ginger beer brew...i dont know what i'm doing lol

[pitkin2020]

Hi all, (sorry if this is in the wrong thread)

Well i started my first alcoholic ginger brew yesterday, this was my first ever brew so I am very much a novice and really not knowing if I am doing it correctly, or just very badly lol.

I got the recipe from here http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/ginger-beer/ but have since found a much better looking one on here (for next time). As you can see from the instructions for a noob like me they aren't all that clear so i'll go through how I did it and hopefully someone will say I have either gone really wrong and should ditch it or it should be ok (heres me hoping).

Firstly I sterilised all my equipment

I then boiled 4.5litre of water in large saucepan, before it started to boil I added the sliced lemons. Once the water reached boiling I add the lemon rinds, juice from the lemons and a large well bruised ginger root. I stirred it well so all the sugar was dissolved, covered the saucepan well with foil and left to cool. After several hours and the temp still well above 60 celcius I placed the saucepen in a bucket of cold water to help bring the temp down. Once down to around 28 I put in the yeast, nutrient and cream of tartare, recovered and left overnight. (wasn't sure if I should or shouldn't leave it in the pan overnight or if I should have started it in a DJ as I didn't have a fermenting bucket but I knew DJs don't like temperature shock so didn't want to risk it exploding)


I could hear the fizzing/bubbling well this morning in the saucepan so guessed it was fermenting well. I left it for the 24hours as per instructions but instead of bottling it I syphoned it into a DJ with bung/airlock. It was suggested by someone to add some sugar to the DJ so I have done that and its clearly still fermenting.

I was going to wait for it to stop bubbling through the airlock now before moving it to 2L pop bottles, where I have been told to add a tablespoon of sugar to each bottle to give it a little fizz??

Like I said i'm really new to this so really not sure if I have committed a cardinal sin by not using a fermenting bucket or starting it in the DJ. Any hints tips or pointers much appreciated, wish I had started with a kit lol.

Also just to add insult to injury I dropped the tap of the syphon tube in the DJ, it was obviously sterilised before using it but I have left it in there as I have no idea how i'm going to get it out without turning it upside down.

 

[pitkin2020]

is it that bad lol??

 

[aneray]

Calm down mate, it should be ok :thumb:

I know the recipe that you are on about, I saw the program. The recipe that Hugh and his mate published on tv made it look like it could be brewed, bottled and drunk in just a couple of days.

Make sure this one is fully fermented before doing anything else. Once done, add a teaspoon of sugar per pint to a bottle and fill with the beer, making sure you leave at least an inch headspace. Give it a quick shake to dissolve the sugar and keep in a warm place for a week to ten days. Transfer to somewhere cooler for at least another week and then sup.

This will turn out really dry, so once poured, sweeten with either sugar or a candarel type sugar substitute.

For your next ginger beer brew, check out this one, its better than Hugh's.

viewtopic.php?f=39&t=5982&hilit=ginger+beer

 

[pitkin2020]

lol I am calm, just nervous about either poisoning myself or wasting 2 weeks to make vinegar lol.

Thanks for the info much appreciated and the link you gave I found after, wish I would have done that one first lol.

 

[pitkin2020]

well not a lot has been happening with the airlock for the last day or two so I bottled it today and added 1tsp of sugar per pint. I had a quick sip and have to say its pretty rank lol.

There is a fair bit of deposit in the bottom of the bottles already is that normal?