Had a Wilko brown ale kit to package today. So thought I'd reuse the trub for a ginger beer.
Went to Lidl to buy the ingredients. They only had 11 bottles of premium lemonade, I use this rather than water and keep the bottles for reuse.
Bought about 2 handfuls of ginger, a few limes and some oranges. Once the ale was done I scraped the muck off the side of the bucket, added 2L of lemonade and gave the whole lot a good stir. Used the blender to blend up the ginger in some lemonade, left the skin on but gave it a quick wash.
I peeled the oranges and added to the blender but left the peels on the limes, used four limes in total so it'll be a little sharp initially. Had a bit of demerara left in the cupboard, about 0.5kg worth, added that. Then remembered we had a big carrot left over from the reindeer. Peeled it and shredded and added to the blender. Added the mix and emptied the rest of the lemonade into the bucket. Got around 23L in total. Gave the top of the bucket plus the airlock a good clean before sealing, switched on the heat pad and wrapped in an insulation blanket (it's in the shed).
Will leave for a couple of weeks, it wont take that long to brew out but I'll let it chill once it has, OG was 1030 and it usually finishes at around 1000-1002. After priming it'll probably be around 4%, I'm not aiming for a strong drink. I have a batch I made with pineapple that's getting ready to try, might try tonight! Sometimes the lime can be overpowering but it mellows out after another month or so. I have a lot of empty bottles now so I think I'll just do the next one with water but I'll give it all a good clean out and brew a kit before that.
