Hi everyone, I started my first brew last Sat night (14th Oct) using bits & pieces I picked up at Wilkinsons.
I wasn't brave/stupid enough to jump straight into bona fide beer or wine, since I thought it was smarter to start slowly & get the hang of things first - not to mention the cost of a kit & the likelihood of ruining it on a first attempt.
So... I cooked up my own alcoholic ginger beer recipe from scratch, very roughly following a recipe I saw a guy on YouTube make.
Recipe:
4.5l carboy
1 large ginger root, blended to pulp
1/2 medium orange, chopped & skin left on
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 bag (500g) Wilkinson beer additive (50:50 mixed pale malt: dextrose)
300g white sugar
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 Wilkinson wine yeast sachet (oops! Maybe that was a bad idea?!)
(orange & coriander were my idea, having read about Belgian Wit Beer - my fav)
The fermentation started up in earnest about 3 hours after I pitched the yeast & quickly turned into Mount Vesuvius, fizzing so violently it was almost at a rolling boil! :lol: You can probably guess what happened next - yup, it was trying to climb out through the trap & I had to carefully swap traps several times, cleaning & sanitizing as I went. Luckily, the pack I bought was a double. It was late by this point & I had to abandon it with the cap of the trap jumping up & down & ended up leaving it in my bath overnight in case anything more drastic happened - like a total blockage of the carboy neck!
Anyway, it settled down enough by the next day that I could leave it to it's own devices & this continued for about 36 more hours, fizzing like crazy. Eventually it calmed down to a gentle fizz like a glass of pop that's been standing for a few hours. It's now 5 days since start & has all but stopped, almost overnight in fact. Very strange!
So, I took a gravity reading: OG=1.058, current gravity=1.013... erm, that's as near as dammit 6% ABV right?? :shock: but it still hasn't cleared all the way down the bottle, as if the yeast is still churning away very gently. There's a clearer section of about 2-3 inches from the head. I wonder where it will finish in ABV?
Some questions for you guys:
I've read that a full fermentation can take from 10 days to whatever which is why I'm a little confused about the progress so far. I daren't at this point risk bottling this monster into sealed, primed bottles, as it seems to like sugar enough to break stuff to get to it! lol Do I leave it until it has settled right out in say another five to ten days?
Secondly, I tasted the sample I took today & to be honest it wasn't particularly palatable. I even question the accuracy of the hydrometer because it's more like a ginger flavoured light barley wine, or maybe even a low calorie ginger ale & vodka! So I wonder how I'm going to calm it down a bit with lots of sweetness & fizz without making bottle bombs. I absolutely guarantee they will be if I overdo the primer to compensate. Is there a sweetener I can add that is non-fermentable? It will probably end up going into some 750ml Hoegaarden bottles that I have, hopefully they'll be safe enough. :?
Is it possible to kill the yeast completely, allow to settle then sweeten & carbonate at bottling time?
I'm thinking now that I should have done the following:- used ale yeast instead of wine yeast (I was aiming for a high ABV, but this wine yeast seems pretty harsh tasting so far); skipped the white sugar & used the full 1kg of malt/dextrose, & I also wish I'd used spring water rather than tap water.
If it turns out ok, I think I'll name this batch "RPG" - rocket propelled ginger. :grin:
Or maybe I'll just pour it straight into a fuel can.
Sorry for the long post, I'm kind of excited by the success of my first brewage! Thanks for taking the time to read.
Regards
Chris.
I wasn't brave/stupid enough to jump straight into bona fide beer or wine, since I thought it was smarter to start slowly & get the hang of things first - not to mention the cost of a kit & the likelihood of ruining it on a first attempt.
So... I cooked up my own alcoholic ginger beer recipe from scratch, very roughly following a recipe I saw a guy on YouTube make.
Recipe:
4.5l carboy
1 large ginger root, blended to pulp
1/2 medium orange, chopped & skin left on
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 bag (500g) Wilkinson beer additive (50:50 mixed pale malt: dextrose)
300g white sugar
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
1 Wilkinson wine yeast sachet (oops! Maybe that was a bad idea?!)
(orange & coriander were my idea, having read about Belgian Wit Beer - my fav)
The fermentation started up in earnest about 3 hours after I pitched the yeast & quickly turned into Mount Vesuvius, fizzing so violently it was almost at a rolling boil! :lol: You can probably guess what happened next - yup, it was trying to climb out through the trap & I had to carefully swap traps several times, cleaning & sanitizing as I went. Luckily, the pack I bought was a double. It was late by this point & I had to abandon it with the cap of the trap jumping up & down & ended up leaving it in my bath overnight in case anything more drastic happened - like a total blockage of the carboy neck!
Anyway, it settled down enough by the next day that I could leave it to it's own devices & this continued for about 36 more hours, fizzing like crazy. Eventually it calmed down to a gentle fizz like a glass of pop that's been standing for a few hours. It's now 5 days since start & has all but stopped, almost overnight in fact. Very strange!
So, I took a gravity reading: OG=1.058, current gravity=1.013... erm, that's as near as dammit 6% ABV right?? :shock: but it still hasn't cleared all the way down the bottle, as if the yeast is still churning away very gently. There's a clearer section of about 2-3 inches from the head. I wonder where it will finish in ABV?
Some questions for you guys:
I've read that a full fermentation can take from 10 days to whatever which is why I'm a little confused about the progress so far. I daren't at this point risk bottling this monster into sealed, primed bottles, as it seems to like sugar enough to break stuff to get to it! lol Do I leave it until it has settled right out in say another five to ten days?
Secondly, I tasted the sample I took today & to be honest it wasn't particularly palatable. I even question the accuracy of the hydrometer because it's more like a ginger flavoured light barley wine, or maybe even a low calorie ginger ale & vodka! So I wonder how I'm going to calm it down a bit with lots of sweetness & fizz without making bottle bombs. I absolutely guarantee they will be if I overdo the primer to compensate. Is there a sweetener I can add that is non-fermentable? It will probably end up going into some 750ml Hoegaarden bottles that I have, hopefully they'll be safe enough. :?
Is it possible to kill the yeast completely, allow to settle then sweeten & carbonate at bottling time?
I'm thinking now that I should have done the following:- used ale yeast instead of wine yeast (I was aiming for a high ABV, but this wine yeast seems pretty harsh tasting so far); skipped the white sugar & used the full 1kg of malt/dextrose, & I also wish I'd used spring water rather than tap water.
If it turns out ok, I think I'll name this batch "RPG" - rocket propelled ginger. :grin:
Or maybe I'll just pour it straight into a fuel can.
Sorry for the long post, I'm kind of excited by the success of my first brewage! Thanks for taking the time to read.
Regards
Chris.
Sounds like you have made a good one. Patience is something you will have to learn. Leave it for at least another week to let it finish fermenting. As the sugar decreases it takes longer to ferment so what you have seen is normal. I agree you will probably get below 1.000 and you will need to back sweeten with Splenda or other type of sweetner. To be honest Ginger Beer was not a good one to start with as it needs a good few weeks/months to mature to make it drinkable, but worth the wait if you like ginger beer. While you are waiting try a Coopers beer kit as they always turn out good, or if you like wine try the famous WOW. Both of those are very drinkable in a few weeks.
