Overwhelmed newbie in need of recipe suggestions

I will be making a trip to my local homebrew supply store in the very near future and would like to make 2-3 gallon test batch of a sweet (not dry) sparkling brew that is very heavy on ginger root (hot) and would prefer to use honey over sugar for the majority of the fermentables (if I use sugar, would prefer small amounts of brown sugar, the flavor compliments the ginger quite well, at least in my experience of making candied ginger), something similar to an alcoholic ginger beer (soda). I suppose the preference of honey would make it a mead or a wine, correct?

I've found quite a few recipes on the site, but am unsure of which one to choose and have not been able to read them all (there's so many). Planning on a beer range ABV, letting the fermentation come to a complete stop, priming/backsweetening with ratios of honey and brown sugar (similar to the ratio used in the must) while still in the gallon jugs w/airlocks for 24-48 hours, and crash cooling (half an hour or so in a deep freezer, to kill off the remaining live yeast) immediately after racking into grolsch style bottles. Would this method be effective for preventing bottle bombs, or would anyone suggest an alternative method (looked at the stovetop pasteurization method, but seems likely to overpressurize the bottles)? Please reccomend a few recipes that you experienced members have tried, either as links or copied and pasted.
Thanks in advance.

(edit: formulated/custom recipe added)
after quick calculations using gotmead and beercalculus, ABV should be around 5-7%. Slightly over my target, but quite acceptable. Also, decided to bottle still and not carbonate/prime (I don't fancy the idea of having grolsch shrapnel everywhere) and use sovetop pasteurization.

Possible name: Ginger Honeywine
For 2-3 gallons:
3.5# honey
3-5oz fresh grated or sliced ginger root (split into 1/3 portions)
1.75cups brown sugar
1-2tbsp vanilla (not extract, just plain dark liquid vanilla)
1 cinnamon stick
Yeast nutrients
Red Star champagne yeast

-Boil 2 gallons water, let 1 gallon sit unheated for ease of cooling must. Add 2/3 of the ginger to the water, boil for 30 minutes.
-Flame out, add the gallon of water that was left unheated, remove ginger and pour into 3 gallon carboy/primary fermenter onto remaining ingredients: the 2-3# honey, 1-1.5cups brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon (needs to be cooled with the unheated gallon, especially since I'm planning on having a "better bottle" as my primary) until carboy is full.
-Pitch dry yeast and yeast nutrients into must and shake vigorously to aerate, then seal with stopper and airlock.
-Leave in primary fermentation until the gravity is stable and/or the airlock no longer bubbles.
-Rack into 1 gallon jugs for secondary, sample and add more raw ginger if a stronger "bite" is desired (rack onto ginger). Seal with stoppers and airlocks, leave in secondary until clear.
-Once clear, rack 2 gallons into available grolsch style bottles rack remaining gallon off of lees into available clean 1 gallon jug (metal cap) and seal bottles. Then pasteurize (crashcooling was said to be ineffective for killing remaining yeast and preventing further fermentation).
-Sample and backsweeten in bottles as desired with a mixture of honey and brown sugar at a ratio of 1/4cup brown sugar:1# honey (will probably backsweeten with around .25# of honey).
-Put grolsch bottles in fridge, and leave the gallon jug at room temp to age.

Sounds like you already have a pretty well developed plan in place and have some experience with must fermentations.

You are definitely angling for a ginger mead like beverage, although meads tend to be pretty high ABV. How high ABV do you wish to go? Beers range quite a bit..

I would be sure to visit the mead forums here, and/or visit www.gotmead.com. Fermenting mead musts can be a bit tricky.

If you plan to back-sweeten, I would look into the wine-maker's larder for stuff like Potassium Sorbate to stop secondary fermentations.

As for ginger, it is really to taste.. In a beer, I think 3 oz. in a 5-gallon batch for 15-mins of boil is pretty tasty. Some folks go twice that. However, I would not boil a mead. You loose too much of the aromatics in a boil. I do not have a good recommendation ATM for how much and how long to cold steep ginger for a mead.... test batches are a good idea!

