I made a batch based on this and it is the BOMB!
My 5 gallon recipe:
2.5# of unpeeled ginger root, blended
6 lemons, zest and juice
6 limes, zest and juice
2# dark brown sugar
1# white sugar
...
I used bleme's recipe and process, with just two changes.
1) I used 3# turbinado sugar instead of the dark brown/white mix.
2) I steeped at 165, and let it sit for ~30 min (most of an episode of Bones). From my own past experience and reading on this and other threads, the lower temp keeps the ginger a little "hotter and raw-er" rather than warm and gingery.
It. Is. AWESOME.
I was hoping for a STRONG ginger kick, but also hoped the limes would come through to make it a more complex taste than just biting into a ginger root. This was everything I hoped for. It is amazing. The 3# of sugar is a much lower ratio than the OP recipe scaled up to 5gal, and it was plenty sweet. My friends LOVED how gingery it was and agreed that it was just sweet enough (some complained that commercial ginger ale is way too sweet).
For those who live in the American South, several friends have compared this batch to Buffalo Rock's Southern Spice Ginger Ale (which I took as HIGH praise, as I LOVE that stuff).
I did not peel the ginger, though I did cut off the really rough "knots" on my roots. I just cut it in chunks and through it in the blender and hit 'puree'. This caused my final product to have a fair amount of ginger particulates in suspension, but so what. If you really want to get that out, you can filter it (maybe run it through a sanitized coffee filter?). Maybe I'll try that next time, but it doesn't bother me at all, so whatever.
I may mess with different sugar mixes in future, just to see what happens, but nothing about this batches jumps out as "this could be better." Absolutely delicious.
Here's brief version of exactly what I did for any interested:
2.5# ginger root, unpeeled, blended
6 lemons, zest and juice
6 limes, zest and juice
3# turbinado sugar
5gal filtered water
- Heat water to 165F, then turn off heat. Place BIAB or strainer bag in pot, wrap mouth of bag around the rim of pot and secure.
- Zest limes and lemons.
- Remove bad/rough spots from ginger, but do not peel. Fill blender/food processor with ginger chunks, cover with warm water and blend thoroughly. If you must blend in multiple batches, scoop water for follow-on blends from water outside bag.
- Pour ginger root slurry into water INSIDE strainer bag.
- Add lime/lemon zest and juice to mixture. Seeds falling into pot are ok because they will strain out with the rest, and they shouldn't affect flavor as you are not heating the mixture at this point (high heat could leach bitterness from seeds).
- Steep at least 10 min. 30-40 min recommended.
- Remove strainer bag. Squeeze extra liquid into pot (clean hands. and gloves recommended as this will be pretty hot). Filter if desired.
- Pour into keg for forced carbonation. If you are going to carbonate with yeast, ensure the liquid cools below 90F prior to pitching. If you carbonate in bottles, monitor CAREFULLY as there is a LOT of sugar in this and unattended bottles WILL eventually explode.
Thanks again to everyone who's contributed to this thread and especially to bleme for the great starting point for my latest favorite homebrew.