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Brigalow Ginger Beer?


Venom

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Hi guys and Girls, just thought I'd try a Brigalow Ginger beer (Alcoholic of course :-P) now my question is this, I have a 1kg of Dextrose but on the can it says 1kg of raw sugar, can I use the dextrose in its place? or should I just pick up the raw sugar on my way home from work and stop being lazy? also does GB need finings? lol sorry guys first time trying this one.

 

thanks in advance :D

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  • 6 years later...

Does anyone know how to account for the contents of a Brigalow Ginger Beer can?

I don't think this kit is listed in the Ian H Spreadsheet.

I'm thinking that since it is artificially sweetened, it may actually have no fermentables in it.

Just thinking of recreating my Dark Ginger beer with a Dark Ale kit and would like to calculate its predicted ABV,

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I made this used the brigalow 1kg Dex turned out like clear non carbonated ginger wine lol .

That was using the coopers carbanation drops as per bottling.

Father in law also made it he used 1kg of cheap brown sugar.

His is a lot better than mine was and looked like ginger beer color wise.

However this said regardless of the sugar I'd be adding in like a good whack of raw ginger if I ever made this again it just isn't that gingery in my opinion.

I also keg now so carbanation wise I'll be right maybe it's on the horizon in summer but I have read elsewhere there's better ginger beer extracts than brigalow.

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1 hour ago, Boozadog said:

I made this used the brigalow 1kg Dex turned out like clear non carbonated ginger wine lol .

That was using the coopers carbanation drops as per bottling.

Father in law also made it he used 1kg of cheap brown sugar.

His is a lot better than mine was and looked like ginger beer color wise.

However this said regardless of the sugar I'd be adding in like a good whack of raw ginger if I ever made this again it just isn't that gingery in my opinion.

I also keg now so carbanation wise I'll be right maybe it's on the horizon in summer but I have read elsewhere there's better ginger beer extracts than brigalow.

Thanks I was trying to work out of the can had any sugars in it at all. I could then plug that into the spreadsheet. 

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Well I've answered my own question by calling the Brigalow help line. I could go into detail as to why but suffice to say that the very helpful chap I spoke to said that there would be approximately 200g of fermentable sugar in each Brigalow Ginger Beer can.

From there I will now be able to do some approximations for future recipes.

In case anyone else was wondering, now you know!

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  • 4 months later...

hey Venom and other GB chemists. 

I found a tin of the Brigalows GB extract and made some mods as follows..

Brigalow Ginger Beer kit.
750ml Buderim ginger refresher
3 x 230g minced ginger jars
1 cinnamon stick
8 cloves
250g honey
1.5 kg raw sugar

Boil all except sugar up for 30 minutes (not yeast) in 4 L water. strain /filter x 2.
dissolve sugar and 1 x 750ml of buderim ginger beer cordial,  
cover and Cool (to 19°) for a few hours and add to clean, sterilised and rinsed fermenter,
top up to 23L with boiled then cooled rain water, when temp gets to about 19 C pitch US-05 yeast, NOT the yeast and nutrient that come with the tin. 

4. Allow to ferment for 7 days at 19 degrees C. Check FG it should be close to 1.000-1010 
5. Once fermentation is complete, bottle with 2 x carbon drops. 
6. store for at least 3 weeks. 

it's been moving around like a lava lamp all week.  day 6 today and is at 1.022 (2.63ABV☹).

it tastes great but not the ABV I was hoping for. where did I go wrong and is there anything I can do to up the ABV?

Also. is it true that I could have problems using my FV for normal beer now I've tarnished it with the GB?

thanks in advance. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 1/30/2021 at 3:13 PM, lynchman said:


top up to 23L with boiled then cooled rain water, when temp gets to about 19 C pitch US-05 yeast, NOT the yeast and nutrient that come with the tin

4. Allow to ferment for 7 days at 19 degrees C. Check FG it should be close to 1.000-1010 
...

it's been moving around like a lava lamp all week.  day 6 today and is at 1.022 (2.63ABV☹).

it tastes great but not the ABV I was hoping for. where did I go wrong and is there anything I can do to up the ABV?

I would have put the yeast nutrient in.  I think the US-05 has stalled due to lack of nutrients. This is why the SG was so high after 6 days.   Since posting this original msg, did it go any lower?

