Would you mind sharing your current version of the Ginger beer recipe Terry?
No problems mate, keep in mind this recipe is for a 28 litre (7.5 US gallon) batch, so you'll need to adjust it to suit your own batch size:
1.25 Kg (2.75 pounds) of fresh ginger root, washed.
6 lemons
250ml (.5 pint) lemon juice
4 pounds of dark brown sugar
12 pounds of cane or corn sugar
2 sachets (14 grams) (.5 ounce) of bread yeast
Method:
Cut the ginger and wash it in room temp water to scrub off any dirt. Place it in a food processor, and chop it up fine, adding a little water (a couple of cupfulls) to turn it into a slurry.
Put a large pot on your stove and dump the ginger slurry in, and bring it to a simmer, adding a pint or two of water, as necessary.
Pour the lemon juice in
Grate the 6 lemon's rind (zest) into the ginger slurry, don't allow any of the white "Pith" to go in, as it adds bitterness
Cut and juice those 6 lemons and tip the strained juice (no pips) into the slurry.
Add more water as necessary, I use a 2.5 gallon stainless steel pot so there's no chance of overflowing
Add the 4 pounds of dark brown sugar and stir in well with a wooden spoon. This adds a "Malty" flavour.
Add enough water to completely dissolve the sugar
Add as much (if not all) of the corn or cane sugar, and continue to stir as it simmers, so nothing coagulates or burns in the bottom of the pot.
Allow to simmer for an hour, continually stirring, and enjoy the fragrance. Turn the stove off, and allow to cool as long as you like, I used to leave it to cool overnight, but I now dump it into my fermenter pretty much after an hour or so of simmering.
BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO SCALD YOURSELF!!!!!!
Filling your fermenter:
Using a large, fine mesh strainer (I found one at a 2 dollar shop that fits into the top of my sanitised fermenter perfectly) CAREFULLY tip the slurry into the fermenter. Some of the juice will immediately run through the strainer into the fermenter.
Boil your kettle and repeatedly pour the boiling water through the slurry in the strainer to wash the sugars and juice through the strainer. Hot tap water is fine, as long as it's hot enough to dissolve the sugars and push them through the strainer into the fermenter.
I use a potato masher to push the juices and sugars through the strainer. By the time you have almost filled your fermenter, the slurry should be much lighter in color. You can either keep it to make a nice ginger cake, or like me, throw it out because I don't like fcuking ginger cakes..........
Make sure there's enough room between the top of your brew and the lid (2 inches is good) so that the gases can escape through your bubbler. I've had a couple of occurrences where mine wouldn't start to "burp" until I reduced the level of liquid in the fermenter.
NOW THIS PART IS REALLY IMPORTANT:
Let the mixture cool, preferably overnight, to room temperature (it ranges a bit but I use 24 deg C or 75 deg F as an average) then add the yeast. I stir it in with a special tool (okay, it's long plastic shoe horn, but it works for me) but you don't really need to, I just like to.
Put the lid on your fermenter, and shove your bubbler in it's bung, and fill it halfway with water, and put the cap on. It won't start bubbling for a few hours so don't worry when it doesn't start right away, but it will happily bubble away for as long as you want to leave it in your fermenter. I've left mine in for a minimum of 2 weeks, but I find the longer (within reason) I leave it, the better it tastes, so I've stretched it out to a month, which I find to be just right.
If during this time the bubbling stops, don't panic, give it a stir and add another satchet of yeast, and it'll start again.
BOTTLING TIME! :
You'll need enough bottles to bottle all but the last pint of mud in the bottom of the fermenter, and enough caps. Glass bottles are best, brown glass bottles are better, plastic bottles aren't great, but if that's all you've got, fair enough. Put your fermenter up on the bench and give it a stir, and then leave it all day for the dregs to settle on the bottom.
Sanitise all your bottles and drain them.
Place a teaspoon of corn or cane sugar in each bottle, then fill with the ginger brew, (leave an inch of space between the top of your brew and the top of the bottle) and cap tightly. Once you've done all of them, place them in cartons (to keep the sunlight out) and store them at room temperature. My wife makes me store mine in the garage due to an earlier explosion for which I haven't yet been forgiven, so be careful in the hotter months as it doesn't take kindly to to much heat during the "Carbonation" stage.
Leave your bottled booze at least 2 weeks at room temperature before you start drinking it. Carbonation time is determined by temperature, so in cold climates, it'll take longer. By then it will be very flavorful, and fizzy, not to mention extremely alcoholic, so don't drink it then ride a bike, operate machinery, practise your trick shooting skills, apply for a loan, demonstrate your singing/dancing/skateboarding/nunchuck skills, or call an old girlfriend (or boyfriend) on the spur of the moment.
Always wash out and thoroughly sanitise all of your brewing gear, I use a "No rinse" sanitiser, which should be available from most good brewing shops.
Enjoy!
Ginger beer bottling 14 Jul 2020 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
