Topic: Anyone else out there doing some home brewing?

[Terry in Australia]

I've recently fallen in lust with alcoholic ginger beer. My favourite brand is Stones "Ginger Joe". It's a great drop with a nice gingery taste, slightly sweet, fizzy, and with a little kick in the tail at 8% ABV.

Ginger Joe by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

It comes in 500 Ml (1 pint) bottles, and the only down side is that they're $8.00 ($5.50 USD) each, so drinking these @ a couple a day gets expensive.

Spotty came to my rescue and brewed up a load of home brew kit ginger beers ("Spotty Joe") which isn't bad, and definitely the right price.

Ginger Beer Home Brew 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

But I wanted more. I wanted to make my own. I watched lots of youtube video's, and most ginger beer home brewers made theirs using all natural ingredients, so I went to the local market and bought fresh ginger root, lemons, and sugar.

Ginger Beer Home Brew 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

On my way home I stopped at a home brew shop and bought a fermenter, a can of malt extract, some brewers yeast, a bottle capper and a bag of caps to put on my recycled Ginger Joe bottles. Then I raced home to make this stuff before my wife got home and caught me making a mess in her kitchen.

Ginger Beer Home Brew 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Ginger beer is easy to make. You need a food processor to grind the ginger, and a stove top and a big pot to simmer all of the ingredients. Like this.

Ginger Beer Home Brew 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Basically, the simmering is just to extract the flavour from the ginger and other ingredients, and to make a concentrate base for your ginger beer. I took it off the heat and let it cool down overnight, then the next morning I dumped it into my 30 litre fermenter, along with lots of water. I took the temperature with my meat thermometer, and as the temp of the mix was was around 22 deg C, (72 deg F) I added the brewers yeast. I ended up with this big jug of wonderful-ness.

Ginger Beer Home Brew 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Now what would usually happen is I would just keep the fermenter in a warm environment for a couple of weeks and then bottle the brew in a couple of weeks time. Something that bugged me though, was that the airlock (commonly referred to as a "Bubbler") wasn't bubbling. Hmmnn....... As it had heaps of sugar in it, and the bobbling is the reaction between the yeast and the sugar, I decided that it needed more yeast. I only had some bread yeast, so I put that in, and watched it for the rest of the week. Sadly, it still wasn't bubbling.

The day before yesterday I made another batch. Bigger and better than old No 1, with added limes, honey, oranges, mixed spices, brown sugar, raw sugar, etc. As per my first rodeo, I added the yeast the next day, and I'm happy to say that it's been bubbling away nicely ever since. This morning I decided to do a "taste test" of the first batch, and I was happy that it actually tastes pretty good. But no bubbles. Hmmnn.

Ok, I added more yeast, and saw that it was bubbling on top of the mix, so I decided to feed it another four pounds of sugar, and sealed it up again. It's still not bubbling thru the bubbler. Oh well, I'm gonna leave it alone, and bottle it next Saturday, and when I return from 8 days interstate, I'm gonna crack one of those bottles, and hopefully it'll be fine.

It'll still taste good, it's currently at 5% alcohol so it might get as high as 8% by the time I've bottled it and let it sit for awhile, so it won't be a waste of my time to drink it, I just hope it's got a bit of fizz. We'll see.  


 

[dave500]

coopers products are good!i used to make beer 35 years ago,ya can buy yeast or use yeast dregs from the coopers ale fermeted in the bottle sediment,good yeast,all yeasts aint the same,they impart a flavour in the finished beers or ales, I tried coopers dregs a few times very nice,quick n thoughrough ferment or how ever #$%* you spell it?BURP.

[Terry in Australia]

That's true Dave, not all yeasts are the same, I used champagne yeast in my second batch, and it seems to have worked a lot better than the ale yeast I first put in batch No 1. I'm just gonna keep making it until I find a flavour that I like the most, and then that'll be my signature brew. I've got 50 litres now, (100 bottles) so probably don't need to make any more for awhile, but I probably will........... Brew on!

[70CB750]

I grow grapes and make wine, never had the urge to mess with beer.

But my neighbor down the road used to brew in his basement for few years, pretty good stuff.

Eventually he found an investor and  they opened up a brewery in walking distance from my place. 

https://www.oldbusthead.com/

[dave500]

NEVER HAD THE URGE TO MESS WITH BEER?  moderators delete this #$%*!