Good luck!
--LexusChris

You could make a ginger tea by boiling the ginger in a little over the amount of water you intend to use then cool and add to your honey and there you have your ginger mead wort without boiling the honey. I use this method often with my meads

Thanks for the replies guys.
Lexus- I do have a VERY small amount of experience, but none of my previous batches have turned out the way I wanted, and I got discouraged for a while. I'm wanting around the average beer 3-7% ABV, not too strong but a noticeable alcohol content. Something that requires a little patience, but won't take forever in secondary and will clear/mellow fairly quick unlike most meads (3 months or less from primary to bottle, if possible). If bottle bombs are a big concern, I may backsweeten AFTER the crash cool and go the still route.

JFK- That is similar to the recipe/method I've been formulating in my mind.

Wanting to do something unique, which I formulated myself (for the most part), but is still fairly solid and is likely to turn out well. Here's what I've worked out so far while lurking through the internet for recipes. Please critique as you see fit, it is by no means a final draft. Also let me know if this will put me over my target ABV(edit: after quick calculations using gotmead and beercalculus, ABV should be around 5-7%. Slightly over my target, but quite acceptable), or any other forseeable issues.

Possible name: Ginger Honeywine
For 2-3 gallons:
2-4# honey
3-5oz fresh grated or sliced ginger root (split into 1/3 portions)
1-2cups brown sugar
1-2tbsp vanilla (not extract, just plain dark liquid vanilla)
1 cinnamon stick
Yeast nutrients
Red Star champagne yeast

-Boil 2 gallons water, let 1 gallon sit unheated for ease of cooling must. Add 2/3 of the ginger to the water, boil for 30 minutes.
-Flame out, add the gallon of water that was left unheated, remove ginger and pour into 3 gallon carboy/primary fermenter onto remaining ingredients: the 2-3# honey, 1-1.5cups brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon (needs to be cooled with the unheated gallon, especially since I'm planning on having a "better bottle" as my primary) until carboy is full.
-Pitch dry yeast and yeast nutrients into must and shake vigorously to aerate, then seal with stopper and airlock.
-Leave in primary fermentation until the gravity is stable and/or the airlock no longer bubbles.
-Rack into 1 gallon jugs for secondary, sample and add more raw ginger if a stronger "bite" is desired (rack onto ginger). Seal with stoppers and airlocks, leave in secondary until clear.
-Once clear, rack 2 gallons into available grolsch style bottles rack remaining gallon off of lees into available clean 1 gallon jug (metal cap) and seal bottles. Then crash cool in freezer for 30+ minutes, be sure liquid cools significantly but does not begin to freeze and potentially create a bomb.
-Sample and backsweeten in bottles as desired with a mixture of honey and brown sugar at a ratio of 1/4cup brown sugar:1# honey (will probably backsweeten with around .25# of honey).
-Put grolsch bottles in fridge, and leave the gallon jug at room temp to age.


Seems like a solid recipe to me, but being a beginner I would like a little feedback from more experienced folks before I give it a whirl.
Cheers!

One thing I want to point out is that crash cooling will not kill off the remaining yeast. I routinely crash cool my beers down to 32F for 3 to 5 days and there is still plenty of yeast in suspension to bottle condition my beer. I have no experience with meads and ciders so I don't have a clue as to how those brews are handled before or after backsweetening but I'm pretty sure cold crashing isn't the way.

mvcorliss said:

One thing I want to point out is that crash cooling will not kill off the remaining yeast. I routinely crash cool my beers down to 32F for 3 to 5 days and there is still plenty of yeast in suspension to bottle condition my beer. I have no experience with meads and ciders so I don't have a clue as to how those brews are handled before or after backsweetening but I'm pretty sure cold crashing isn't the way.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice. Would be crash cooling (or pasteurizing if needed) before backsweetening, and by the time I crash cool the fermentation process should have stopped and most of the yeast will be dead (I believe). Perhaps pasteurization would be a better method? Especially since I second-guessed myself on making a sparkling beverage, and decided to make a still one.

