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Ginger Beer

This is a great recipe for Ginger Beer, from Matthew Hurst, President of the Helderberg Homebrew Club. 

 

The Vitals
Ferment Volume: 2L

HERE’S WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Ingredients:

Water: Finest water you can source. If you are using municipal water which has been chlorinated, you will have much better results if you are able to filter out the chlorine (using an active carbon / charcoal filter). You can also boil for 20 minutes to remove the chlorine. You will use about 2 litres of water.

Fermentables: This Ginger Beer is made from fresh ingredients and allowing it to naturally ferment. You will need to first ferment a bug / starter for a week and then you can easily recreate your ginger beer as often as you like. 

Fermentable Weight Type
Roughly chopped ginger 100g NA
Sugar 150g NA
Fermentation Bug 1 cup / 200ml min NA
Lemon Juice 1 lemon / 40g NA
Water 2 litres NA

Brewing Process:

 

  1. Bring water, ginger, sugar to boil.
  2. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.
  3. Allow to cool, stirring once in a while with a wooden spoon.
  4. When cool, add bug.
  5. Transfer to jars and cover with muslin or something similar.
  6. Leave on counter for a day or two, tasting to see when it's ready.
  7. When ready, pour it into a bottle (I used a big coke bottle), filtering out solids with muslin.
  8. Leave on counter for 1 to 4 days.
  9. Check carbonation by squeezing the bottle to see how firm it is, and open the lid (burp it) to prevent too much gas (C02) buildup and your bottle exploding.
  10. When happy with taste, put in fridge.
  11. Burp the bottle once a day to prevent excessive build up of pressure.

Bug Ingredients and Process: 

Ingredient Weight Type
Roughly chopped ginger (skin on) 7 Tablespoon NA
Sugar (table or dark) 7 Tablespoon NA
Water 400 ml NA
  1. Start by mixing approx 1 tablespoon roughly chopped ginger (peel on)
  2. 1 x tablespoon sugar (I used dark muscavado) and 100ml water. (Exact amounts here don't matter too much.)
  3. Cover loosely and leave in a cool dark place for about a week, feeding every day with 1 x tablespoon roughly chopped ginger (peel on), 1x tablespoon sugar and 50ml water and stirring with a wooden spoon.
  4. It will be ready when it is bubbling vigorously.
  5. Build up the bug volume until you have a bit more than you need, then you can keep that bit in the fridge, feeding once a week with the normal 1 x tablespoon of roughly chopped ginger (peel on), 1 x tablespoon sugar and 50ml water.

Go check out the club: http://helderberghomebrewclub.co.za/