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Alcoholic Ginger Beer


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What's in Campden tablets?

 

Lucy, I'm not sure how I have managed to hold off, must be w..king too hard. Maybe I'll top up the hip flask for Ricky.... :cheers:

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I made 2 litres and some of it is still sitting in the fridge. I found that once it was cold it settled well and there was no need to filter. It does need more sugar to make it really palatable, but I'm not sure if I'll bother.

 

Would a similar technique work for making alcoholic lemonade?

 

I've found a recipe for home made lemonade on an Aussi site!

 

Here goes chaps!

 

 

Nosebleed hard lemonade. (I jest not :unsure:)

 

2.5-3 kg lemons, washed in steriliser & roughly chopped.

5 g pectinase

2kg white sugar, glucose or dextrose

10g champagne or wine yeast- I used Lanvin.

 

Put chopped lemons- peel, stalks & all- in a large saucepan, adding pectinase and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, mash a few times with a potato masher or similar, cover, and leave, preferably overnight.

 

The next day, start the yeast in 500ml of warm water, with 100g of the sugar dissolved in it. Stir well, cover and leave for at least 30 minutes.

 

The heat and pectinase should have reduced the lemons to a kind of thick pulp. Bring back to the boil, then take off the heat and mash with potato masher until fairly smooth. Do not worry if there are a few large chunks in the mix.

 

Allow pulp to cool enough to handle, and then squeeze through a piece of boiled muslin. This will be easier if you lay the muslin in a colander placed on top of a bucket and gently pour the pulp in. When the bulk of the liquid drains, then gather the corners of the muslin in and squeeze.

 

You should now have at least a litre and a half of cloudy lemon “must”, and a big blob of dryish pulp. Add 50 grams of the pulp to the bucket and stir.

 

Place the must in a sterilised fermenter with remaining sugar, and top up to 15 litres with warm water. Stir well to dissolve sugar before pitching yeast starter (and a pinch of yeast nutrient if you are feeling nervous). Seal and add airlock.

 

This takes at least 2 weeks to ferment out. If hydrometer readings over two or three consecutive days indicate fermentation has stopped but FG is still above 1000, add more yeast.

 

Prime and bottle as usual- 1 tsp sugar or carb drop per stubby. It comes out fairly strong, and initially has a bit of a yeasty taste, but smooths out after a couple of weeks. Best served very cold.

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I poured everything into a bowl by eye, mixed it up then stuffed it down the tops of some 2 litre bottled water from the supermarket.

 

No exactly scientific but we'll see how it goes.

 

 

I commend your approach! good luck.

 

All this booze making, maybe a homebrew banter is in order :blink:

 

They don't do things by halves do they!

 

 

Hmmm, I might try this next, 15 ltrs of it! Fantastic, I may have to remove some balast at this rate.... :cheers:

 

Top work :cheers:

 

I've found a recipe for home made lemonade on an Aussi site!

 

Here goes chaps!

 

 

Nosebleed hard lemonade. (I jest not :unsure:)

 

2.5-3 kg lemons, washed in steriliser & roughly chopped.

5 g pectinase

2kg white sugar, glucose or dextrose

10g champagne or wine yeast- I used Lanvin.

 

Put chopped lemons- peel, stalks & all- in a large saucepan, adding pectinase and enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, mash a few times with a potato masher or similar, cover, and leave, preferably overnight.

 

The next day, start the yeast in 500ml of warm water, with 100g of the sugar dissolved in it. Stir well, cover and leave for at least 30 minutes.

 

The heat and pectinase should have reduced the lemons to a kind of thick pulp. Bring back to the boil, then take off the heat and mash with potato masher until fairly smooth. Do not worry if there are a few large chunks in the mix.

 

Allow pulp to cool enough to handle, and then squeeze through a piece of boiled muslin. This will be easier if you lay the muslin in a colander placed on top of a bucket and gently pour the pulp in. When the bulk of the liquid drains, then gather the corners of the muslin in and squeeze.

 

You should now have at least a litre and a half of cloudy lemon “must”, and a big blob of dryish pulp. Add 50 grams of the pulp to the bucket and stir.

 

Place the must in a sterilised fermenter with remaining sugar, and top up to 15 litres with warm water. Stir well to dissolve sugar before pitching yeast starter (and a pinch of yeast nutrient if you are feeling nervous). Seal and add airlock.

 

This takes at least 2 weeks to ferment out. If hydrometer readings over two or three consecutive days indicate fermentation has stopped but FG is still above 1000, add more yeast.

 

Prime and bottle as usual- 1 tsp sugar or carb drop per stubby. It comes out fairly strong, and initially has a bit of a yeasty taste, but smooths out after a couple of weeks. Best served very cold.

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Tonight I shall move it closer to the stove :)

 

Where do I get one of these thingamies to test how alcoholic it is?

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Brew-Wine-Making-Hydrometer/dp/B005LVQA1G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336661985&sr=8-1

 

 

Cheers Graham, I think I'll leave adding E223 to my homebrew!

 

:cheers:

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[quote name='wanted'

 

 

 

Cheers Graham, I think I'll leave adding E223 to my homebrew!

 

:cheers:

 

 

I dont suppose it is needed if you are not thinking of storing the beer for a long time if so you will have to be confident the yeast has stopped working.

 

drinking live yeast is not a great problem and from what I understand is a good source of vitamin B but can give you a belly full of gas

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Dave told me he tried posting on this thread and got a "FORBIDDEN" message. Just checking for myself :)

 

Hmm he did say he tried under my sign in as well and reported it, maybe it got fixed. He did say he had a very important input to this thread - await with baited (or is it bated) breath all you alcoholic ginger beer lovers for Dave's next post!

You are not allowed to post or look at this thread since you are udeer 18.

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Right, we have just bottled the second lot of Ginger Beer, with the adapted recipe. This time we reduced the sugar by 2oz and doubled the quantity of ginger! :rolleyes:

 

It's been sitting by the radiator for 4 days and it measures about 7.5. It's still a bit fizzy, and very nice! Perhaps I shouldn't be drinking a glass with breakfast? <hic> :wacko:

 

Next lot will be made in a slightly larger container! :cheers:

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If you can go for the slightly greater expense the 5L water bottles work well.

 

I use them for wine making and no reason why they wont work for the ginger beer. A good friend frowns on this practice he is a die hard demijohn brewer but the water bottles work just fine. You can simply drill a hole in the top and fit a bung and air lock, I also use the water in them for the wine. Use them twice and then recycle and come the end of the year no demijohns to store something my friend overlooks but then he has one of them things a house!! but then some people are a bit odd.

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Right, we have just bottled the second lot of Ginger Beer, with the adapted recipe. This time we reduced the sugar by 2oz and doubled the quantity of ginger! :rolleyes:

 

It's been sitting by the radiator for 4 days and it measures about 7.5. It's still a bit fizzy, and very nice! Perhaps I shouldn't be drinking a glass with breakfast? <hic> :wacko:

 

Next lot will be made in a slightly larger container! :cheers:

Good work matey!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had mine yesterday. Have no idea what % because my alcohol meter only goes down to %30 :P Not only does it taste a whole lot better than most other home brew that is suposed to be drinkable within days, rather than months or even years. It is damn good! So frankly, I don't care about % with this one. Im going to make some more today! :cheers:

Edited by Caprifool
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we made loads of this last summer...and experimented with tastes. We did some batches with some blackberries added, and some with crab apple pulp in it. The crab apple one was a bit tart, but the blackberry & ginger was fab!

We strained it through coffee filters, but will get hold of some muslin instead this year.

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