Ginger Beer - Printable Version

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Ginger Beer - Printable Version

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Ginger Beer - JackoliciousLegs - 04-08-2008

I'm about to make some. Any recommendations on recipes... ingredients, etc?

- ViPER1313 - 04-08-2008

Never made Ginger beer but I have helped make many a home brew w/ my Father. I would say your chances of success are much more dependent on the care taken when making the beer as opposed to the ingredients used while making it.

- CaptainHenreh - 04-08-2008

tastes like butthole.

Seriously.

- Maengelito - 04-08-2008

ginger's butthole?

- CaptainHenreh - 04-08-2008

Maengelito Wrote:ginger's butthole?

Possibly. Maybe RJ could chime in for a conclusive determination?

- HAULN-SS - 04-08-2008

All that's left is for him to try the beer!

- CaptainHenreh - 04-08-2008

HAULN-SS Wrote:All that's left is for him to try the beer!

LOL, that's so funny! Where do you think of this stuff, Derek? Damn, you should write it down and do standup or some shit. You're like a one-man-band of hilarity.

- HAULN-SS - 04-08-2008

What's even funnier is that the joke was told in the same spirit as your joke, which I am assuming that you wouldn't have posted if you didn't think was funny. And look at you now, looking like an A-hole.

- CaptainHenreh - 04-08-2008

HAULN-SS Wrote:What's even funnier is that the joke was told in the same spirit as your joke, which I am assuming that you wouldn't have posted if you didn't think was funny. And look at you now, looking like an A-hole.

How do you even dress yourself in the morning? You didn't make a joke "in the same spirit" as my joke, you told my joke. Same joke. Right after mine. Maybe I was being too subtle. See, what I was trying to say was:

"Derek, have you ever had an original thought in your entire life?"

But silly me, I was beating around the bush.

- ScottyB - 04-08-2008

hug it out, bitches

- CaptainHenreh - 04-08-2008

ScottyB Wrote:hug it out, bitches

I think we've lost sight of the original point of this thread:

That ginger beer sucks and if you want the same experience as drinking a bottle just bottle your vomit next time you get the flu.

- JackoliciousLegs - 04-08-2008

Whatever. I had some last night that was amazing and tasted at least twice as good as RJ's butthole.

- BLINGMW - 04-08-2008

:lol:

- PGK - 04-08-2008

for clarification, ginger beer is beer in the same way that root beer is beer. i.e., it's not.

- JackoliciousLegs - 04-09-2008

Some ginger beer has been measured up to 11%. It depends how you make it... what type of yeast... etc.

- PGK - 01-18-2009

So, I made some.

DISCLAIMER: The pictures aren't art. They are meant to convey information, which they do. They are purely practical.

THE BACKSToRY: For my birthday last year my sister made me a batch of this stuff, which she christened Rat Shandy, in honor of my year of birth in the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of the Rat. She gave me the recipe, and now I made some.

Quote:ViPER1313 said:
I would say your chances of success are much more dependent on the care taken when making the beer as opposed to the ingredients used while making it.

This is very true. Although, it isn't "care taken" as in "the secret ingredient is love", it's "care taken" as in the secret ingredient is:
[Image: DSC00743.jpg]

Bleach.
Sanitation is of paramount importance when homebrewing. Sanitize all equipment that won't be boiled in a bleach solution in the bathtub.
[Image: DSC00719.jpg]

I use the word "sanitize" deliberately. A bleach solution sanitizes to the extent necessary for our little endeavor here. It sits between "Clean", which is achieved with soap and water, i.e. "it looks clean", and "Sterile", which is achieved by boiling, i.e. there is nothing left alive. Sanitary is adequate, since it is impractical to boil some of the equipment used.

Rinse everything thoroughly after letting it soak.

THE INGREDIENTS:
[Image: DSC00720.jpg]

1.67 cups raisins
Peel and juice of 8 lemons
2 large ginger roots (I used 1.5 pounds total of fresh ginger root)
A Metric Shit-Ton of sugar (for the purposes of this exercise, a Metric Shit-Ton equates to roughly 13 cups)
Champagne yeast
Yeast Nutrient (if you look at the ingredients on the label it's basically Piss and Vinegar).
Water

The yeast nutrient is necessary because this mixture does not have all of the nutrients that yeast needs to survive. The only thing that does is a barley malt wort, which is beer.

STEP 1: Relax, Have A Beer.

STEP 2: Hell, Have Another Beer.

STEP 3: Get a big pot, put a gallon of water in it, and put it on the stove.

[Image: DSC00721.jpg]

STEP 4: While waiting for the water to boil, peel and juice the lemons. Put them in a bowl with the raisins. Cut up the ginger roots and put them in the bowl too. If you've got a food processor, that works great for the ginger.

[Image: DSC00724.jpg]

Have Another Beer.

And once the water boils, add the ingredients, including the sugar, to the pot of water. Allowing the water to boil sterilizes it. Boiling it again serves to help release flavors from the fruits/roots, help dissolve the sugar, and sterilize the ingredients. As soon as the sugar dissolves, turn off the burners.

