Newbie brewer...may have made mistake ginger beer and nettle beer

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blair

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Hello all and thanks for allowing me to join. My first attempt at brewing...Ginger beer with GBP and nettle beer. Think i did everything correctly to a point...Did not take initial hydrometer readings. Bubbling fine for perhaps 3 days and then nothing. Tested nettle beer and it was very sweet. Ginger beer i havent tested yet. I live in a converted caravan and temp fluctuates greatly. Thinking that both required to ferment more i perhaps foolishly added 1 gram approx of, Sandy Leaf yeast ( for fruit wine), to each brew. I also purchased heating belts for both brews. They have been bubbling now again for approx 4 days and are now gradually slowing down. My question is...could i potentially still have yeast in there, as there isnt enough sugar for it. So when i charge my bottles i end up with explosions...any help would be gratefully received. I will research more when work calms down. Really enjoyed the making process but obviously do not understand the full details required. Kind regards Blair
 
How long have they both been fermenting, total? I don't think you will have needed heating belts over the last couple of weeks, temperatures have been high enjoy to keep things moving along nicely overnight and almost too hot during the day. Caravans can become ridiculously hot with a bit of sun (as I well know from a 34 degree couple of days on the Loire 2 years ago).

As is the nature with yeast, it either keeps chewing through sugar until there's nothing left (Saison yeast, Brett, champagne yeast) or until it reaches its limit in terms of alcohol tolerance or attenuation.

The Sandy Leaf kit for hedgerow wine (if that's what you used) doesn't state which yeast it contains, so I'm guessing here. Wine yeasts are really good at fermenting simple sugars. If you're ginger and nettle wines are made with simple sugars, the yeast will hopefully keep going until all the sugar is gone and they'll be quite dry.

It's not the yeast you need to worry about, it's the amount of sugar left. If you bottle and the wine hasn't finished you could end up with explosions. Wine usually takes much longer than 4 days to ferment out. I'm talking many weeks here. Even if fermentation activity has died down it'll still be active.
Do you have a hydrometer? Take a reading. For fruit wines and simple sugar fermentation you should be looking at around 1000SG. Dry wines will go below that depending on the amount of sugar in the original liquid (which you didn't measure, so you won't know).

I'd leave it to keep fermenting for a few weeks and see what happens to the airlock. Also, buy yourself a hydrometer.
 
Yeast is a tough bugger to kill. In favourable conditions yeast will continue to eat sugar until it's all gone. Then the yeast just shuts down but doesn't really die, so yes potential for bottle bombs if you add sugar then bottle. This is the problem... You can't bottle condition (make it fizzy) without the presence of yeast, but if you want a sweet finish you can't control the the rate of carbonation. I would recommend sweet.!

Def's get yourself a hydrometer.
My last batch had a potential ABV of 7% and took 5 days to ferment. I used S-04 yeast. Ferm temp was approx 23 Celsius.

Personally, I ferment dry, rack for about a week, rack again, backsweeten then bottle.

I then leave to carbonate for about 4/5 days. I will crack a bottle open (500ml swing tops) to see how it's doing then close up again.

Once correct carbonation has been achieved i pasteurize my batch to kill off any active yeast to prevent ongoing carbonation and bottle bombs (an issue if your short on space)

Do small batches, keep notes and vary time/sugar content to suit. Just how I do it, not necessarily the right way but it works for me.

Hope some of that helps...
 
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If you want a sweet drink why don't you use a non fermentable sugar/sweetener as well as your priming sugar?
If you want a sweet drink why don't you use a non fermentable sugar/sweetener as well as your priming sugar?
I think you would need a lot of non fermentables to make it sweet, to the point that it would make the flavour seem almost artificial. Not done it myself but seems to be the opinion of a lot of people who have tried it when making Ginger beer. I'm no expert though so....
 
Me neither but I'm sure it's not that much...think of those little things you drop in your tea if you don't want sugar.
I bet the mass cider producers use non fermentable sugars as I bet any other method costs too much..unless they use pasteurisation..
 
I used to work at a cider farm who force carbonated there product so that is another option. They also used pasteurization but for large quantities I don't think it's an option. (They used it for small batch hedgerow wines) I don't know what producers like Crabbies do... It's obviously not bottle carbonation but who knows!?🤷🏻‍♂️
I used 750g sugar on 6 litres of product for sweetening and carbonation purposes. Ended up being too much but the end product was still a great success. Don't know what that would equate to in non fermentables. It was greatly recieved by the critics!😂
 
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How long have they both been fermenting, total? I don't think you will have needed heating belts over the last couple of weeks, temperatures have been high enjoy to keep things moving along nicely overnight and almost too hot during the day. Caravans can become ridiculously hot with a bit of sun (as I well know from a 34 degree couple of days on the Loire 2 years ago).

As is the nature with yeast, it either keeps chewing through sugar until there's nothing left (Saison yeast, Brett, champagne yeast) or until it reaches its limit in terms of alcohol tolerance or attenuation.

