Brew UK Forum | Recipes
Ginger Beer Recipe Needed
Hi Guys
Does anyone have a recipe for Ginger Beer? Have attepmted to make a non alcholic one in the past but it turned out to be a disaster! (probably because there was no alchol in it!)
Looking to get a gallon on the go for christmas so any extras I could add let me know.
Thanks as always
Gazz
Responses
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
I wont give you the recipe i did as it turned out a disaster! (yeasty and you lost half a bottle when you openend the bottle!)
Coopers do a ginger beer kit!!
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/index.php/beerkits/coopers/coopers-ginger-beer.html
Posted 2 years ago by Member
Yeah mine was super yeasty and my PET bottles turned from a plastic bottle shape to a football shape!!!!
As soon as i'd open one the yeast would kick up immediatley.......DISASTER!!!
Have you tried one of those kits?
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
in mine the yeast would more than kick up! you had to wear PPE! the Crown Cap would fire off at speed and spurt half of the contents of the bottle everywhere! and I didn't prime the bottles!
I haven't tried the Coopers ginger beer kit, but Coopers kits are good kits!
Posted 2 years ago by Admin
I have made the coopers kit once, unfortunately I left it a little too long in the fermenter (2 weeks) and it went moldy. It smelled amazing before that though!
Keep meaning to make another as my son loves it and you can make it quite weak. I would be interested in trying a forum brew if someone can find a recipe. I'll have a search around on the internet.
What was the recipe you did Dan? Sounds like it was still fermenting a bit too much when you bottled it. I Guess it needs to be quite sweet so its probably difficult to balance fermenting out against sweetness. You also need some yeast to be active to get it carbonated.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
it was out of a book called 500 Recipes Home-Made Wines and Drinks By Marguerite Patten (got two copies one was 3/6 (1969)old money and my second copy was only 99p (1983) both older than myself)
It was made using a 'Ginger beer plant'
To start beer:
1/2 oz Yeast
3/4 Pint warm water
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp sugar
To Feed plant:
6 Tsp Ground Ginger
6 Tsp Sugar
To Flavor:
1 1/2 lb Sugar
2 Pints Water
Juice of 2 Lemons
To Dilute:
5 pints of water
Basically you start the beer with the yeast, warm water, ginger and sugar leave for 24 hrs then feed 1tsp of ginger and 1tsp of sugar for the next six days, after 7 days you strain the lot through a cloth,
then flavor buy disolving sugar, water, lemon juice together and adding to the strained liquid, then dilute with the 5pints mix well, bottle, mature for 7 days then drink!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I got a recipe somewhere off the net a while ago. Not exactly like regular ginger beer, but not bad all the same. The original recipe was made in a 2 litre PET bottle, and I scaled it up for a 25 litre FV. The original recipe was a bit unhelpful and simply said one piece of (fresh) ginger required. I scaled this up and bought 12 large bulb pieces - each piece was about 3 to 4 inches long.
12 pieces ginger (grated)
10 lemons - juiced and rinds chopped up
2 kg sugar (I used a very dark molasses sugar, but you could just as easily use honey or pale sugar)
5 teaspoons Youngs' yeast
My wife had just finished making some bramble jelly, so had a bunch of the stewed fruits in a muslin bag, so I used that and added all the other ingredients (minus lemon juice) and boiled up with about 6 pints of water. I added the whole lot once boiled to the FV and topped up to 25 litres including the lemon juice. I left the muslin in the FV for a week.
I left this in the cask for about 3 weeks before serving. It was very fizzy, and very yeasty. I reckon about 3 spoons of the yeast would have been better. And maybe if I did this again I'd think more carefully about using a different kind of yeast altogether!
Later, I bottled what was left over. It had some very weird sediment in and I nearly binned the lot, but tried one last week (after about 4 months in the bottle). It was quite fizzy (not madly so) and as long as it was poured carefully, very clear. It now has a really nice, light refreshing flavour. I guess if you wanted a more powerful ginger flavour you could maybe double the quantity! Ideal for BBQ, if only the weather would hurry up and improve! The blackberries added a very slight pink hue, which if I'd used a white sugar might have been more obvious.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hey mat
didn't see this when you posted it, check my recipe for ginger beer somewhere on here if you're looking for another one. I use champagne yeast, just one sachet for the 5 gals .. I would imagine that 5 teaspoons is a bit over the top!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
I would be very interested to see how both your recipes turn out. I've just made up a Coopers Ginger Beer kit (as mentioned by Dan earlier) with my son so I'll let you know how that one turns out.
I would have gone for a recipe but took the lazy option. Made the alcoholic version of course.
Hi by the way Mat and welcome to the forum.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
:o) I'll let you know if it ever finishes in the primary. Been going for over a week and only now showing signs of slowing down. Smells fantastic and I'm itching to try it.
Greg, I've found a supplier of Friar Tucks Ginger Essence... are you interested? I'm planning on a 5 gal batch of ginger wine.
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Hi Tony, thanks can you email me.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Thanks guys. I have to confess though, I am not really a big fan of ginger! I really made this for my Dad and father-in-law who really love the stuff. Turned out though that it wasn't powerful enough for them - probably why I thought it was ok!
And thanks for the suggestion of champagne yeast - that sounds like a much better idea if I do this again.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I made the coopers kit, it was excellent and saved a lot of messing around, £12
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Well seeing as this thread was brought back to life, this was my recipe:
1 Gallon Bottled Water
250g Peeled grated ginger
2 Lemons un-waxed
Half jar of honey
2 Teaspoons cream of tartar
150g Sultanas
150g Sugar
1 Whole cayene chilli (finley chopped)
Bring all ingredients to boil then simmer for one hour. Leave to cool for 24hours then strain using a muslin bag or hop bag. Pour into demijohn, add yeast & water to top up if needed.
Bottled after fermentation for around 3-4weeks.
First bottle I tasted was very gingery, very sharp & too dry......but wait!
I then added 1-2 teaspoons of youngs liquid wine sweetner to each bottle then re-capped. They turned out to be very nice with a slight tingle on the lips & back of the throat! I shall definatley be making more next summer. I may drop down on the ginger & lemon. I guess if I added more sugar this would only up the ABV and not the sweetness I was missing.
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