Alcoholic Ginger Beer Recipe

Alcoholic Ginger Beer Recipe (for 5L)

1/ Bring to boil and simmer for about 15 mins:

• 200g ginger – chopped or sliced (I use a food processor with a bit of water). You can use more if you want.
• Skin of 2-4 lemons or limes – avoid the white pith (I use potato peeler)
• Juice of 4 lemons or limes

Optional:

• Chillies fresh or dry
• Cloves
• Cinnamon sticks
• You can fairly much add anything (provided it doesn’t have a preservative in it) you think you will like the flavour of in your ginger beer eg fruit, spices etc

As much water as you can fit in your pot with enough room not to boil over– a bigger pot is best but if you only have a small one, use that.

2/ Take it off the stove and add your sugar.

Stir to dissolve.  Use 400g sugar / 5 litres for approx. 5% brew – 600g for approx. 7.5% brew.  You can use plain white sugar or mix brown and white for a darker coloured brew with a slightly richer flavour.  Or you can use honey or any other fermentable sugar.

3/ Wait to cool and pour into a plastic food grade bucket with lid.

Recommended that you sterlise your bucket first with metabisulphite.

4/ Top up to 5 litres with cooled boiled water if needed.

5/ Cool to room temperature.  Add yeast nutrient (optional but recommended) as per manufacturer’s instructions.

6/ Add your yeast according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Champagne yeast is recommended.  Replace bucket lid

7/ Within 24 hours you should have fermentation activity –

you should see bubbles and probably a yeasty fragrance.  Stir 2 x daily.  Recommended that you sterlise your spoon first with metabisulphite or boiling water.

8/ Leave until fermentation stops –

or it doesn’t taste at all sweet anymore.

9/ Strain

10/ Options at this point for carbonation and sweetening.

• Drink as is (probably not to most people’s taste).
• Sweeten to taste just before drinking
• Sweeten to taste just before drinking and soda stream it to make it bubbly
• Sweeten to taste using a non-fermentable sweetener (you can use lactose, maltodextrin, stevia, sucryl, Splenda etc).  Dissolve 60g sugar in a small amount of hot water, cool and add to your ginger beer.  Mix through well.  Bottle in bottles suitable for pressurised containment.  Leave somewhere warm and within a week or so it will be ready to drink.
• Sweeten to taste using sugar.  Dissolve additional 60g sugar in a small amount of hot water, cool and add to your ginger beer.  Mix through well.  Bottle in bottles suitable for pressurised containment.  This is a balancing act.  Wait a few days and hope it has the right amount of carbonation.  Open and if right immediately chill the rest of the bottles in a very cold fridge and drink fairly quickly.  Your ginger beer will probably taste the best using this method BUT it is the most difficult to get right.  The sugar in the ginger beer that sweetens it will keep fermenting until it is all gone.  This will also be too much carbonation and your bottles when opened will turn into a rather impressive geyser.  Even in a cold fridge the yeast may continue to ferment slowly increasing the carbonation.  A good way to judge when it is ready is to bottle in PET bottles.  Have your ginger beer about an inch from the top.  When putting the lids on squeeze the bottle so the level of ginger beer is very near the top.  When the bottles are hard your ginger beer should be ready.

As you can see most of the ingredients in this recipe are fairly approximate and can be altered to taste.

The recipe is also scalable – just double all but the yeast for say 10L, quadruple all but the yeast for 20L.

5g of champagne yeast will ferment up to 23L of brew.

To get all the recommended ingredients for 1 batch of 5 litres you can purchase the basic home winemaking ingredients kit.

To get all the recommended ingredients for 1 batch of 23 litres you can purchase the basic home winemaking ingredients kit.