The Sandy Leaf kit for hedgerow wine (if that's what you used) doesn't state which yeast it contains, so I'm guessing here. Wine yeasts are really good at fermenting simple sugars. If you're ginger and nettle wines are made with simple sugars, the yeast will hopefully keep going until all the sugar is gone and they'll be quite dry.

It's not the yeast you need to worry about, it's the amount of sugar left. If you bottle and the wine hasn't finished you could end up with explosions. Wine usually takes much longer than 4 days to ferment out. I'm talking many weeks here. Even if fermentation activity has died down it'll still be active.
Do you have a hydrometer? Take a reading. For fruit wines and simple sugar fermentation you should be looking at around 1000SG. Dry wines will go below that depending on the amount of sugar in the original liquid (which you didn't measure, so you won't know).

I'd leave it to keep fermenting for a few weeks and see what happens to the airlock. Also, buy yourself a hydrometer.
Thankyou so much for your input. I used the recipes from, The River Cottage Booze Handbook. They have been brewing now for at least two weeks ( far longer than the recipe suggests ). The story to date is as follows. Nettle Beer reached 1000SG and appears to be clearing somewhat in the demijohn. I have tasted it. Quite fizzy and perhaps a tad sweet. The ginger beer however......mmmm. Well, not sure but ireckon the GBP has digested all sugars. The reason i say this is, not only because no more bubbling but i tasted it.....mmmm...very odd taste...very spicy gingery/lemony but very bitter, no sweetness at all. It also has no fizz. Anyhow, going to attempt bottling ginger beer now. From my research, i will be putting 12g of sugar in the bottom of a 1.5ltr water bottle. I will put them in a box ( incase of explosions)...wait until bottles are very hard and then chill...does that sound alright to you. Im having fun doing this and for sure should not have expected my first brews to be the best. Thanks verymuch again for your time and effort. Kind regards Blair
 
Yeast is a tough bugger to kill. In favourable conditions yeast will continue to eat sugar until it's all gone. Then the yeast just shuts down but doesn't really die, so yes potential for bottle bombs if you add sugar then bottle. This is the problem... You can't bottle condition (make it fizzy) without the presence of yeast, but if you want a sweet finish you can't control the the rate of carbonation. I would recommend sweet.!

Def's get yourself a hydrometer.
My last batch had a potential ABV of 7% and took 5 days to ferment. I used S-04 yeast. Ferm temp was approx 23 Celsius.

Personally, I ferment dry, rack for about a week, rack again, backsweeten then bottle.

I then leave to carbonate for about 4/5 days. I will crack a bottle open (500ml swing tops) to see how it's doing then close up again.

Once correct carbonation has been achieved i pasteurize my batch to kill off any active yeast to prevent ongoing carbonation and bottle bombs (an issue if your short on space)

Do small batches, keep notes and vary time/sugar content to suit. Just how I do it, not necessarily the right way but it works for me.

Hope some of that helps...
Thankyou and very interesting. When you say, 'pasteurise my batch', what does that involve? Thanks again. Rgds Blair
 
Thankyou and very interesting. When you say, 'pasteurise my batch', what does that involve? Thanks again. Rgds Blair
So essentially pasteurization involves the use of heat to kill of any active Yeasts and also bacteria that may be in your brew after you made it fizzy in the bottle. Put your filled, carbonated bottles into a large pan. (You may have to have a couple of goes depending on how many bottles you have. ) Leave space for an extra bottle in the middle. Fill this with water and put a thermometer in it. Fill the pan with water (use hot out of a tap or mix cold with hot from kettle saves some time)
15916114775464706432300260153120.jpg
15916114915398081315991320298666.jpg
so it gets to the height of the liquid in the bottles. Heat the pan so the water temp is about 70-75dc. Check the temp of the spare bottle with the the thermometer in it. Once it gets to 70-75 Celsius start a timer for about 30 mins. Keep checking the temp. Too hot the bottles might crack. *Couple of pics... There isn't any water in pan as would have been a waste*.
 
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So essentially pasteurization involves the use of heat to kill of any active Yeasts and also bacteria that may be in your brew after you made it fizzy in the bottle. Put your filled, carbonated bottles into a large pan. (You may have to have a couple of goes depending on how many bottles you have. ) Leave space for an extra bottle in the middle. Fill this with water and put a thermometer in it. Fill the pan with water (use hot out of a tap or mix cold with hot from kettle saves some time) View attachment 27245View attachment 27246so it gets to the height of the liquid in the bottles. Heat the pan so the water temp is about 70-75dc. Check the temp of the spare bottle with the the thermometer in it. Once it gets to 70-75 Celsius start a timer for about 30 mins. Keep checking the temp. Too hot the bottles might crack. *Couple of pics... There isn't any water in pan as would have been a waste*.
Thankyou verymuch for the input, was wondering what happened to any residual yeast. My ginger beer, tastes pretty rank, although i have bottled it....darn shame, love ginger :) thanks again Blair
 
Thankyou verymuch for the input, was wondering what happened to any residual yeast. My ginger beer, tastes pretty rank, although i have bottled it....darn shame, love ginger :) thanks again Blair

I recommend doing some reading up on yeast and how it behaves. Also check 'bottle conditioning' and 'yeast stabalization'
 
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