you bottling? And what type of keg has a tap at the bottom to allow the wand to be attached? Does the fermenter itself not have a tap on it? unsure

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