[bhudders]

Haven’t tried again since I failed about 40 years ago


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[bhudders]

It’s just too easy to nip down to the bottle store for a dozen Windhoek lagers, deliciousness perfected


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[seanbarney41]

So, I live in Kalamazoo, Michigan...the home of Bell's brewery.  Sorry Terry and Dave, I have no idea if Bell's products have made it to Australia or not.  I tend to think not, as there are probably plenty of wonderful Australian micro breweries.  Anyway, Bell's has become rather well known in the U.S., but I remember when it was just a small shop selling home brewer kits.  I was only in high school at the time, not old enough to buy booze.  My friend  and I would go to Bell's and buy wine making kits, telling them it was for class project...and then have it brewing away in the closet hidden under a pile of clothes or whatever.  God, that was some aweful piss we made.

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, that's excellent Sean, my best mate (when I was a kid, I haven't seen him in 40 years now, and still miss him) Malcy Waller, made some home brew up on his mothers farm when he was 14 and hid it out in one of the sheds, and added lots of sugar to make it stronger. He sneaked a couple of bottles in to school and I remember drinking them with him, warm, on a hot day and thinking how disgusting beer was?

I've changed my opinion somewhat since then, but I've always been a spirits drinker, until I discovered Ginger Beer, which besides being delicious, is actually quite good for you, in moderation. I might have to do another taste testing today, but I'm taking my wife and her mum out for lunch today, followed by some gambling on the slot machines, so I might need to either celebrate my good fortune, or drown my sorrows, we'll see.

[bear]

[quote author=Terry in Australia link=topic=179146.msg2078377#msg2078377 date=156784928

The day before yesterday I made another batch. Bigger and better than old No 1, with added limes, honey, oranges, mixed spices, brown sugar, raw sugar, etc. As per my first rodeo, I added the yeast the next day, and I'm happy to say that it's been bubbling away nicely ever since. This morning I decided to do a "taste test" of the first batch, and I was happy that it actually tastes pretty good. But no bubbles. Hmmnn.

Ok, I added more yeast, and saw that it was bubbling on top of the mix, so I decided to feed it another four pounds of sugar, and sealed it up again. It's still not bubbling thru the bubbler. Oh well, I'm gonna leave it alone, and bottle it next Saturday, and when I return from 8 days interstate, I'm gonna crack one of those bottles, and hopefully it'll be fine.

 I just hope it's got a bit of fizz. We'll see.
[/quote]


Call me Nostradamus if you like but I predict Mrs Tez waking up at 3am on one of those 8 day's to sound of large explosions and breaking glass.

[Old Moe Toe]

Hi Terry, I have been home brewing for a fair while.
When your fermenter stops bubbling, bottle the ginger beer and put a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle.
Best if you wait at least 3 weeks before drinking and also keep the bottles in a warmish place.

[dave500]

that makes em explode,use half a teaspoon,creates a secondary fermatation in the bottle to create the fizz,too much itll burst the bottles,same as bottling too early before the primary ferment has finished.

[dave500]

use glucose instead of white sugar for brewing.

[spotty]

I guess I should pipe up about now seeing as it may have been my brewing activities that got Terry staggering down this path
Had a few goes at beer over the years, the first time ended up in the doctors surgery getting a dozen stitches in my left hand, second go we ended up producing some seriously hallucinogenic strength beer the also tasted like sh1t
A few years ago a mate showed me how to make cider the easy way ( apple juice, champagne yeast and time) and eventually I got the urge to have a go at beer after tasting some of his brews
I got onto eBay and found some s/hand equipment, lots of people tend to try one or two batches, screw it up or just can't be bothered so sell a hundred bucks worth of gear for twenty
So far I've made about a dozen different batches with only one fail and a couple of 'alright' ones
The fail was a cherry ale that had a distinct aftertaste of antiseptic.... everything has to be sterilised as you go and I may have forgotten to rinse the steriliser out if the bottles before filling with beer. Not pleasant but I managed to get it down.....
A couple of serious wins were the Carlsberg elephant beer and the blackntan, both came out around 8-10% alc vol and an Irish bloke I know rated the blackntan over proper Guinness
There are unlimited variations and recipes depending on the sugars, yeasts , hops etc and most commercial beers can be closely replicated
At the moment I'm drinking a wheat beer, I have a chocolate beer ( with coconut) maturing in the bottles, a dark lager I just bottled tonight and a batch of strong ( prob 9-10%) cider in the fermenter
I've had offers to brew to order but I'd rather just do what I want and give some away. I feel the same about DJ'ing, I'll happily play for free ( or for beer anyway) at friends parties but i've knocked back loads of paid gigs cos as soon as you take money you have to play whatever #$%* they want and I can't play music I hate, even for money
Summers coming do it might be time to start laying some nice lagers down ready for the warm weather

