Ginger beer

[CrealCritter]

Made up 3 gallons of ginger beer. Just completed and its in the primary fermenter. Shooting for 4% ABV, seeing a little bubbling action already

Recipe:
http://phickle.com/fermentation-basics-ginger-beer/

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Nice!

 

[sumi]

Oh, lovely! I haven't had ginger beer in years, but used to drink it a lot in S.A. where they even sold homemade in the restaurant in town.

Funny story: My mom tried her hand at making some one day. She managed to let the brew get quite alcoholic in the process. A day or so later she came home from running errants and found my dad out of his wheelchair, lying in the doorway to the bathroom. She ran to check on him and discovered he tried and enjoyed her ginger beer and, not expecting it to be quite so potent, drank quite a bit of it. He got quite drunk as a result and on his way to the bathroom fell out of his wheelchair and decided to stay on the floor and sleep it off!

Needless to say that was the last time she tried her hand at making ginger beer!

(My dad was left an "incomplete quadriplegic" after a botched back surgery following a car accident. Hence the need for a wheelchair)

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So sorry about your dad's medical issue - that totally sucks. But, sounds like he had a good time enjoying that beer!

 

[sumi]

So sorry about your dad's medical issue - that totally sucks. But, sounds like he had a good time enjoying that beer!

Thanks, FEM. It was incredibly hard for him, but though he struggled, he stayed positive too. His favourite radio station called him one day and interviewed him. He told the broadcaster, "I can do ANYTHING! I just can't climb stairs" He passed away nearly 13 years ago and we miss him so much...

And yes, he did really enjoy that ginger beer! Gosh, we teased him and my mom over that incident for a long time afterwards...

 

[sumi]

@CrealCritter I'm not seeing raisins in there? That's how I learned it's made. Or maybe it's an S.A. thing? Recipe from "home" https://www.my-easy-cooking.com/2008/03/09/3-cheers-for-ginger-beer/

 

[CrealCritter]

@CrealCritter I'm not seeing raisins in there? That's how I learned it's made. Or maybe it's an S.A. thing? Recipe from "home" https://www.my-easy-cooking.com/2008/03/09/3-cheers-for-ginger-beer/

So many different recipes out there

Day 1 - its alive... We keep the house cool (62 ~ 65 degrees) so hoping for a nice slow, non explosive ferment . It's a pita to have to install a blow off tube.

 

[CrealCritter]

Thanks, FEM. It was incredibly hard for him, but though he struggled, he stayed positive too. His favourite radio station called him one day and interviewed him. He told the broadcaster, "I can do ANYTHING! I just can't climb stairs" He passed away nearly 13 years ago and we miss him so much...

And yes, he did really enjoy that ginger beer! Gosh, we teased him and my mom over that incident for a long time afterwards...

You are a lady of high character, glad your our admin!

 

[sumi]

You are a lady of high character, glad your our admin!

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 2 - ginger bug yeast is most definitely a top feeder like ale yeast is. This is probably why ginger beer is also called ginger ale. Its not an extremely active yeast either, which is good for me. From what I've read so far it has a low alcohol tolerance @ 4.0 ~ 4.5% before it becomes inactive. So if you want a hard ginger beer, skip the ginger bug and go with a champagne yeast, something like White Labs WLP715, which in neutral tasting and has a high alcohol tolerance of 17% would be a good choice.

Sumi's recipe called for cream of tarter. This is for head retention, like what you would expect from a cream soda or cream ale. I may try this, for my brew of root beer. After my 2nd ginger bug comes to life. Also her recipe calls for raisins, raisins are another type of sugar or food for the yeast to eat through, producing an additional flavor. tartaric acid is also an additional food producing an additional flavor but I used juice from fresh lemons instead.

I suspect this batch of ginger beer will take 7 to 10 days to fully ferment. Before I bottle it along with priming sugar, I may add cream of tarter during bottling. It's interesting to note how ginger yeast behaves, as it eats trough the sugars, it does so in colonies. Cream of tater would definitely help bind it all together better. But 1/4 cup of active bug juice per gallon of water, seems to be a good ratio for yeast reproduction.

You can see we have yeast reproduction occurring and the beer is starting to clarify somewhat. So far so good... Keeping my fingers crossed.