realy hard ginger beer

[ffmurray]

Ive been making some hard ginger beer, I had different plans from how it went, but I made a mistake early on and added way to much sugar. so I have kind of gone with it and we will see how it all turns out, I'm not going to try and stop fermentation after carbonation, even though there will be a large amount of residual sugar, I figure that I will just pop it in the fridge

here are my notes so far
Ginger beer


3-1/3 cups White Sugar
2-1/2 lbs. Ginger root
2 Lemons juiced
1 tsp Yeast nutrient
1 package Red star Champaign yeast
1 tbsp. Brown sugar

2/29/16
1. Sanitized equipment with 0.2 oz. star san by weight to one gallon of water
2. Ground ginger in food processor with one cup of water to make slurry
3. Have 2 growlers (1/2 gallon apiece) in each went
a. 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
b. Juice of one lemon
c. 1-2/3 cups white sugar
4. Boiled excess water, filled each growler up to the top of the cylindrical section with boiled water
5. Started yeast in 1 cup lukewarm water with 1 tbsp. brown sugar dissolved
6. Pitched yeast split evenly between growlers when brew temp reached 96 degrees as measured by digital thermometer, yeast was foaming at this time


Recipe called for 1-1/2 cups sugar overall. I made a mistake and put in 3-1/3 cups of sugar. This brings the potential alcohol content to between 8 and 9 percent (?) when completely fermented to dryness. Maybe this is a good thing because it will allow the fermentation to be stopped a some determined level of sweetness.

How does on check for sweetness in super small batches?

3/1/16
Fermentation has started
26 bubbles per minute through S airlock (now labeled Ferment I)
8 bubbles per minute through 3 piece airlock (now labeled Ferment II)
Air temp 63 degrees

3/4/16
24 BPM ferment I
10 BPM ferment II

3/17/16
Fermentation stopped on the 14th or 15th, approximately a 16 day ferment
Sanitized equipment with star san
Made simple syrup (2 cups sugar 2 cups water)
Strained all ginger beer into a pot, poured directly into mesh strainer and into pot
Added entire simple syrup
Put into 3 1 liter carbonated water bottles, sitting at room temp capped
Brew is pretty cloudy

Thoughts 3/17
I think that the ginger may have sat in the brew for two long, perhaps it should be removed after a week or so and put into secondary fermentation. I think the level of sweetness will be perfect after it carbonated but we will see.

3/20/16
Bottles getting hard, probably half carbonated or so. They have settled out quite a bit, it looks pretty similar to commercial ginger beer

 

[dlingerfelt22]

There won't be residual sugar, champagne yeast will eat that without an issue. It is also very hard to stop fermentation, you can force the yeast not to breed but until they are worked out to about 18% or more for champagne yeast they will just keep chugging. some soda makers will take a mid fermentation soda and throw it in plastic bottles and chill it after a day or so to make the yeast go dormant but soon as that liquid warms up again it will start fermenting again and you risk bottle bombs.

That much simple syrup sounds like a lot. For a 1 gallon batch to have 2.2 volumes of CO2 it only needs 20 grams of corn sugar. Use a calculator like this one http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/ I can't imagine what that volume of sugar will do in a bottle, assuming the sugar was stored in a sealed container away from humidity it's entire life 2 cups is about 400 grams. I am glad you used plastic, glass with that much can be dangerous if it's not champagne bottles.

Please keep us updated on how this turns out and store the botttles in a large tub or something, maybe even a bath tub if you have an extra one.

Cheers!

EDIT: reread your post again. good plan on using the refrigerator, I would put them in after 2 days from bottling the yeast won't go dormant very fast as the liquid will need to chill.

 

[ffmurray]

The bottles fully carbonated, and I opened one up last night. my wife and I shared it, it was just a little to sweet for my liking and we ended up putting a squeeze of lime into each glass, then it was delicious. It didn't taste alcoholic at all, but it sure was potent! For the next time i make this I am going to possibly add a little bit of a hot chile to the batch and probably twice the lemon juice. When i do the combo carbonation / back sweetening a little less sugar. maybe a cup and a half instead of two. But I was pretty pleased with my first hard soda, I will be making it again.