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, hopefully there won't be any explosions Brian, but we'll see. I bought a bag of carbonation drops to go in the bottles when I bottle the first batch this coming weekend, then as I'm going interstate for a week I might put them out in the garage where if they do explode, they'll not do much in the way of damage. I might just put a couple in the spare room where I hid some of Spotty's so they'll be good to go when I get back.

This afternoon I dropped into the home brew shop and bought a fancy Italian bottle sanitiser and bottle tree for draining the sanitiser liquid, which will be really handy with close to 50 bottles to fill. I bought some plastic brew bottles to supplement my stocks of Ginger Joe empty's, so I'll be able to test them and reseal them easy after I've bottled them. I'll leave brew No 2 in the fermenter for an extra couple of weeks, just to see what a difference longer fermentation makes. I'm really enjoying this so far.

[PeWe]

If taste is not as you like but it has alcohol in it you can cook it.
I mixed 6kg sugar with special yeast and warm water (min 45*C this "Turbo"yeast withstand) up to total of 25L. It started to bubble instantly and was ready after 4 days. Let it cook in a special device with inbuilt heater spiral and a water cooler at the exhaust pipe!
The first deciliter thrown away, then let it boil 8 hours when timer switched it off. Perfect at night.
It was messy to clean it twice thru a 1.5 m pipe filled with fine choal.
It worked fine and caused many fine loss of memory black outs, mostly for others
That was a very common hobby around here in the 90's.

[70CB750]

NEVER HAD THE URGE TO MESS WITH BEER?  moderators delete this #$%*!

 

[RAFster122s]

I don't drink beer, never acquired the taste for it.  Just don't drink very often....very very infrequently.  Does that ban me from this thread or from the forum?

David

[Terry in Australia]

Hell no David, I'm no beer drinker either, Ginger Beer is quite different, as is cider, my other favourite. I must try making some apple or pear cider next, it's a delightful tipple on a hot day, and when it comes to booze, any day over 0 is a hot day for me!

[bear]

I don't drink beer, never acquired the taste for it.  Just don't drink very often....very very infrequently.  Does that ban me from this thread or from the forum?

David

I think your safe as far as the forum goes but as for this thread?.........................Sorry Dave it's been nice knowing ya.

Cheers,
Brian

[bear]

I think I'm gunna have a crack at distilling some gin.

Hey Uncle Tez does your interstate trip involve a visit to our nations capital?

Cheers,
Brian

[Terry in Australia]

G'Day Brian, no not this trip, just Darwin (where I hope to catch up with Mick again) and Hobart, but my new unit is located in Canberra, so when I eventually go there we should catch up? Although the Classic might be sooner?

[bear]

G'Day Brian, no not this trip, just Darwin (where I hope to catch up with Mick again) and Hobart, but my new unit is located in Canberra, so when I eventually go there we should catch up? Although the Classic might be sooner?

All good, if you where going to visit Canberra I was going to put you onto a bloke with a ton of brewing gear. It was one of those setups for yuppies to go in and put down their own beer.
It went belly up and he's trying to flog all the gear off.

Cheers,
Brian

[Terry in Australia]

Wow, that's no good, I would have thought that booze was like food, a low risk venture, but when I think about it, every time I've gone to the home brew shop I'm the only customer? They also do wine making, cheese making and salami making, so hopefully they'll be around for awhile, I'll need to keep going back for each new batch of "Terry's Ginger Toe".

[spotty]

terry, next time we chat remind me to give you my cider recipe, its as dumb as dog sh1t, can't go wrong

are you using Home Make It in rezza for your supplies ? theres another one in greensboghorror that just does brewing and is a bit more downmarket