Ginger Beers
Pacific Bliss
Colin Price
Fri 28 Dec 2012 04:48
I used 1 kg of ginger cut up and then boiled until a bit soft (5 mins in pressure cooker) then using a stick mixer, blend reasonably finely with 5tsp Dried ground ginger.
Add the juice of 5 lemons and then strain through muslin or sieve.
I then make this up to about 16 litres.
*** Alcoholic ginger beer
Dissolve sugar (1 kg/16 litres will make the beer around 4.5%) in your vat.
The sugar will be used up during the fermentation process and therefore the beer will not have any sweetness (primary fermentation). Any of the kits you buy in the shops will have artificial sweeteners in them, which is what I use to add the sweetness.
You can add artificial sweetener to the equivalent of 2-3 teaspoons of sugar for each litre (40tsp). It might be alright without it, I don't know I haven't tried.
Make sure the temperature is around the 20 to 25 degree mark then add a teaspoon of yeast.
Best to firstly dissolve the yeast in a small amount of tepid water with a teaspoon of dissolved sugar in it. When the yeast activates (begins to foam) tip it into the vat and stir.
Leave it to ferment for about a week. Once this primary fermentation is completed add 2 teaspoons per litre of sugar to the brew. This will give it the carbonation (secondary
fermentation). Keep it somewhere warm for a couple of weeks.
*** Non-alcoholic:
To 16 litres of the ginger/lemon water I would add the equivalent artificial sweetener of around 6-8 teaspoons per litre of sugar. Then add the activated yeast and 2 teaspoons of sugar per litre to the vat (again 20 to 25 degrees C). Once this is stirred up you can bottle it and wait a week.
You can make sweet, non-alcoholic ginger beer just using sugar but it is a rather risky business. You can dissolve into the mix a large amount of sugar ( e.g 8 to 12 tsp sugar per litre) and add the yeast and bottle it. You would need to monitor the bottles after a few days as they will produce a great deal of pressure in the bottles. You should drink it as soon as the bottles are hard ( a couple of days), in not then you will need to let the pressure out and eventually it will turn alcoholic and not sweet at all....
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