Also, should this thread be in the mead section? I placed it here because I wasn't sure, and most beer brewers dabble in other drinks as well.

I will have to run the recipe through a program later to see estimated starting gravity and potential final gravity. I'm going to say from eyeing it its going to be stronger than 7 percent. I'll help you adjust that when I wake up. I would not add the extra ginger root into primary. Roots and other such things like seeds can add undesired off flavors especially in primary. The boiled ginger water is fine but the root itself I wouldn't put in until secondary which will preserve more of the natural ginger flavor anyhow and add more ginger aroma to the final product. As far as being in the mead forum... yes it belongs there but being here some of the beer guys can chime in. I'm primarily an everything brewer so I go through all the forums. But my specialty had always been mead.

JFK said:

I will have to run the recipe through a program later to see estimated starting gravity and potential final gravity. I'm going to say from eyeing it its going to be stronger than 7 percent. I'll help you adjust that when I wake up. I would not add the extra ginger root into primary. Roots and other such things like seeds can add undesired off flavors especially in primary. The boiled ginger water is fine but the root itself I wouldn't put in until secondary which will preserve more of the natural ginger flavor anyhow and add more ginger aroma to the final product...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion JFK, modified the recipe to "rack ono ginger in secondary, if desired"
Could you recommend a decent program or site that would simplify calculations? I'm aware of the beercalculus site, but I'm not sure how well that'd work for a mead type drink.

(Edit, nevermind the suggestion gotmead has a calculator, calculations follow)
Via gotmead: containing 3.5# honey and 1.75cups sugar (brown wasn't an option), would result in SG of 1.061 and a potential ABV of 8.34% (if FG of 1.000 is reached, and fermentation halted before sweetening). 3# honey and 1.5 cups sugar, resulting in SG of 1.052 and potential ABV of 7.17%
Via beercalculus: 3.5#honey and 12oz brown sugar comes out to SG-1.052, FG-1.013 and 5.2%ABV

I think the recipe was a pretty good estimation for a newbie who didn't run the calculations until now

I use a combination of programs when creating a recipe for mead. Beersmith for pc I also run stuff through homewine on my phone but you have to make something else represent honey since they don't include it in their software. Beersmith even though is not for mead you can get good calculations on estimated starting and ending gravity based on your recipe. Gotmead calculators are decent as well although I don't use them as often. I think hopsville also had calculation programs that let you put honey in as the only fermentable. I have used this a few times to triple check my numbers. When there is an inconsistency between the three I average the results.

Hmm. I'd look up brown sugar to see if it is as fermenter as regular sugar. Actually if it isnt doesn't matter in your recipe since you were aiming for seven percent. If it is as fermenter then 8.whatever it was its good if it's not you'll be close to seven. Let me know how it turns out. I'm particularly interested in the amount of ginger you use in boil as I've been toying with a ginger with real wusabi recipe but haven't pulled the trigger on it because I haven't brewed a lot with ginger in my mead and the real wusabi is quite expensive

I don't believe it is as fermentable as regular sugar JFK, I've been reading that it tends to leave residual sweetness in the brew.
I will update this one or make a new thread in the mead section once I get going with this recipe. It may be 1-3 weeks until I can get all of the supplies

If you want a sweet drink, you need to finish much higher. Finishing at 1.000 will be bone dry. You can back-sweeten, but just be sure to kill off the remaining yeast (potassium sorbate) prior to that.

I've not tired to make light mead like this, but perhaps you can make a traditionally sweet mead, and then just dilute with water afterwards. That would mean using enough honey to get to 1.130-1.135 OG and letting it ferment down to 1.025-1.030 or so. You got to have a high enough OG so that the wine yeast will completely attenuate and leave around 1.025+ FG... You can then dilute it with water, which will also dilute the sweetness, but it won't be bone dry...

Just a few thoughts..
--LexusChris

I'm planning on letting FG stabilize, killing off the remaining yeast and backsweetening if FG is under 1.010