homebrew ginger beer effort

[smokinrider]

Ok so I have wanted to get some homebrew going for a while and decided that ginger beer was the easiest option to reacquaint myself with home brewing as its been 20yrs since I last brewed my own.

I currently have 3 batches on the go using 3 slightly different recipies (basis of recipies gotten from here)

ok so on the 29 dec 2013 I sterilised my equipment and got going.
recipe 1,
200g grated ginger,
4tsp ground ginger,
4 lemons juice and zest and skins
4tsp cream of tartar
1kg sugar,
1 sachet sn9 yeast.
4gallons tap water

I do have a FV but have chosen to use DJ's as easier (imo) to keep sterile and moniter fermentation. also mrs doesn't like FV in kitchen but will tolerate DJ's. this is good as its warm in here and DJ,s can sit by Boiler flue and keep warm. (not too warm I am aware of yeasts tolerance to temp)

the idea was just to do 2 gallons but due to me using 2 gallons water to boil the ginger I used a further 2 gallons to cool it. (impatience)
i got yeast started in a jug and added it to brew when about 25 degrees. (hence the erratic distribution as some was froth and some still granular in the jug!)
all 4 DJ's got to work within a few hours some quicker than others due to the erratic way the yeast was divided up!!

they formed the crusty yeast on top of the liquid for a few hours then it sank and they got bubblin. bubbling at a rate of 40 bubbles a min.

After a week they were stil producing 20 bubles a min but due again to impatience I decided to rack it and bottle it.

As I didn't have enough bottles and I had already concluded it wasn't going to be a huge success due to watering it down I left 2 gallons racked into new DJ's and fitted airlocks. on these despite adding a bit of sugar there has been little or no airlock activity.

The rest was racked into primed bottles with 1 tsp caster sugar and 1-2 tsp splenda.

its been about 10 days and one of the bottles I opened fizzed and was very sparking (proper fizzy but week and thin, and lacking taste, but quite crisp) but others seem to have little fizz and are a bit flat. they also taste very thin and watery.

Any comments on this would be appreciated, do I just leave them to carbonate more in the bottles, can I rekick start the stuff in the dj's by adding a bit of yeast and more sugar? or do I just bin it. it doesn't taste bad just a bit watery and flat.



Batch 2 and 3 were a bit of a recipe trial to try and get the flavour and strength right.

so on the 12/1/14 batch 2
500g of grated ginger
juice and zest (no skins or pith this time) 2 lemons 1 lime
2tsp cream of tartar,
2 tsp ground ginger
and 1KG sugar
4pts boiling spring water
4pts cold spring water(from bottle, I don't have a sping in the garden unfortunately!)

boiled up in 4pts spring water for 30 mins and strained and cooled with cold spring water

when at 20-25degrees sn9 yeast added about 1tsp

again this got going and formed the crud which subsequently dropped to the bottom, when I topped the DJ up it fizzed like mad and has been bubbling at about 60 bubbles/min for 6 days now with no sign of slowing.

As I want some fiz I don't want it to completely work itself out but also don't want bottle bombs. any ideas on when to bottle.


Batch 3, 17/01/14 is exactly the same as batch 2 but with only 500g sugar and now I have a hydrometer I measured OG as 1.045 (god only knows the strength of batch 2 as hydrometer reckons 5-6% for 500g sugar so I make that 11.5% for 1kg sugar!!)

I chucked the rest of the packet of sn9 yeast in which probably equated to 3-4tsp (a lot i know) it got a massive crust which as sunk and again when DJ was topped up with water its really fizzing. Again any advise on how long to ferment and when to bottle.

one of the problems I used to have with home brew ales/beers was it would never fizz in the bottle and I guess this was due to too much yeast fermenting out. I did notice when I racked batch 1 off and bottled it the splashing got rid of its fizz and I wonder if this is why it hasn't fizzed in the bottle as all the co2 was knocked out of it. (any advice on technique here.)

Cant wait to get this perfected and brew up some fizzy strong Ginger beer, so any advise and info on technique greatfully received.


PS: please do not hijack my thread. if you have your own questions start your own thread!!!!

 

[Hulpy]

Your Ginger beer recipe Sounds good may have to try it!

If you want more body might be worth switching the sugar for spray malt which should give it a bit more depth.

I think the trick is to always take an OG reading then you can dilute to strength (id aim between 1054-1060) and avoid bottle bombs based on on the final gravity reading anything 1012 and under should be okay.(if you get stuck fermentation above this try shaking and adding 1tsp of yeast nutrient)

Carbonation is the priming sugar at the end 1tsp per bottle max (not sure why you used splender)not sure the yeast would be interested in dieting :sulk:

Finally once bottled keep the bottles somewhere warm for a few days to a week before transferring somewhere cold as this will allow the final carbonation process. :thumb:

 

[smokinrider]

cheers for reply,
splenda is used as well as caster sugar to sweeten it, I understood its a non fermentable sugar (see other ginger beer posts here)

the bottles that fizz the best are the ones with clearly visible yeast sediment in the bottom, non fizzy ones have non, maybe its either fermented out too much in the DJ and the good ones were the last ones which must have sucked up more of the sediment.

ill warm them up for a few days and hopefully get them going and hopefully not explode!

batch 2 and 3 ill be able to bottle on the FG reading when its low enough.

 

[Hulpy]

Just read about the splender ( that makes sense)

 

[bigboots]

Now you have a hydrometer it is IMPERATIVE to let the fermentation FINISH COMPLETELY. (3 identical readings over 3-5days).
To get the amount of fizz you want, simply add 1 heaped teaspoon of sugar per 500ml when bottling. This is more than would be added when bottling beer but....you don't want the same amount of fizz in a beer as you would in ginger beer!
HTH :

 

[Crastney]

I would say that you bottled far too early - leave it till there's no bubbles through the airlock at all (or at least none whilst watching it for several minutes), then check with a hydrometer - anything less than 1.005 should be ok to bottle (in my opinion) - depends on the yeast you've used though, as some of them won't go that low. beer yeasts will finish higher than that, champagne yeast might go below 0.995.

there should have been suspended yeast in all your bottles - and enough sugars for carbonation to happen.

Thin and watery - you used too much water for the quantity of ginger, and other ingredients - brew shorter next time (ie use only 3 gallons instead of 4 for the same recipe).

 

[Fil]

my G/beer recipe is 2 x tins of light LME boiled in 8l of water for 30 mins with
1.5kg grated ginger
6 lemons
2 tablespoons of dry ginger
1teaspoon of hot chilli powder..

then add to 12-15l of cold water in a fv thru a strainer and pitch with one pack of s04

ist time i used a tablespoon of chilli --- when mixed 50-50 with fruit juice it was 'cool' enough to drink.. neat your lips n mouth tingled :) i liked it, :)