MY Alcoholic Fiery Ginger Beer Variant - advice too please?

[GliddosVinos]

After looking at the many different recipes for ginger beer here i tried my hand at my version of a fiery ginger beer.

I used: -

375g fresh ginger - peeled and grated
3 teaspoons of ground ginger
500g white sugar
2 lemons - zest and juice
2 limes - zest and juice
1 orange - zest and juice
500 grms rasains
3 schwartz dried chilli peppers
1 cinnamon stick
water to top
Yeast
Yeast nutrient
Pectalose (not sure if i needed this or not to be honest??!)


Method -

Grate the ginger and put in a large saucepan
zest lemons, orange and limes and add zest into the pan
Juice the lemons, oranges and limes and add juice to the pan
Put whats left of the lemons, oranges and limes into the pan discarding the pips into the bin.
Add the rasains into the pan
Add the cinnamon powder
break up and add 1 of the dried chilli peppers
Add water so that it is just enough to cover the items in the pan
Bring to boil
turn heat down and add in the sugar mixing until it dissolves fully
simmer for 25 mins

Whilst this was simmering i made up my starter yeast mix with a little water, yeast, yeast nutrient, 1 teaspoon sugar and the pectolase

When it boiled i allowed it to cool to 21 degrees C

Strained and put the liquid into my DJ
Top up the DJ with water, leaving enough room to add the yeast later

Take the Original gravity reading (mine was 1040)

Add in the starter yeast mix
Place the cinnamon stick and the other 2 dried chilli's in the top of the DJ
Fit bung and airlock

......
Well there is the recipe and method but i got a few questions if anyone could help me please?

:wha: With a 1040 OG can i guesstimate what the end gravity will be? was wondering if i would need to back sweeten or similar?
:wha: Do i allow this to ferment right out or do i need to keep an eye on gravity and add stabilisers etc?
:wha: I am aiming for a 10 or 11% ABV with this one... anyway i can keep an eye on that or is it a case of crossing fingers and waiting to see what the final gravity is and then working it out?
:wha: Did i waste time adding the pectalose?

:wha: Lastly has anyone got any idea roughly how long a ginger beer takes to ferment / clear. I was wondering how long till i may be able to drink this one? :drunk:

Thanks a lot everyone

 

[cwiseman77]

Sounds pretty good, I used a kg of ginger in mine, seen recipes with 2kg so not sure if 375g will be enough. Although I never used ground ginger so will probably have plenty kick with chillis and all :thumb:

You'll almost definitely need to back sweeten with splenda or something similar as it will be extremely dry. Just checked my book and mine only took 6 days to ferment out from 1.050 OG to 0.092 FG. I then racked to a second FV and added the splenda, about 8 tbsp but you can kinda just taste it and add more until you achieve required taste. I primed and bottled a week later and pretty sure I was drinking it a week after that. It has improved with time but I think you could easily be drinking it by xmas.

:drunk:

 

[danb]

i have just racked this morning the fiery ginger beer i put on. it started off at 1.040 same as yours and has finished on .994 which the calculator says will be 6.1%

 

[GliddosVinos]

i was unsure of the fresh ginger amount tbh. i had a look round recipes and worked it out what i thought i would need and hoped i hadnt chanced it too much.

I am only doing 5 litre batches until i achieve one i like then i aim to increase the amount to 25 litres at a time.

Thank you aswell for putting your abv's :)
i was aiming for 10 or 11 % so next time i may need to increase the sugar going in the FV at the begining!

To make a non alcoholic version what do i change? take out the majority of the sugar and then backsweeten at the end?

thanks again guys

 

[cwiseman77]

i was unsure of the fresh ginger amount tbh. i had a look round recipes and worked it out what i thought i would need and hoped i hadnt chanced it too much.

I am only doing 5 litre batches until i achieve one i like then i aim to increase the amount to 25 litres at a time.

Thank you aswell for putting your abv's :)
i was aiming for 10 or 11 % so next time i may need to increase the sugar going in the FV at the begining!

To make a non alcoholic version what do i change? take out the majority of the sugar and then backsweeten at the end?

thanks again guys

If its only a 5L batch then 375g is probably loads of ginger, i assumed it was 20-23L batch. Not sure about the non-alcoholic version...

 

[GaryG]

I then racked to a second FV and added the splenda, about 8 tbsp but you can kinda just taste it and add more until you achieve required taste. I primed and bottled a week later and pretty sure I was drinking it a week after that. It has improved with time but I think you could easily be drinking it by xmas.

:drunk:

What would you suggest for 5 litres. 2 tbsp splenda.

Gary

 

[chojo]

Although i hate to promote any celebrity, Mr Oliver does make a rather good non- alcoholic ginger beer

140gr/5oz fresh ginger
4 tablespoons muscovado sugar
2-3 lemons
1 litre/1 3/4 pints sparkling mineral water
sprigs of fresh mint

First of all you need to grate the ginger on a coarse cheese grater - you can leave the skin on if you like. Put the ginger with its pulpy juice into a bowl and sprinkle in the muscovado sugar. Remove the rind from 2 of the lemons with a vegetable peeler, add to the bowl, and slighly bash and squash with something heavy, like a pestle or a rolling pin. Just do this for 10 seconds to mix up all the flavours. Squeeze the juice from all 3 lemons and add most of it to the bowl. Pour in the fizzy water or soda water. Allow to sit for 10 minutes and then taste. You may feel that the lemons are slightly too sour, so just add a little more sugar. If it's too sweet add a little more lemon juice. To be honest these amounts are always a little variable so just follow your own taste. Pass the ginger beer through a coarse sieve into a large jug and add lots of ice and some sprigs of mint.
Obviously you can tweak it to your liking, i used golden castor sugar as it was all i had in at the time and it turned out fine however if you wish to use granulated i find it best to make a simple sugar syrup first to avoid any grittiness.

 

[cwiseman77]

I then racked to a second FV and added the splenda, about 8 tbsp but you can kinda just taste it and add more until you achieve required taste. I primed and bottled a week later and pretty sure I was drinking it a week after that. It has improved with time but I think you could easily be drinking it by xmas.

:drunk:

What would you suggest for 5 litres. 2 tbsp splenda.

Gary

Yeah something like that. You can add and taste until you get the desired taste

 

[Badger]

got a ten litre demi earlier today so definatly going to give this a try!