 

[Mainer]

I was thinking about doing a ginger beer, but starting with less sugar and using a lower-attenuation beer yeast so that there will be residual sugar left behind. I was thinking maybe a kolsch yeast, but then I might have trouble getting decent clarity, even if I crash-cool.

Did calculate abv on your finished product?

 

[ffmurray]

slow reply:

for the soda I never took any SG measurements so i just had the theoretical 8% or 9% and based off of taste and feel that seems pretty close.

My wife and I have drank all of the ginger beer, and it turned out well. It is an experiment that I will certainly try again.

 

[bernardsmith]

You might try using dry malt extract (as in beer brewing) rather than table sugar. The malt contains sugars that are not all fermentable and so will remain unfermented and sweet... For the record, a pound of sugar dissolved in water to make one gallon (US) will have a specific gravity of about 1.040 and will ferment out and result in about 5% alcohol by volume. One cup of granulated sugar is supposed to weigh 7 oz , so 3.3 cups should weigh about 1.44 lbs (let's call that 1.5 lbs) and so that should have a gravity of about 1.060 or about 7.5% ABV if all the sugar fermented out.

 

[Mainer]

You might try using dry malt extract (as in beer brewing) rather than table sugar. The malt contains sugars that are not all fermentable and so will remain unfermented and sweet... For the record, a pound of sugar dissolved in water to make one gallon (US) will have a specific gravity of about 1.040 and will ferment out and result in about 5% alcohol by volume. One cup of granulated sugar is supposed to weigh 7 oz , so 3.3 cups should weigh about 1.44 lbs (let's call that 1.5 lbs) and so that should have a gravity of about 1.060 or about 7.5% ABV if all the sugar fermented out.

What about using molasses or dark brown sugar? Similarly, those both have higher levels of unfermentable sugars than white table sugar.

 

[torilen]

I might suggest taking some ginger beer you already have, or just some plain ginger ale, and put a bit of molasses or brown sugar in with a few ounces before committing to a full batch made with it. I don't think it would be a very good mix of tastes, myself.

And realize...I make lots of ginger beer, AND I really like molasses. But I'm not sure if I would mix them.

 

[Mainer]

I might suggest taking some ginger beer you already have, or just some plain ginger ale, and put a bit of molasses or brown sugar in with a few ounces before committing to a full batch made with it. I don't think it would be a very good mix of tastes, myself.

And realize...I make lots of ginger beer, AND I really like molasses. But I'm not sure if I would mix them.

I'm working on a series of 1-quart or 1-gallon experimental batches, and I figure I'll try molasses next. I want to get a recipe I like before I commit to a full 5-gallon batch. I'd like my ginger beer to be similar the taste of the Dark and Stormy I make with black rum, which has a strong molasses undercurrent going on, so I figured starting with molasses might help me get there.

 

[torilen]

You know, it's funny. Without realizing the irony (because I wasn't thinking about this thread at the time), I ended up starting up a batch of ginger beer with molasses myself yesterday. I put in a touch of cinnamon, as well...and I was thinking about sprinkling in some black pepper (just on a glass once it is ready to drink) to see how it tastes.

I call it Caribbean Ginger Beer

 

[Mainer]

You know, it's funny. Without realizing the irony (because I wasn't thinking about this thread at the time), I ended up starting up a batch of ginger beer with molasses myself yesterday. I put in a touch of cinnamon, as well...and I was thinking about sprinkling in some black pepper (just on a glass once it is ready to drink) to see how it tastes.

I call it Caribbean Ginger Beer

Let me know. I haven't started my experimental molasses batch yet. (The last white sugar batch I did is STILL GOING. Slow yeast or something, I dunno.)

 

[torilen]

Actually, I gave it a quick taste this morning. It's only been going for a couple of days, but I wanted to see if I should keep feeding it and build it up to a larger batch, or just let it finish and not do it again.

Believe it or not...I think this might be one of my new favorite drinks. It has a great flavor.

