Coopers Ginger Beer Review

[Harlz]

Brewed my first ever batch today. I used

Cooper's ginger beer kit
1kg dextrose
220g raw sugar

19L water in big batch and 2L in a small batch asashi 2L beer can turned mini fermentor.

OG was 1031

Upon first taste the ginger doesn't have enough bite for my liking.

Update - It has been sitting in the fermenter for 3 days with no signs of fermentation. I have added

280g fresh ginger
1tsp cinnamon
1 cup honey

Added a sachet of bakers yeast as the yeast that came with it wasn't doing anything. Hope it picks up.

 

[Danden]

I have just bought one of these kits too and am going to make it this afternoon. I am thinking about adding extra sugar to make it more alcoholic?

 

[Beer@22]

Down to 1.000, bubbling stopped, so thats 6.1%abv using calculator. Added extra boiled ginger last night as flavour had dropped off a bit. Tasted good from trial jar tonight.

Hi Markdon, did you bottle this a couple of weeks ago, how's it tasting now?

 

[Markdon]

Still not bottled, its been in the shed a while now clearing. Will probably bottle next weekend (mainly so it frees up the fv so i can get another kit on the go!)

Im a bit worried that i messed with it too much and its going to be foul, but worth a punt.

 

[Beer@22]

Still not bottled, its been in the shed a while now clearing. Will probably bottle next weekend (mainly so it frees up the fv so i can get another kit on the go!)

Im a bit worried that i messed with it too much and its going to be foul, but worth a punt.

It did sound like you were going a little crazy with the sugar! Good luck, and please let us all know how it tastes ... even if it is a disaster!

 

[Markdon]

If nothing else it smells amazing!

 

[Lesinge]

This has now been in the garage for a month bottled and is a lovely tasting Ginger beer. It is quite "gingery" though so you couldn't drink too many but very nice over ice and is a favourite of many of the people who have sampled it, including my Sister who had a couple of bottles which is unusual for her.

Only observation though is that I notice on websites the picture of this in a glass next to the kit shows a clear sparkling "beer" with a head. This turned out to be cloudy and therefore might disappoint if you are expecting a "Crabbies" in the looks department!

 

[Markdon]

Bottled tonight. Been finished since 07/01/14 and in shed since 21/01/14, clarity hasnt changed at all so i assume it will just stay cloudy?

Got 40 500ml bottles and 3/4 of a pint dregs so been supping that. The flavour is bang on, hope it doesnt mellow in the bottle.

 

[Markdon]

Very cloudy when bottling.

 

[Lesinge]

Bottled tonight. Been finished since 07/01/14 and in shed since 21/01/14, clarity hasnt changed at all so i assume it will just stay cloudy?

Got 40 500ml bottles and 3/4 of a pint dregs so been supping that. The flavour is bang on, hope it doesnt mellow in the bottle.

Clarity doesn't seem to change - cloudy and tatse stays the same..very warm ginger I have found!

 

[Markdon]

If it stays the same, but carbonates, i will be happy at that!

 

[BrendanH]

The missus and I (And all the family who got a few bottles for Christmas ) have been enjoying the results of this. We just made it according to the instructions and it is a very pleasant, light summer drink. She Who Must Be Obeyed is already pushing for another batch.

We find that the ginger flavour is becoming a bit clearer and sharper the longer it sits in the bottle.

 

[Murdo]

ScottM, like the sound of your amended brew.
Coopers Ginger Beer kit x2
1kg brewing sugar
400g white sugar
200g priming sugar
500g of fresh ginger
2tsp dried ginger powder


Have you tasted this one yet and would you amend it further?
many thanks
Jackie

 

[GJB]

Mine has been in the FV for 13 days now, doing nothing for 5 days and then after intervention, another 8 days and is now at 1.004.

I'll be honest, I had to double yeast this as the one the first one did nothing and I'm pretty sure it got far too cold. Chucked another "Wilko's ale yeast" in and buried it in fleeces, and off the bugger has gone.

We'll see how it goes, but it does smell wonderful

 

[Markdon]

Love mine :) proper fiery. Mega ginger hit. Perfect carbonation.

 

[Bristol Brewer]

Right, so had a bit of a brew tonight with the Coopers ginger beer kit.
I had a good read of the other posts in the review and came up with the following:

1 Can Coopers GB malt
1 Coopers BH 1
500g Brown Sugar
250g Root Ginger peeled and grated
350g Honey
1 Lemon
250g white sugar
Supplied yeast

Boiled up 2 litres water with the ginger and lemon for 30 mins then strained and stired in all the fermentables. This point smelling good.
Made it up to 18 Litres and pitched yeast at 24'c.

OG came out at 1040, so hoping for maybe 4.5% when it finishes maybe a little more?
Gave the sample jar to the Mrs who its brewing for, and she drank the lot, and then said to me bottle it now thats great!!!
Anyway that was 2 hours ago and it's bubbling away already!!

:

 

[Bristol Brewer]

Its been a while since I brewed this beast! Lets just say it fermented steadily an slowly until about 2 weeks ago and has been in a second FV in my fridge since waiting to be bottled!
I got round to bottling it last night and the Mrs didn't want it to be too gassy so dosed one carbonation drop per bottle.
I gave her a small sample glass and she loves it!

It came out with an ABV of about 4.1% so not bad really, but boy does it take a while to finish fermenting!!!!

Time to get a Wherry on now the mrs is happy!!

 

[Lesinge]

I made this prior to Christmas and whilst I put myself off it by drinking it green whilst bottling, this goes down well with my visitors. Normally I serve it on ice and it has a good Ginger bite and is also quite smooth. One of my friends downed about 8 bottles in one session before heading home to her husband...she was quite merry!

 

[Jimbolala]

My wife loves this but be careful, it's very fizzy and easy to over carbonate. Just had my first bottle bombs go off, thankfully I had moved all my stuff into the shed and none of my brew was harmed