# Can someone help me tweak this ginger beer recipe?



## meadman77 (Mar 3, 2015)

Hi everyone,
I have an old and basic recipe for ginger beer that I can say from experience works very well, despite it's simplicity. Takes a good couple of years to really shine though. At Christmas, my cousin found a bottle in his shed that was 20 years old!! We chilled it down and opened it - still gassy - tasted really really good! I was amazed. It is quite sweet with the balance of sugar and using beer yeast. We never used to measure SG so not sure of the alcohol content. 

I have increased my knowledge on wine making a lot recently and I have a free 54L demijohn and want to put a scaled up batch down in the next few days. I would like to make some alterations to the recipe and was hoping for some advice. 

Original Recipe:

4 teaspoons citric acid
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
3.5-4kg of sugar – depending on level of sweetness desired. 
50g ground ginger
1 packet of beer yeast
Water to 5 gallons.

Simply mix all ingredients except yeast in a few litres of hot water. Add water up to 5 gallons. Allow to cool. Sprinkle yeast on top. Fit airlock. Leave for 4-6 weeks. Bottle with priming sugar. 

These are the ideas I have - all comments welcome.

1. Adding juice and rind (no pith) of both lemons and oranges. Perhaps in place of the acids which are in the recipe? I'm unsure of what quantities to use though. 

2. Using fresh grated ginger which I would gently boil with the sugar for 10 mins - again, unsure of ballpark quantity. 

4. Adding either raisons or bananas - probably again in the boil and then remove? Quantity?

3. Using some honey in place of sugar. Perhaps also for priming - again unsure of quantity. 

4. Using a different yeast (K1V, D47, 71B) - but I feel like estimating the amount of sugar/honey required to maintain the right balance of sweetness might be tricky and also it might end up being very alcoholic.

Thanks!


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## meadman77 (Mar 4, 2015)

Sorry, probably should have posted this in the recipe section.


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## meadman77 (Mar 4, 2015)

Reposted in recipes


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## PhilDarby (Mar 4, 2015)

Ive just been looking over some old books ive got, relating to ginger recipies, as, you seem to be making a 5 gallon batch ive scaled the ingredients up to suit a 5 gallon ferment.

Recipie one.

Ginger wine.

Root ginger 425 gms

sultanas 1.5 kg (either one of these two)
white grape concentrate 2 1/2 pints 

sugar 6.25 kg

banana (no skins) 5 kg

5 gallons of water

general purpose wine yeast and nutrient.


Recipie two.

Ginger beer.

well bruised root ginger 125 gms

sugar 2 1/2 kg

lemons 10

cream of tartar 1 1/4 teaspoon

water 5 gallons

yeast (unspecified) and nutrient.

From first steps in wine making by cjj berry (1977)

As far as im aware the juice of one medium lemon = one teaspoon of citric acid.

Recipie three.

Ginger wine.

root ginger 200 gms

Sugar 3.75 kg

honey 5 table spoons

juice of 7 1/2 lemons

5 gallons of water

wine yeast and nutrient.

From easy wine and country drinks by mrs gennery taylor (1977)

Ive given the recipy for the three as they seem to cover your questions and ideas, to give u a rough guide based on them.

Sugar guide :-

1 lb of sugar = 1.2 % abv in 5 gallons, so, 1 kg of sugar = 2.6% abv in 5 gallons.

The first recipie will be quite strong judging by the sugar added and sugars from the sultanas, or grape concentrate, as well as from the banana.

I vaguely recall reading somewhere bananas are roughly 40% sugar by weight for a ripe one, the sultanas or grape concentrate im not sure about.

The last two are almost totally reliant on added sugar so it should be easy to calculate, if your worried about making it overly strong.


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