[Lardman]

changed the link on p1 to this one - hope it's the right one 
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=5982

The original seems to have gone awol, although it can be found in Googles cache. I've grabbed it if anyone want the original recipe and it's ok to post it ?

[mumofstig]

please do post it   

[Lardman]

Taken from www.brewuk.co.uk.

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Nothing can beat home made Ginger beer. Delicious on a sunny day, this alcoholic version is sure to impress your friends and family. Ice Cooled with a refreshing zing that really hits the spot but watch out as the 6% ABV can have you walking sideways.

 

Equipment:
Brewing Bin + Lid
Syphon
Steriliser
Bottles
Large pan


Ingredients:
1 - 2k ginger root dependant on taste, grated
2.5 k sugar
4 lemons, sliced
300g of Sultanas
3/4 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 Packet of Champagne Yeast
Approx 23 Litres of bottled water (or tap water dependant on your water).

 

Instructions


Sanitise and rinse all equipment.

1. Boil as much water as you can get in your stock pot, peel the lemons (avoiding pith), then throw in the peel and squeeze in the juice.
2. Grate the ginger (skin too) and throw in along with the cream of tarter.
3. Add sugar and reduce temp to simmer for about 30 mins.
4. Add 300g of Sultanas to the fermenter then pour the liquid on top and fill up to 23 ltrs with water. Once cooled to fermentation temp sprinkle the yeast on top.
5. Cover and ferment for 4 days.
6. Strain and squeeze the juice from the liquid and transfer to a clean fermenter until complete (usually about 5 / 7 days).
7. Bottle in strong glass bottles adding 1/2 teaspoon of priming sugar to each.

If you wish to make smaller/larger batches then adjust the ingredients accordingly. This will make a drink of approx 6% ABV. Reduce the sugar if you want to lower the ABV.

Open with care as they can be a bit lively.

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[calumscott]

I brewed a batch according to roughly the recipe on the homebrew forum's legendary "Fiery Ginger Beer" thread and it is superb:

Recipe was:
1.2 kg Root Ginger Grated
2 Lemons sliced and squeezed
2 Limes sliced and squeezed
4 tsp Ground Ginger
3/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Allspice
1/2 a Nutmeg grated
2 Cloves
1 tsp Cream of Tartar
1 kg Runny Honey
1 kg Extra Light DME (Dried Malt Extract or Spraymalt)
1 kg Light DME

Method couldn't be easier!  Get the biggest pot you can lay your hands on, throw in everything down to the Cream of Tartar and boil for half an hour, then disolve in Honey and DME. 

Pour into sterlised 5 gallon fermenter and top up with cold water and pitch champagne yeast when cooled down to around 24C.

Fermentation took a couple of weeks.  I racked it and (luckily!) picked up a lactobacilus infection from somewhere - looked terrible but did wonders for the flavour!

I backsweetened it with splenda which isn't fermentible and bottled in 500ml plastic bottles with around 8g per litre of dextrose to get a really good fizz.

I'm very pleased with it as it has some body to it from the malt rather than just being ginger and citrus.  I think the ABV was around 5.5 or 6% in the end.

Racking is an absolute nightmare though, grated ginger blocks up your siphon in no time!  I found that pushing a handle-less sieve into the beer and siphoning from the middle worked a treat.

[Daamoot]

I'm contemplating making a 5gal Christmas brew.  Question is should I stick to the usual ale kit or attempt one of these ginger beers?  Not entirely sure if I like ginger beer tho, are there any supermarket brands that these recipes would be similar to for testing?

[Lardman]

I wouldn't unblock the sink with supermarket ginger beer - Foul ,synthetic, metallic tasting stuff. !

The successful stuff I've done (ignoring the flops) has a cleaner taste, it's sharper and hotter  - The batch I turned into wine has a distinct marshmallow taste. 

If you're worried just do a gallon rather than 5.   

[Daamoot]

I wouldn't unblock the sink with supermarket ginger beer - Foul ,synthetic, metallic tasting stuff....If you're worried just do a gallon rather than 5.   