You did not mention the OG, but 2.63% @ 1.022 would indicate 1.042-> 1.022. So, if it makes it down to 1.010, i.e. 1.042-1.010, that would be 4.20% ABV.  Adding 2 carbonation drops per 750ml bottle would increase this a further 0.5% to about 4.7%.  

https://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

If the FG is 1.010 or lower, I'd then taste it to see how sweet it tastes. If insufficiently sweet, I'd sweeten it with a non-fermentable (NF) sweetener (lactose, sucralose etc.) a day before bottling. (Allow a little time for the stirred wort to settle again. before bottling, unless you are NF sweetening & bulk priming in a 2nd vessel.)

Dan.

Edited by dosdan
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hey Dan.

we are 16 bottles into the 30 and loving it. the calculations you have made are accurate,  and I worked out it was around 4.5-4.7 ABV in the end. I reckon it could have been sweeter so was going to up it to 2kg raw sugar instead of 1.5kg, but I'll stick with 1.5kg and follow your suggestion of adding late NF sweetener. one kg to 23l?

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm still learning. 

🍻

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51 minutes ago, lynchman said:

hey Dan.

we are 16 bottles into the 30 and loving it. the calculations you have made are accurate,  and I worked out it was around 4.5-4.7 ABV in the end. I reckon it could have been sweeter so was going to up it to 2kg raw sugar instead of 1.5kg, but I'll stick with 1.5kg and follow your suggestion of adding late NF sweetener. one kg to 23l?

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm still learning. 

🍻

Hey mate,

Got me wanted to brew a ginger beer.

I wouldn't go as high as 1kg first off. Maybe, 460g then up it or lower it from there.

460g gives you 20g per Lt at 23lts.

Cheers,

Jason

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On 2/24/2014 at 4:15 AM, Venom said:

Hi guys and Girls, just thought I'd try a Brigalow Ginger beer (Alcoholic of course :-P) now my question is this, I have a 1kg of Dextrose but on the can it says 1kg of raw sugar, can I use the dextrose in its place? or should I just pick up the raw sugar on my way home from work and stop being lazy? also does GB need finings? lol sorry guys first time trying this one.

 

thanks in advance 😄

hey venom. I'm into my first brigalow GB and it's a hit. I did do some experimenting (see recipe in thread) to disguise the taste of artificial sugars in the tin.  I also used US-05 instead of yeast with tin. I want the next one to be sweeter so will add non-fermenting NF sugars a day before bottling as suggested on forum.  I'm also going to use yeast nutrient (that comes in tin) with the next batch.

Hope this helps. 

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3 hours ago, lynchman said:

hey Dan.

we are 16 bottles into the 30 and loving it. the calculations you have made are accurate,  and I worked out it was around 4.5-4.7 ABV in the end. I reckon it could have been sweeter so was going to up it to 2kg raw sugar instead of 1.5kg, but I'll stick with 1.5kg and follow your suggestion of adding late NF sweetener. one kg to 23l?

Thanks for your suggestions. I'm still learning. 

🍻

Upping the sugar will not aid the sweetness but it'll up the ABV. The extra sugar will just ferment and make more alcohol. 

If you want to sweeten it, add some artificial sweetener to it before bottling. Use Equal if you don't want the saccharin taste or better still, use Monk Fruit sweetener (should be in the sugar isle in Woolies or Coles).

 

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8 hours ago, lynchman said:

the monk fruit sweetener has 100% Monk fruit!

Sweeteners (*Organic Erythritol 99%, Monk Fruit Extract 1%)

the 1% of monk fruit extract is 100% from monk fruit.

Apparently the stuff is so sweet, you couldn't dose it without it being cut with something else. 

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6 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

Lactose won't leave the taste, no idea about sucralose.

 

I found this on the Splenda site: "Sucralose is so intensely sweet (about 600 times sweeter than sugar) that replacing one teaspoon of sugar would require only one six-hundredth of a teaspoon of sucralose...
...So to give it necessary bulk, maltodextrin is added to SPLENDA® Granular, maltodextrin plus dextrose to SPLENDA® Sachets, and lactose to SPLENDA® Tablets."

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I made a Coopers - is it Morgan's now - GB and used up some scraps of light and dark dme, it fermented down ok but was terribly sweet.  I've left it in the keg to see if it'll ferment down a bit more but it was undrinkable really.  They've always worked reasonable well before, dunno what went wrong.  Might bring some up to temp and try to ferment it further just to see.

Haven't been real happy with GB for a while,.  Prev to the supersweet, I had one go bad, I'd added shredded raw ginger to the batch, boiled well, still went bad., only time I lost a batch of beer. I'd also used one of those MJ's pouch kits but didn't realize that it was hopped and it turned out way too bitter for GB.

So anyone that's got a good tasty GB that works every time, ears are open.

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