ginger beer – the 2006 vintage

[marigold]

What on earth is rapidura???:shrug:

[artemis-of-the-eucalypts]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapadura is a reference to it, and more info can be found half way down this page http://editor.nourishedmagazine.com.au/articles/sweet-sustenance I really like it as a refined sugar substitute, it has a great molassey taste!

[Thisildo]

Leecy wrote:

Bottled up mine 2 days ago, and it’s gone already :p Might I suggest adding extra ginger to the recipe – I’m used to drinking the Bundaberg ginger beer which is fairly strong. I also added juice of 4 lemons instead of 2.

I have made a few variations to the basic recipe too. In the past I bought a bottle of ginger syrup which I added. If you use this you will need to cut down on the amount of sugar you add.

I’ve added grated ginger root to the plant. Delicious result.

A very old recipe I found had a few sultanas added to each bottle before sealing.

[Leecy]

i have 2 plants on the go at the moment, one with powdered and one with fresh fine grated ginger. cant wait to test the difference. they smell very different but both good.

[michelleandbubs]

I’ve just made my first batch of ginger beer.

It was all very exciting, there were plenty of bubbles and it smelt delicious but when I opened the bottle after it had been in the fridge for a day there wasn’t much fizz.:confused:

Is that normal???

Also there was a strange odour when I put my nose close to the lid.

Hubby said it tasted fine but I’m worried I might make him sick.:rip:

Should I throw it out and try again?

I was kind of counting on it for xmas gifts.

Michelle

[GirlFriday]

ok so heres a wierd question- my plant developed into a ‘thing’ sort of a solid/ soft section. its a bit hard to describe really. it smells ok (great) and everything…..just wondering what on earth happened.

[Chezza]

Hope DH is okies Michelle…. 😆

f1800229, how did you go with your ginger beer?

I started my first ginger beer bug on Saturday (or was it Sunday???) and it smells wonderful…. My query is that in the mornings the liquid has cleared and stopped bubbling, is this normal? When I stir in the sugar and ginger it starts to bubble again a short time later….

TIA :hug:

[GirlFriday]

well i bottled it up in plastic bottles and they were ready quite quick (3 days). mind you the weather has been rather warm. Have had a few drinks of it- it doesnt taste as gingery as i would have hoped but its cold and its not water;) Havent dropped dead yet so it cant be anything out of the ranges of normal i guess. The kids think its wonderful!!:tup:

[bplum]

I made the first batch a few weeks ago & it worked well but didnt have much fozz & tasted ‘yeasty’. i started the second batch by dividing the remains of the first plant & coninued feeding. this batch was superb!!!

And i cut the sugar down by half when making up the bottles.

But when I started a new one altogether it was too yeasty in taste and not very fizzy (just like first time). ended up tossing it, but started the second batches off the same plant. These are good, except that a whitish slick developed on the surface of the plant (still had lots bubbles though).

we are in Townsville and its very hot – could it have started going off? Do i have to do the whole 7 days if there’s lots bubbles earlier? Should i keep the sugar at the 3 cups? any advice welcome!

[Chezza]

well, I’m a bit late with the bottling process because of Christmas… I have kept feeding it and it smells just fine, so I thought “why not”…. It is cooling atm…

If anyone is worried about bottling it in glass and having it explode, just wrap it in newspaper so that it is a neat little package to put in the bin….

[Chezza]

Well we are about half way through our first batch and are very impressed with our drop….

Ours isn’t as fizzy as normal store bought softdrinks…. Is this normal?

Also when you split the bug do you then halve the other ingredients to match?

[Mumchook]

Anja wrote:

Savage, it is alcaholic, although I don’t know how strong it is. I made this brew last year and my 12 year old loved it, but after 2 glasses she was a little tipsy! I didn’t realise it would be alcaholic.

I was looking back over this thread to check on something to do with my ginger beer plant, and found this and other references to the ginger beer being alcoholic.

Is it? Can anyone tell me for sure if it has an alcoholic content? If so, what can I do to make it nonalcoholic??

And, another question: can this not be made in quantity and stored somewhere for any length of time prior to putting it in the fridge in readiness to be consumed? Or is it crucial that it’s made in small quantities and “stored” in a fridge?

After reading a few posts it seems it must be refrigerated to stop the fermentation process and that perhaps one wouldn’t be able to store it anywhere except the fridge. So how come can I walk into any supermarket and see tons of ginger beer bottles sitting there unrefrigerated? I presume they’d be using an additive of some kind to allow them to store it on shelves… :shrug:

I’ve probably answered my own question in a sense, however I’d really like to know if I it’s possible to make a larger quantity (say, a double batch) and store it in a cool place. My fridge space is limited.

Ta muchly, in advance. 😀

[marigold]

Hi Mumchook, you answered your own question when you used the word fermented.

Fermentation produces alcohol. The longer you ferment it for, the stronger it will get. You can store it in a cupboard if the container is strong enough to withstand any in-bottle fermentation that occurs. (our glass bottles used to go off like bombs if the weather suddenly got hotter:|

The stuff in the supermarket is often simply carbonated, not brewed.

Brewing it for a relatively short time and then putting it in the fridge to stop the fermentation would help to keep the alcohol level down. I used to know how to check the levels – will have to look it up though, as I’ve long since forgotten:rol:

[Mumchook]

Oh.

Drat.

:tdown:

[Mumchook]

PS, Marigold, I actually thought the fermentation in making ginger beer was more a process (not knowing about these things :confused: ) – a way of producing a particular result etc etc, not automatically turning something into alcohol. Isn’t making sourdough bread, or yoghurt, a kind of fermentation?

Is it the sugar that does it or the yeast, or the fact I’m combining the two, as if I can make ginger beer minus the yeast to make it a non-alcoholic drink, then that’s what I shall do!.

Does anyone know??

[Author]

Posts