Great answer Lardman!  I'll avoid the supermarket 'ginger beer' and try a 1gal batch for starters.  Cheers!

[calumscott]

Yup, the recipe will scale down easily to a gallon.  Well worth it IMO.  Better than anything from the shops!

[grendel]

first brew is fizzy as anything, second brew hasnt started fizzing up the bottles, but I did manage to strain more of the sediment out of this batch. had the first bottle of the first batch and very nice it was too, just a little bit too much sediment when opened (10 minutes carefully over the sink).
used a basic recipe with bread yeast.
Grendel

[Lardman]

Whoever did the picking at trascho obviously thought I was off my trolley ordering so much ginger and didn't send it ! 

That'll teach me - I was trying not to look a complete weirdo turning up at the checkout in person.   

I used lavin EC118 in my last fizzy wine, it compacted down really well and left a good solid sediment. Not cheap to do just 1 gal though.

[Daamoot]

lol, maybe there's a high demand for ginger just now?  I picked some up from the local country store yesterday but had to take all they had just to make a 1gal batch.  Kinda mixed up yours and Calumscott's recipes but didn't have any malt extracts.  ABV should end around 6-6.5% but I only had some white wine yeast to use so I'm hoping it will still 2nd ferment after bottling for the fizz.  Cheers guys, I'll let you know how it turns out.

[grendel]

well fingers crossed, just bottled up the last 10 litres of ginger beer, thats 30 litres in total, stopped the mix for now as we have plenty, the first few batches carried on fizzing away, but are a bit cloudy, the rest was strained through a muslin bag and didnt carry on fermenting in the bottles, yet to see how much of a kick its got, tried some of the first batch and that was pretty good, to be honest alcahol content is unimportant if the flavour is right.
Grendel

[darren64]

Taken from www.brewuk.co.uk.

-------

Nothing can beat home made Ginger beer. Delicious on a sunny day, this alcoholic version is sure to impress your friends and family. Ice Cooled with a refreshing zing that really hits the spot but watch out as the 6% ABV can have you walking sideways.

 

Equipment:
Brewing Bin + Lid
Syphon
Steriliser
Bottles
Large pan


Ingredients:
1 - 2k ginger root dependant on taste, grated
2.5 k sugar
4 lemons, sliced
300g of Sultanas
3/4 tsp. Cream of Tartar
1 Packet of Champagne Yeast
Approx 23 Litres of bottled water (or tap water dependant on your water).

 

Instructions


Sanitise and rinse all equipment.

1. Boil as much water as you can get in your stock pot, peel the lemons (avoiding pith), then throw in the peel and squeeze in the juice.
2. Grate the ginger (skin too) and throw in along with the cream of tarter.
3. Add sugar and reduce temp to simmer for about 30 mins.
4. Add 300g of Sultanas to the fermenter then pour the liquid on top and fill up to 23 ltrs with water. Once cooled to fermentation temp sprinkle the yeast on top.
5. Cover and ferment for 4 days.
6. Strain and squeeze the juice from the liquid and transfer to a clean fermenter until complete (usually about 5 / 7 days).
7. Bottle in strong glass bottles adding 1/2 teaspoon of priming sugar to each.

If you wish to make smaller/larger batches then adjust the ingredients accordingly. This will make a drink of approx 6% ABV. Reduce the sugar if you want to lower the ABV.

Open with care as they can be a bit lively.

-------

where can I get cream of tarter

[Auntiemogs]

Should be able to find it in the supermarket baking section.  :happy:

[Daamoot]

Tried a bottle last night and although it wasn't as fizzy as I'd like, I did enjoy the taste!  Very sharp and the first mouthful was quite fiery.  I guess it shocks your tastebuds initially because further drinks weren't as fiery.  Will leave the rest longer to ferment and hopefully build up more cO2 but I'm looking forward to driking them.  Any tips on shortest time to leave to mature before consuming for best flavour?