Zingiber (Alcoholic Ginger Beer)

[Taz Ales]

Not a beer but my stock Summery ginger beer, with a kick or two.

To make 25 litres:

Ingredients:

4Kg demerera sugar
500g - 1kg fresh ginger root (depending on your taste)
1 red chilli
5 large lemons
lalvin Champagne Yeast EC-1118 (or similar)
Council pop (water)

Really simple. Fill the boiler with water and switch that on while you sort out the following:

Make a yeast starter with half a pint of pre-boiled/cooled water and a couple of teaspoons of sugar... er and of course the yeast.

Zest the lemons and chuck that in the fermenter.
Juice the lemons and chuck that in the fermenter.
Slice the chilli a bit, deseed if you're a wuss, then chuck that in the fermenter.
Dust off the food processor and start chopping up the ginger root. I just sling it in and buzz it until it's chopped into grit sized pieces... you don't want to puree it. Chuck that in the fermenter.
When the water comes to the boil, chuck that in the fermenter.
Chuck all the sugar in the fermenter and stir until disolved.

Leave it to steep for an hour if you're intending to use a wort chiller to cool it down to pitching temperature, or just let it cool down in a builder's soft bucket full of cold water. Pitch the yeast and off it goes.

If you like your ginger beer sweet, rack it around 1.015. If like me you prefer it dry with a load of ice cubes and slice of lemon, let it ferment out to 1.010 or below.

Last word of advice: when racking from the fermenter, tie a piece of muslin or something similar around the base of the syphon tube, otherwise it'll just clog up with bits of ginger.

[I_used_to_brew]

Ever tried swapping out some of the sugar for malt extract?

[Taz Ales]

No, this one is deliberately not a beer. It's more of a Summery thing to be drunk with ice.

I have a recipe for a beer with Ginger in it though. That one's called Seffryn, and I'll post the recipe seperately sometime when I get a chance.