Ritchies, Simply Ginger Beer Review

[Low Farm]

On reflection I think I brewed this with nostalgic childhood memories of the ginger beer we had as kids.
I brew this with some great expectations
Brew date was the 23rd of April the kit was very easy though some what expensive £16.99 plus the brewing sugar £1.99 per Kg in to the brew cupboard at a constant 21°C
Total cost of £18.98 avenged cost of 47.4 pence per pint I followed enclosed instructions pretty idiot proof

day 8 Hydrometer reading was 1010 day 10 same reading Bottled and primed with one teaspoon of sugar on the 3rd of may day 10

It had a week in the brew cupboard at 21°C to carbonate and clear it did clear nicely and the test sample were very dry i made some enquiries here on back sweetening but decided time would have to do it 10Th May out of the cupboard into the shed for some cold conditioning

21 days later no real improvement in the sweetness and the ginger flavour dose not relay cut through the beer it dose not last in the mouth not a memorable flavouring like the old Jamaican Ginger beer

To be continued

 

[samurailord]

Hi

If you are looking for a Ginger Beer with a full ginger flavour I can recommend the Coopers kit.
It is slightly cheaper than Richies at £12.95 for 35 pints and has a very clear ginger taste that lasts for ages in the mouth.

Fantastic when chilled.

Andy

 

[Secret brewer]

Hi my local brew center had a promotion on this "simply Ginger beer" so as yourself i thought of younger days and went for it.

Again as you said its simple and in the FV it went with household sugar. I was however upset by the fact that the yeast has a sweetner in it. One of the reasons i brew my own is i like to keep the chemicals down to a minimum.

I havnt got a very good setup when temp is to be kept stable so it was mostly about 24'C for the 8 days. checked and was stable for 2 days and then bottled in pints with 2 coopers carb drops in each bottle.

I had a quick slurp and it wasnt very gingery. Hmm i will wait for a few weeks to see if it gets better.

If i was to make another one of these and add maltings sugar and a pure yeast what would the result be.

 

[Secret brewer]

Hi my local brew center had a promotion on this "simply Ginger beer" so as yourself i thought of younger days and went for it.

Again as you said its simple and in the FV it went with household sugar. I was however upset by the fact that the yeast has a sweetner in it. One of the reasons i brew my own is i like to keep the chemicals down to a minimum.

I havnt got a very good setup when temp is to be kept stable so it was mostly about 24'C for the 8 days. checked and was stable for 2 days and then bottled in pints with 2 coopers carb drops in each bottle.

I had a quick slurp and it wasnt very gingery. Hmm i will wait for a few weeks to see if it gets better.

If i was to make another one of these (I have another already) and add maltings sugar and a pure yeast what would the result be.

 

[oldstout]

Chaps, slightly off topic maybe, but I did a Ritchies Yorkshire Bitter over two months ago...

Following two weeks conditioning a QC sample was tried and I almost laughed out loud it was so bad Took me back 30 years when I originally brewed stuff that tasted of.......well....homebrew really :wha:

Cue two months on (in the bottle) and I am thoroughly enjoying a rather excellent pint of Ritchies Simply Yorkshire Bitter :thumb: :thumb:

It's excellent :clap:

Perhaps the GB needs a bit more time :pray:

:

 

[Low Farm]

Chaps, slightly off topic maybe, but I did a Ritchies Yorkshire Bitter over two months ago...

Following two weeks conditioning a QC sample was tried and I almost laughed out loud it was so bad Took me back 30 years when I originally brewed stuff that tasted of.......well....homebrew really :wha:

Cue two months on (in the bottle) and I am thoroughly enjoying a rather excellent pint of Ritchies Simply Yorkshire Bitter :thumb: :thumb:

It's excellent :clap:

Perhaps the GB needs a bit more time :pray:

:

update brew date was 23rd April 2012 bottled and primed on the 12th of May 6 weeks have now passed still in the bottle still tastes rank relay

 

[Secret brewer]

Well i have opened a bottle of the simply ginger gear and its great.

I dont know what i did right and i dont know why other peoples have gone so wrong but mine is just as i like it.

Its not "crabbies" but its close. (not quite as sweet i think but crabbies is a little sweet anyway)

It has the colour of say a good lager, its chrystal clear, just the right ginger heat, no head at all.

I checked a second bottle. Mmm just as good as the first.

 

[Rich747]

At what stage did you add the Cream of Chicken soup?

 

[BrewSage1985]

Brewed this up last month using 800g Extra Light DME and 200g Dextrose. It takes awhiles for it to taste good but I wish they didnt add the sweetner as it's too sweet for a ginger beer (personally) although the ginger is just about fiery enough, not bad though.

Theres also a Simply Range of beer being sold in Tescos, just wondering if the kit and the bottled beer are related. Bought a bottle of Simply Ginger Beer and it's quite different from the kit, for one the ginger is alot more fiery and not so sweet, plus the bottled version is more crisp and refreshing. Shame really, I'd have loved it if the kit turned out like something similar to the bottled version, suppose i'll have to make my own from scratch

 

[cleebrew]

Glad you took a photo of the bag which of coarse contains the 'instructions' pointed this out to Ritchies ,they just said sorry for my dilemma ! because I threw the 'sticky' bag away I had nothing to refere back to . Cleethorpes.

 

[cleebrew]

Would anyone recomend end adding the strained juice of fresh ginger into Ritchies Ginger kit please ? :!:

 

[Secret brewer]

I can recomend that if you want a kick.

On my second brew i did just such a thing in fact. I grated a handfull of fresh ginger and boiled it in a pint of water for about half an hour. I then after letting it cool strained it into the half brew at the start of the brewing process. when i bottled it i didnt find much power but i must say that after a few weeks in the bottle it is bloody great.

 

[mattrickl06]

Just cracked off my simply ginger beer with 1kg extra light DME, 200g BKE1, juice from a boiled ginger root, 1/3 of a bottle of ginger compound, and the ginger root in a muslin bag for good ginger measure - made up to 22l.

SG 1044 and tasting very gingerlike

 

[bigsteve1911]

Anyone know what strength this comes out at?

Bought some today as the Mrs has just discovered Crabbies, and I figured £15 for 40 pints of average ginger beer has to be better than letting her fill the trolley in Asda!!

Those who added a bit of extra ginger, would you boil it up first or just throw in some grated ginger into the FV with everything else?

Cheers

 

[Capncub]

I have one of these waiting to go, picked it up for £6 recently online along with two other Simply kits, have the stout on the go today. I made Coopers Ginger Beer and in the early days it was foul, but I have a few left after 4 months and they are excellent, so stick with the Simply's give it time and hopefully it will improve!