Just to give you an idea...I started with:
2 cups water
1-1/2 oz blackstrap molasses
2 oz sliced ginger
2 oz white sugar (then added more...probably about 4 oz sugar total)
roughly 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon.
Cooked it for 45 minutes. Took out the ginger with a slotted spoon. Put it in the fermenter to start fermenting.
That was Saturday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon I put in 3 more cups of water, boiled with a cup of sugar and some more ginger. This morning (Monday) I did the same...3 cups of water, 1 cup of sugar and more ginger. I'll do that another couple of times. I should end up with a full 1/2 gallon. I don't plan on adding any more molasses or cinnamon. I think that would be too much. If you're going to make a full gallon to start from, though, I would suggest adding more.

And, as I said...I might drink a cup with some black pepper in it...or something other "island-like" - I think of it kind of like what pirates might have had back in the day.

 

[torilen]

OH. Big tip here. A lot of recipes call for some sort of citrus...I use lemon in mine...and I have seen lime being used. I would caution against doing this for now. I don't know if it would work with the molasses flavor. I kind of think the molasses takes the place of any citrus. I would say, if you want...start with just the original 2 cups of water I started with, and try some citrus in that.

 

[torilen]

Mainer - I just did a quick calculation online. If I feed it with 3 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar two more time...and let ferment dry, I'll end up with around .813 gallons (just under a full gallon), and I should be looking at roughly 12% to 12.4% ABV. That'd be nice to drink.

 

[torilen]

Some ideas I'm tossing about to go into this at serving. If anyone has suggestions or thoughts, please chime in:
- Coconut water
- Tarragon (typical of Caribbean cuisine...a licorice flavor)
- Hot pepper of some sort (unsure about attempting this)
- Cilantro (unsure of this)

 

[Mainer]

Some ideas I'm tossing about to go into this at serving. If anyone has suggestions or thoughts, please chime in:
- Coconut water
- Tarragon (typical of Caribbean cuisine...a licorice flavor)
- Hot pepper of some sort (unsure about attempting this)
- Cilantro (unsure of this)

Thyme might be interesting. It's big in Caribbean cuisine.

 

[ffmurray]

id be interested to know how cooking the ginger into the recipe works out as far as strength of ginger flavor, have you done the fermentation with raw ginger before?

 

[torilen]

I have never tried fermenting anything with raw anything so far.
I don't know if ginger would work raw. Maybe if you grind it down
into what would almost be a paste, it might. Ginger is very fibrous,
and the only way you can get any flavor INTO what you're cooking
is by cooking it.

The ground paste might do something...as it would mix in well with
the water. I just don't know, though. That's my uneducated two cents.

 

[ffmurray]

The ground paste might do something...as it would mix in well with
the water. I just don't know, though. That's my uneducated two cents.

from my first post

2-1/2 lbs. Ginger root
....
2. Ground ginger in food processor with one cup of water to make slurry

I fermented it with the ginger solids for ~16 days before removing them

I ended up with a very strong ginger flavor, with a similar profile to raw ginger, spicy.

So what I was wondering is how the ginger flavor profile is compared to something that's pretty close to raw ginger

 

[torilen]

It depends on how long you steep the ginger in the water. You can get quite a strong ginger bite if you steep it for a good, long time. I think you do lose a bit of the natural sweetness that raw ginger has, maybe a bit of the floral under-flavor...so if you've done it with raw ginger, I would say keep doing it that way.

I may have to try it that way sometime soon. I have a couple of other things I've got planned first, but I will certainly keep it in mind.

 

[torilen]

Just an update: My ginger beer with molasses and cinnamon is ready to drink. It tastes pretty good, and has a descent kick to it. Don't know the ABV...still don't have my hands on a hydrometer yet.

I will be trying it out with some thyme in it tonight or tomorrow, and then maybe some coconut water or something. I'll keep you posted.

 

[torilen]

Well, I think putting thyme in my "Caribbean Ginger Beer" would be good - my execution was not so great. I'll have to try it again.

Let me say, however...I put in about 1/2 a shot of coconut rum in a
nice large glass. It is GREAT. I love the coconut flavor in it.