Ginger beer advice

[halfastory]

Going to make a gallon of ginger beer with the following recipe but wanted a bit of advice regarding the alcohol content. According to posts on another forum this will come out at around 6.5-7% which is a bit pokey for my needs! Would rather it finish around 3.5-4%. Would anyone know roughly how much sugar to add?

130 grms fresh root ginger
1 1/2lb sugar
1 lemon
1 gram cream of tartar
1 tsp wine yeast
1 gallon water

Thanks

[lockwood1956]

Use a hydrometer....it will enable you to add the right amount

regards
Bob

[halfastory]

Would this ferment to dry or would it be around 1.000? Doing a quick calculation i'm guessing a starting gravity of 1.030 would give me 5% if it finished at .990.

[Duffbeer]

it will more than likely ferment dry, 1/2lb of sugar per gallon will produce about 3% alcohol, I would aim for about 3/4lb to achieve 4.5% ish.

Or is that supposed to be 1 & 1/2lb? In which case would be around 9%.

[halfastory]

Thanks. I checked a hydrometer chart earlier and it showed around ten ounces of sugar for the percentage i'm looking for. No reason to suggest it won't ferment dry so i'll give it a go this weekend.
Cheers.

[ToulouseLePlot]

I've hit a problem with ginger beer. The recipe I'm using is
625g sugar
100g fresh ginger
15g cream of tartar
5g yeast nutrient
2 lemons
4.5L water
Nottingham Ale Yeast
The problem I have encountered is that I can't get the secondary fermentation to start. It ferments happily from around 1.050 to 1.004 which I read is about right for Nottingham. The first batch I put into bottles with 1/2 tsp of sugar - they didn't referment at all. Temperature does not seem to be the issue, it's about 18°C and I put the bottles in the airing cupboard for a week when I found the first hadn't fizzed. The second batch I added sugar to the DJ the day the first fermentation ceased (at 1.004 again) as an experiment - and that hasn't re-started (I'm writing a week after I put the sugar in).

I know that there's lots of messing about with 'ginger beer plants' and other recipes indicate bottling on the 2nd day of the initial fermentation (hence exploding bottle problem), but as I wanted a 4%+ I thought I'd try making it like ordinary beer.

Is there something in ginger which kills the yeast when itreaches the end of the fermentation - so unlike beer it can't recommence with additional sugar? Or maybe I should try a different yeast?

[joelw94]

When using Nottingham with beer I've noticed that it's extremely flocculent, which is great for clear beer but not always helpful for fast bottle conditioning as there are less cells in suspension. There should still be some though so in theory it should carbonate eventually. Your method sounds ok to me.

Have you taken hydrometer readings on the second batch? Sometimes when adding extra sugar at the end things finish up quietly without but much visibly happening. Unless for some reason the yeast have died (too high acidity for a beer yeast??), which seems unlikely as Nottingham is robust and it's well within alcohol tolerance, so maybe just some extra time and patience is needed. With beer I'd usually leave it two weeks before trying a bottle and longer before it reaches its peak.

[Cellar_Rat]

How did you put the sugar in? Bulk / crystal / solution?

I would be tempted to give them all a good shake and raise the temp to 20

[halfastory]

I'll be bulk priming my ginger beer when fermented so i'd be interested to see what others think on this subject. I primed a wine number 1 with two teaspoons of sugar in a one litre PET bottle and that didn't carbonate either which was pretty disappointing.

[ToulouseLePlot]

I know it wasn't the best plan, but I put the sugar in a dj and as it syphoned in I swirled it around until it had mostly dissolved. Bad practice, but I don't think it would have mattered and the judges at the world fair aren't going to see this lot. Has anyone else used this sort of method for ginger-beer? Maybe it just doesn't work?

[Cellar_Rat]

I know it wasn't the best plan, but I put the sugar in a dj and as it syphoned in I swirled it around until it had mostly dissolved. Bad practice, but I don't think it would have mattered and the judges at the world fair aren't going to see this lot. Has anyone else used this sort of method for ginger-beer? Maybe it just doesn't work?

Nothing wrong in that - simple bulk sugaring plan, before bottling. I don't get why it doesn't start the secondary - how soon did you bottle?- was there any sorbate/sulphite added?

[ToulouseLePlot]

Because of the failure of the first batch I had been looking out for this one and think I added the sugar within 24 hours of the fermentation stopping. No sorbate or sulphite added.

[Cellar_Rat]

This doesn't make any sense at all. There seems to be no obvious reason for the secondary not starting.

Just reviewed your recipe and nothing absolutely nothing seemed out of order. I assume it got off to a good start?

[Duffbeer]

I'll be bulk priming my ginger beer when fermented so i'd be interested to see what others think on this subject. I primed a wine number 1 with two teaspoons of sugar in a one litre PET bottle and that didn't carbonate either which was pretty disappointing.

The wine may have reached it's alc tolerance or have cleared to an extent that no active yeast remained.

This doesn't make any sense at all. There seems to be no obvious reason for the secondary not starting.

Just reviewed your recipe and nothing absolutely nothing seemed out of order. I assume it got off to a good start?

Lack of priming sugar, you need at least 1 tspoon of sugar per 500ml to create a fizz, anything less will merely condition & not fizz. The best practice is to add directly to each bottle, cap, shake & keep warm for 5 to 7 days then a cool place for at least 2 weeks (this allows the liquid to absorb the co2).

The down side to bulk priming is you may get 10 flat, 10 with a slight gas and 10 gushers, though with not enough priming sugar they'll all be flat.

[Cellar_Rat]

.. merely condition & not fizz. The best practice is to add directly to each bottle, cap, shake & keep warm for 5 to 7 days then a cool place for at least 2 weeks (this allows the liquid to absorb the co2).

The down side to bulk priming is you may get 10 flat, 10 with a slight gas and 10 gushers, though with not enough priming sugar they'll all be flat.

You have a good point Karl. I agree. I prime each bottle and never have an issue. Bulk priming does seems an unnecessary step for me but I can see why others use it - never thought about the unevenness of it. I use 1 gram in real ale to get exactly priming but not fizz.

I doubt though that the alc tolerance has been reached - Suzie only used 625g (form memory) of sugar. No chance.