First let me say that I am enjoying reading all the different thoughts and ideas on this forum. My wife got me started with a beer kit this Christmas and I just can?t stop. This is my 8th batch since I started brewing Jan 6, 2008.

A desire for Ginger Beer came over me the other day. Google is a great thing. With a short search I came up with a number of recipes for Ginger Beer Soda. One recipe suggested adding some malt extract and fermenting longer to make an alcoholic Ginger Beer.

This is what I put together. Please comment on what you think will come of this brew. Any suggestions for the future including carbonation levels at bottling time would be greatly appreciated.

2.5 gallon batch
6 lemons sliced thin
6 ounces of grated ginger root
2 lb brown sugar
3.3 lb UME Pilsen Light from Bress CBW
11 g Nottingham yeast (dry)

I boiled one gallon of water while slicing the lemons and grating the ginger. As the water reached a boil I started adding the ginger and lemons, returned to a boil and then simmered for 30 min. At about 20 min I added the brown sugar then the UME. I let this just start to boil then killed the heat. With on gallon of cold water in a sanitized 3 gal carboy the wart was strained into the carboy. A cold water bath was use to help drop the temp to 80 deg F. The yeast was mixed with 2 cups of warm water while the mixture was simmering. I pitched the yeast at 80 deg F, shook the daylights out of the carboy until nice and frothy. OG came out to 1.073. I will ferment in a water bath at 72 deg F.

Bob

I'm no expert, but that looks pretty good. I have successfully used ginger in beer too, brewing a beer called Holiday Cheer (Papazian 1991, 225). I used 5.6# Light DME, 1# honey, .5# 20L, .5cup black patent malt, 2 oz Cascade, .5 oz Saaz, about 1 oz ginger, cinnamon, and orange peels. I steeped the grain until I got a full boil, then removed it and added the DME, honey, and Cascade hops. I boiled these for 60 minutes, adding the spices for the last 15 and the Saaz for the last 2. This was an excellent beer, and I'll brew it again this year at Christmas. I know it won't turn out the same, but that's okay. The ginger was a fantastic taste, but has mellowed with age.

that looks interesting. i suspect you may have too much lemon (and that it shouldn't have been boiled so long - if at all), but only time will tell. i also wonder if you won't need to add back some sweetness somehow. anyway, definitely let us know how it turns out.

I just bought a good hand of ginger 2 hours ago thinking I might try something like that.

I added a 1/4 oz of ginger root slices to a 5 gallon batch of my most recent wit at one minute before end of boil. At first there was really not any ginger heat, but just a slight background bitterness that complimented the corriander and orange. Now that it has aged in the keg several weeks the ginger heat + peppercorn is coming through very well - just a silght warming of the tounge. Similar to the bite of ginger beer soda but not at all hot.
Of course, by now the keg is only a few pints from kicking.

Gee... I could never get any response on my efforts at making Ginger-beer here on TB. This is my absolute favorite drink ever!. I've played around with it and currently I'm planning on a high mash temp with some added sugar to dry it out some. I'm not even convinced sugar is needed.

The main problem is that it can ferment out way too much and the sweetness is lost and all you are left with is fizzy ginger water.

A quick method that I found is to take a three litre PET and add the ginger-sugar wort and some cold water. Toss in some bread yeast(!) then squeeze the air out and seal the cap. The next day it should be rock hard and ready to chill. Not intoxicating but very tasty!

I bottled the Ginger Beer May 19th. ABV is 5.7%. The first tasting is not exactly what I expected. Not very sweet, very lemony (Sweetloaf was right, too many lemons). The lemon over powers the ginger. The ginger does how ever leave a very nice after taste. The next batch will have less lemon and more ginger. I would like the ginger to bite the tongue like a strong ginger soda. We'll see if the flavors change much with age, if it lasts long enough to age. It is a thirst quenching drink on a hot summer day.

"I would like the ginger to bite the tongue like a strong ginger soda"

And that is hard to accomplish. I've tried. I took the info from a Reeds Ginger Beer bottle and scaled the amount of ginger they used (25 grams per 12 oz bottle I think) up to a 5 gal batch. It comes out to about 3 lb of ginger for a 5 gal batch and I've tried that. While it has a great ginger flavor, it just doesn't have any bite to it. A friend that's a chef suggested to use some powdered ginger with the fresh and that just makes it burn on the way down, not on the tounge. A friend in my brew club did a tasty one where he used some candied ginger with fresh and it was pretty nice. May have to play with that sometime.

I make a basic brown ale, low hopped with lots of ginger. Another idea I've had was to get some of the mix to make a soft ginger ale and add some of that to the beer. I should get the mix and play with it with a glass of beer and see if it shows promise. I'd kinda given up on it since I've tried several times and wasn't really getting there.

I'm a bit concerned witht he 2 pounds of brown sugar. Hope it doesn't impart a cider bite to the brew.

traditional "ginger beer" is made with sugar only. One lemon per gallon is a good standard. Cream of tartar is usually added for some head retention and mouthfeel. You could try some maltodextrin. I'm gonna try it this weekend. I usually boil an ounce or so of licorice root for a half an hour. This adds sweetness and mouthfeel. For a 'bite', you might not want to boil the ginger. Bring your water to a boil, pour it over or add the ginger and let it cool. I wouldn't boil the lemons either. If you're using whole slices of lemon, you're extracting unpleasantness from the white pith.

I'm no expert by any means but... isn't six ounces in a 2.5 gallon batch overdoing it a little?

Not having ever made a ginger beer I may be way off base.

