Safe Ginger Beer

[tatty]

Hi guys, hope this is the right place to post this question.

I've had a look at a load of ginger beer recipes but most of the look incredibly dangerous, to my mind anyway (1kg sugar in 1 gallon fermenting in a sealed container). There seems to be quite a lot of stories of exploding bottles.

Would it be posible to ferment a 1 gallon batch with sugar to achieve about 2-3% alcohol, then transfer to 2l bottles and then prime them?

I take it this would then have to be sweetened as needed before drinking.

Basically just looking for a safer way to make this. Any help appreciated.

Thanks

[lockwood1956]

1kg sugar in 1 gallon fermenting in a sealed container....that definitely is unsafe!

It isn't something I have made, but will look into it a little more. in the meantime someone who has made it can offer some advice

regards
bob

[tatty]

Thanks Bob.

I've have started this already, just to try it out:

4 tbs ginger
1 tsp citric acid
Sugar to 1.028

Not sure wether to rack into pet bottles before fermentation stops or allow it to ferment fully then add a little sugar.

Who knows, it may be down the drain before then.

[lockwood1956]

I would def ferment to dry, them prime with 1tsp sugar per bottle (use PET bottles too....not glass)

otherwise there is no controlling the carbonation.

If you need it sweet, then you will have to use artificial sweeteners or non fermentable sugars.

regards
Bob

[fatbloke]

I can't remember the exact recipe I use, but it's available on the net as a "quick" recipe.

It's basically X amout of ginger, Y amount of sugar and Z amount of yeast (juice of lemon as well).

All into a 2 litre PET pop bottle which is topped up to 9/10ths with water. You then just give it a good shake and leave it somewhere warmish, checking the bottle.

Once you can't depress the plastic in and it's hard you refridgerate it. Once chilled it's ready to serve.

Yes, you do have to open the bottles carefully, yes you do have to pour it through a strainer, but it does make a nice gingery drink.

It takes about 2 days from start to ready to serve - and yes if you don't refridgerate it the bottles can explode, though it's less of a problem as they're only very this plastic so it's just messy if they "go".

There"s probably some decent recipes for "ginger beer plants" available as well.

Dunno if that's any help....

regards

Jtfb

[koomber]

I used the following recipe but with some variations:

http://www.homebrewdiary.com/2009/05/daves-ginger-beer-recipe.html

Firstly once the SG hits 1.010 rack off the ginger and add 1-2 tsp pectolase.

The trick is to ferment to dry. You can add finings if you like, they will help it clear. What your wanting to do though is get it fermented to dry.

Now I'll admit that I started of wanting a ginger beer but was put of by the high chance of hand grenades and went for wine. Once this was dry and clear it lacked body but had a lovely warming ginger bite.

So, rack, degas and stabilise. After a day I added a 250mL can of white wine extract. This made it super sweet and gave it a lovely bit of body but would be probably too sweet for proper wine.

Thing is though, you've basically made an ace ginger beer concentrate!

Dilute it with some fizzy juice of your choice (lemonade, limeade, etc.) and it is just LUSH. You might want to add more gigner to get a stronger ginger taste at lower dilution ratios. Goes down very well at a BBQ. And is just amazing in rum or Jack Daniels.

[tatty]

@fatbloke

Yeah, that's the type of recipe I was referring to in my original post. It's the lack of control in these recipes that worries me. I'm sure loads of people make these up without any harm being done and I am just being over cautious

I just don't like the thought of one of those bottles exploding if one of my kids are getting something from the fridge. Thanks for the info though.

@koomber

That sounds great. I'll probably try something like that with my next batch. Thanks.

For this batch I have on I'll let it ferment dry, transfer to small pet bottles, then prime with the minimum amount of sugar necessary as Bob suggested.

On another note, I used Lalvin 1118 to make this when most of the online recipes call for bread yeast. I just assumed I would have a slightly lower chance of spoilage using the wine yeast. What do you guys use?

Thanks again.

[lockwood1956]

I started a ginger beer that I think will be "safe"

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4509

will update as i go along

[lockwood1956]

finished work on the recipe

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=4582