[Image: DSC00729.jpg]

STEP 5: Fill your sanitary 5-gallon carboy halfway with cold water. I use cold water because it has a lower mineral content than hot water.

[Image: DSC00733.jpg]

FRIENDLY ASIDE 1: Mineral content is a big deal with really advanced homebrewers. They will study the mineral content of their water thoroughly. Many will go so far as to start with pure, distilled water and add mineral tablets to match the mineral content of water used at well-known breweries that specialize in certain kinds of beer.

Pour your "tea" into the carboy, making sure that all the chunks/peels/raisins make their way into the bottle. If needed, top it up with cold water until it almost reaches the neck of the bottle.

[Image: DSC00734.jpg]

Allright. Since the tea was boiling, and the water in the carboy was cold, now the tea should be between 90 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is still too hot to pitch the yeast. It needs to be under 78 degrees Fahrenheit to add the yeast. If you're impatient like me, you put the carboy in a bathtub full of cold water, then you pace and smoke cigarettes until it's cooled down. And you Have Another Beer. I guess you could watch a movie while you wait, or just let it sit overnight.

[Image: DSC00739.jpg]

STEP 6: Boil a pot of water.

[Image: DSC00735.jpg]

When it has boiled, pour about a cup into a measuring cup and let it cool to 100 - 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Again, I'm impatient so I put it in my sink full of cold water.

[Image: DSC00747.jpg]

When it has reached the appropriate temperature you dissolve the yeast in the water.

[Image: DSC00746.jpg]

FRIENDLY ASIDE 2: yeast are the most amazing and industrious single-celled organisms. Not only do they give us alcohol, but they reproduce like crazy. A tiny 1-ounce packet of yeast will turn into 1-2 pounds of dead yeast sediment at the bottom of a carboy full of beer in less that two weeks of fermentation. Positively amazing.

If the tea is now cool enough, you pour the dissolved yeast into the tea, and add the yeast nutrient.

[Image: DSC00751.jpg]

And you take some of that water you boiled and put it into your fermentation airlock.

[Image: DSC00744.jpg]

Which you insert in the stopper. And the stopper is inserted into the carboy. Set it somewhere, and let it do it's thing for 3-4 weeks. The prime it with corn sugar, bottle it, wait a little longer, and enjoy. This is the perfect time of year to make it so it will be ready for spring and summer, the best time of year to enjoy this kind of beverage.

[Image: DSC00755.jpg]

STEP 7: Have Another Beer. You deserve it.

- Evan - 01-18-2009

wow, this thread should be in the tech section!

I dont have a ton to add, other than Im a big fan of ginger ale, but every "ginger beer" (especially when prefaced with "jamaican") Ive had at a restaurant tastes like complete shit.
Id love to try an actual alcoholic ginger beer though (didnt even know that existed) good luck with yours, let us know how it turns out

for ginger ale, Im a big fan of Blenheims and Reeds.

- Apoc - 01-18-2009

That Jamaician shit is pretty much a joke.

I'm surprised anything could be sterilized in that bathtub. Tongue

You have a lot more patience than I do. I've had some friends brew beer and I just couldn't see doing it when I can get some pretty good ones at the store. I guess the same doesn't apply to ginger beer though.

- ScottyB - 01-19-2009

cool! i'll have to try that...can i ask where you got your carboys?

coincidentally, this weekend i broke out my old beer making kit that i got last year for Christmas. some of my malt and hops went bad so i got some new stuff at the local homebrew store and so far its going really well...i'm seeing alot of bubbling already. when it'd done it should be a red ale. we'll see how it goes!

- PGK - 01-20-2009

Two of my carboys are 'liberated' water bottles from office water coolers. They work ok, but are oxygen permeable, so they allvw some oxidation of the fermenting beer. I just got a Better-Bottle (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.better-bottle.com">www.better-bottle.com</a>) that seems good. They claim it is impermeable to oxygen. You can get glass carboys on the internet, but they are quite heavy and are breakable. I know someone who had to go to the emergency room and get stitches after falling down the stairs with a glass carboy. They are also getting more expensive, since they are now only made in Italy. the better bottles are very reasonably priced. Another suggestion is to stick with 5 gallon carboys, if you have a big enough wort cooking pot. A five-gallon carboy makes roughly 2 cases of beer per batch. It's good to have two, so you can rack it when it develops a significant sediment layer. I have three carboys, soon to add a fourth. More carboys = more concurrent batches.

The nice thing about homebrewing is developing an intimate relationship with the processes that make the beverages you enjoy, which leads to a greater appreciation of beer in general. It also gives you the freedom to make the kinds of beer you really enjoy.

Another reason to homebrew is cost-effectiveness. I've got three 5-gallon batches of various beverages in the works, the kinds of beverages that aren't commonly available, and it's working out to be roughly equivalent to the cost of an equal amount of PBR for better beverages.

So, I'm curious to hear from Jack how his ginger beer turned out....