If you want sweet then it has to be drunk young or have unfermentables like dextrose. Pure sugar will ferment out into fizzy alcohol water. Drunk young is the way to go if you use cane sugar, You'll need to guzzle it up quick or you might have bottle bombs.

you could also steep a heavy dose of crystal malt. It would leave unfermentable sweetness

Let me say I have never made ginger beer before.... I can comment as a chef about treating the ginger and lemon. I agree with Jer Goode that the long boiling is too much. Ginger has a muted, low-bite flavor when boiled too long or not chopped/crushing fine enough. You might try just rough chopping it, pounding/crushing it and putting it in the last 5 minutes of boiling. In the kitchen when I want to infuse something with ginger that is going to be strained out anyways I give it a good wack with the meat mallet. Also, I would stay away from the pith of the lemon altogether. It takes a bit of work but you can peel the zest off, peel the pith off, and use the zest and fruit. My two cents. I might try it sometime.

I'll roughly chop the root up and put it in the food processor or a blender (with some water) and further chop the root up. The fibrous nature of the root demands this type of treatment if you want the job done quick. I toss the ginger in boiling sugar solution for 5-10 minutes and then cool. A few lemons or limes if I have them handy get halved and squeezed in.

For stuff to drink the next day bread yeast works but will produce mouth searing fusel alcohol if left for too many days. With ale yeast I'll ferment until it gets to around 1.020 then keg and chill. Mmmm good.

Thank you very much for all the great info. I will be putting a new batch together this weekend using your tips. I like the crystal malt idea, I even have some to use.

Thanks again, I?ll let you know how it turns out.

Here is the new recipe based on recommendations from the forum. Some taken, some not, and some modified a little.

Sorry Jim, I just had to add more ginger. I am one of those believers that think too much, of almost everything, is just enough.

I?ll report back in about two months to let you know how it comes out.

Bob



Ginger Beer

Recipe By : Harrowsmith Reader, Modified by Bob Leach
Serving Size : 16, 16oz Bottles

Amount Measure Ingredient

1.25 Gal Water
16 oz Crystal malt 60L
2 Lemon, Juiced
Zest from 2 lemons
10 corns Black Pepper Corns
16 oz Ginger, puree in food processor with 2 cups of water, lemon juice, and pepper corns
? tsp Cream of Tartar
2 Pounds Brown Sugar
3.3 Pound Pilsner light Malt Extract
7 gram Superior Lager Yeast, start in wart after steeping crystal malt


Heat 1.25 gal of water in a stainless steel pot to 160 deg. Add crystal malt in a cloth sack and steep for 30 to 45 min. Remove one cup of wart and allow to cool below 100 deg to start yeast. Remove crystal malt and increase heat to boil. Add brown sugar while water is coming up to boiling. Blend ginger, lemon juice, 2 cups of water, and pepper corns in a food processor while wart comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add lemon juice, ginger, black pepper corns, lemon zest, cream of tartar, and malt extract.

Add yeast to one cup cooled of cooled wart.

Add one gallon of clean water to fermentor, add wart to fermentor, and add clean cool water to make 2.5 gal. Cool wart until the temperature is in the 75 to 80 deg range, then pitch yeast mixture.

Ferment, clarify, and bottle.

Notes:

OG :1.066
1st FG :
2nd FG :

A pound of ginger?

I just made a gingered ale with 2 ounces and the ginger flavor is rather strong. You're likely to get something overpowered by ginger. Let me know how it turns out.

Dang, that's a lotta ginger!! Well, here's mine I brewed last Sunday;

for 5 Gallons-

1oz. Licorice root, boiled 30 min
Juice of 5 lemons
zest of 1 lemon
1Tbs, or so lemon peel, dried
1Tbs, or so orange peel, dried
5oz. ginger, chopped
3oz. galagal, chopped
1lb. maltodextrin
6lb dark brown sugar

I also have a bottle of refrigerated ginger juice/ginger extract in a honey base from my local health food store if I need to increase the zip. I'll get back to ya on how this turns out. Smells awesome!

I have a ginger beer in primary right now.

I made a 5 gallon extract batch.

Ingredients:
4.5# Extra Light Liquid Extract
3# Clover Honey
1# 10L Crystal
.5# Flaked Wheat
.5oz. Tettnanger boiled 60 minutes
1oz. Fuggles boiled 15 minutes

In the primary:
1# Ginger, peeled and sliced like AuGratin Potatoes
1oz. Crystal Hops
1oz. Centennial Hops
Wy'East American Ale II smack-pack

I asked several chefs and an experienced commercial brewer/distiller and they said to put the ginger in the primary, no boiling, no cooking.

I got the idea from a guy at work who was making his third batch of ginger beer and was up to .75# of ginger, always wanting more, I am not sure if he boils it or not.

I did add the honey to 1 gallon of water and bring it to the edge of 140 and then cooled it, I added it to the rest of the wort when it fell under 140, I thought about dumping it straight into the primary but I wanted the OG of the whole mess.

The OG was 1054

It is on a constart glurg right now.

I will report the results

Just put a batch of Charlie P's "Linda's Lovely Light Honey Ginger Lager" in the primary Tuesday. That recipe calls for 2-4oz ginger at 60 min, and I did the full 4oz. Sounds like I am not gonna have too much in the way of ginger presence. Any thoughts/experience with this recipe?

Last weekend I bottled my ginger beer. I tried a taste of the flat beer to see how it was doing. Wow! All the bad flavors I got from the lemon rind and white stuff was gone. The pepper corns gave it the bite I was looking for and surprisingly the ginger flavor was not over powering. (16 oz. of ginger) I ended up drinking an 8 oz. glass of flat beer. Now I just need to be patient and let it carbonate for a while.

OG - 1.066
FG when racked - 1.015
FG when bottled - 1.011

I figure that comes out to 7.4% ABV

How many volumes co2?

I primed mine looking for 3.4-3.5 volumes.co2.