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!
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!
