How to make home brew ginger beer - about 17% ABV and 30p a pint!

[dinodom000]

I whipped up a few batches of this because it looked interesting. After adding a pint of sugar (20oz) to a gallon the gravity was only around 1.04x. Witch seems a bit low for 17% ABV. Did I overlook something? A second question, after fermentation do you wait for it to clear before carbonating?

[simonearly]

@dinodom000 Er, dunno. I base the strength on the ability of it to knock out me and my neighbours at his barbeque last summer. It usually takes 8-10cans of stella to get that smashed.THis did it in a 1/3 of that amount, hence the calculation. As for the clearing, a *true* alcoholic waits for no beer to clear - that's just for girls!

[smileonlegs87]

well it's been a week now. the balloon is what I use as an airlock for my trial batches. it didn't really ferment at all, i thought the agitation may have been kicking the yeast into action. I did sanitize everything too.... hmmm. Maybe I'll give another batch ago.

[smileonlegs87]

I dunno if I may have done something wrong. I used a 2L softdrink bottle to brew in, and A balloon airlock. Bought a fresh pack of Champagne yeast to make this and only put in a teaspoon, the balloon would only really expand after I shook the bottle a bit, then the next day would be flat again. Normally when I do honey meads, the balloon is full for about a month before going flat(with bread yeast), is this how champagne yeast works? also, now the bottle and the balloon has sucked itself in-HELP

[simonearly]

@smileonlegs87 err, that sounds quite wrong. the CO2 sounds like it has dissolved into the solution and by agitating it, you are making it come out, hence the balloon expansion on shaking. Sounds like the fermentation has ceased. Make sure stuff is clean and theres an airlock, plus a warm environment - room temp is fine. Seeing s I'm not there in front of it, I cant give you any more suggestions I'm afraid. It does take a few days to kick off though - maybe leave it alone for a week?

[simonearly]

Just a quick update, I'm putting the honey in *after* the brewing process has finished instead so the sugar makes it a bit more palatable.

[centralparkfitness]

@simonearly I think you answered my next question but just to be sure, your finished product isn't going to be too sweet right because the yeast fermented all the sugar? you then add the honey after the fact to give it a sweet taste? I think I'm gonna make a batch of this today! have you ever done it with other types of brewing yeast like ale yeast? heck baking yeast would work, just won't be able to get the high ABV

[simonearly]

@centralparkfitness Yes, I've used "normal" general-purpose yeast in the past - the stuff that's sold in normal supermarkets for bread-making. It will give you about 4-5% ABV. If you do it that way, put less sugar in else it will taste very sweet (to my palate anyway). One trick I used when this was the case was to put in the higher tolerance champagne yeast in after bottling, just to add the CO2. When it was getting pretty hard (the plastic bottle!) , put it in the fridge to kill off the yeast.

[centralparkfitness]

have you ever had contamination problems? seems to me like you should be putting the sugar, honey and water in a pot and bringing to a boil, then at the end of the boil add the lemons and ginger mix so the heat sterilizes them.  then cool it down and then pitch your yeast.

[simonearly]

@centralparkfitness no, never had a problem and I'm quite lazy with sterilisation etc - I tend to wash everything as if it were general "washing up" and rinse a lot, but no dishwasher sterilising or other chemicals and it all seems to work. In fact, to demonstrate to my kids what yeast is, i put in a single speck - literally the size of a very small grain of sand. It took a few days more to get going, but the result was the same of course.

[steelb123]

Great video, if i want to brew this but not make it quite as strong ( say 4 % ) is it a case of cutting down the amount of sugar ??

[simonearly]

@steelb123 Yes, that will work. However, a high yield yeast (ie the champagne stuff I use) will turn ALL the sugar into alcohol so it's VERY dry. Unless you can control the brewing environment,I would reduce the sugar and let it ferment fully, THEN add more sugar to taste and stick it in the fridge so it doesnt start brewing again. A bit of trial and error is required methinks!

[TheSteb67]

@steelb123 Hi, you can use lager or beer yeast to bring it out at about 4%. The longer you wait to drink it the drier it gets so if you like a sweeter finish (like Crabbies say) I make some ginger syrup and add to the glass when poured.

[carmoir19]

Excellent video, cheers. Have scaled your recipe up to my 40 pint keg in my flat so hopefully it will turn out all right, certainly smelled great when it was bubbling away. One quick question - Would it be possible for the initial fermentation to be complete within 48 hours? I took a while for the process to begin, probably because my flat is so cold, once it started it went like the clappers for around 30-40 hours, but now its not doing much. Move on to bottling? Cheers, Craig

[simonearly]

@carmoir19 I would be seriously concerned if you could get the fermentation done in 48hrs. Perhaps with Hydrogen Peroxide or Ammonia added? (I'm kidding - for chissakes don't do anything like that!) But seriously, you can buy accelerators from your homebrew shop (or garden centre as I did) and it does speed things up. Keeping the mixture warm (25C-30C ) will help as will the amount of yeast used in the beginning.

[simonearly]

google white labs dot com for yeast options. I used the local garden centres version, but I reckon this one will be better from what others are saying - WLP099 Super High Gravity Yeast.

[simonearly]

I use champagne yeast that I bought from the local garden centre. It has a cleaner taste and a higher tolerance to alcohol.

[crisputer]

Very interested in making this soon. Sounds delicious. Great video! If you don't mind, what specific yeast is that you are using? Thanks!

[thehasslessydney]

@crisputer lavin EC1118 or EC116 would work nicely. I used EC1118, tasted great.