Homebrew Ginger Beer | Steve & John 

I brew beer using all the 'proper' techniques but this looked short, sweet and most importantly fun. Cheers!

I've been watching a few ginger beer recipes and all I can say is: this is making me crave ginger beer more and more

I loved watching this show on TV but I couldn't remember the name. Welcome back again old friend. Can't wait to start watching again

Normally to use a hydrometer you need to take a pre-fermentation reading, then subtract the post fermentation reading then multiple by 131.25 (ish) and that will give you the abv. Only one reading will give you the weight of your beverage compared to water.

I like to make strong ginger beer with two row barley and a full boil. This time it's around 7% also there's a little bit of hops in there. My beers have a strong ginger presence... The first bottle lights your head up. It mellows to a less fiery warmth. Bit of foam on top.

I love River Cottage but this video was a rather large miss when it comes to basic brewing. For one, the hydrometer only works if you know the specific gravity before AND after the fermentation is done, you can't just stick it in at the end and say 'it says 2%' and call it a day. As well it misses a lot when it comes to the absolute basics like avoiding infections/wild yeast in your brew. For example they made the point of using a sanitizing solution (looked like Star-San; which is a great product) and that is a good start but when they mixed things up using a wooden spoon (wood does not sanitize well, or at all really) rather than a sanitized metal or plastic spoon they likely just mucked things up for themselves. Then they go and fill up the bottles at an outdoor tap, now I can't speak to their tap but I know mine would not be clean enough for brewing, not without giving it a good scrub and a hit of the sanitizer at the least of it(which maybe they did off screen, no idea). As well, good that they want to tuck into it early but after 2 days that'd likely be pretty disgusting with loads of yeast still in suspension, lots of very young alcohol and lots of the ginger pulp floating about, if they waited a couple weeks then decanted it carefully it'd taste much better and the ferment would most definitly be done. If people want to get into brewing(or rather beer brewing) check out John Palmer's stuff, very approachable and he covers a lot of the basics that were unfortunately missing here.

I remember my dad stayed overnight at my place for a conference in town. The next day the whole shelf full of ginger beer in the room he slept in exploded. 6 hours earlier and he'd have been covered with glass and ginger beer 😄

I work in a home brew shop and a lovely couple indicated that they were going to follow the instructions in this video. Something that is not mentioned in the video is how important it is to BOTTLE IN PLASTIC. If you bottle this brew in glass there is a very real and very serious risk they will explode. I have seen glass embedded into wooden support beams in the roof, it is no joke. In the australian heat this recipe could cause glass bottles to explode within 24hrs. Yeast will continue to eat sugar until it is all converted to alcohol and carbon dioxide. In order to make a sweet brew, fermentation needs to be halted halfway though (to leave some sugar). In plastic bottles it is easy to see when you have enough carbonation, the bottles will be hard. In glass this is impossible to do. To halt fermentation you put the bottles in the fridge to put the yeast to sleep. As soon as those bottles warm up again they will continue to ferment until the bottles explode. If you have young children or pets or value the use of your eyes I would strongly suggest not following this recipe. At the very least bottle in plastic. There are many ginger beers that are available on the market which make a fine ginger beer without the risk of maiming yourself or your loved ones. They will most likely taste better too.

This seems like a recipe for bottle bombs. They should let it ferment in something with an airlock or just an open vessel. Once the fermentation is complete add a little bit of sugar just for carbonation when they bottle it.

I've made this mix before, It's very easy to make and I was quite happy with the result. It was very fizzy when opened but quickly lost it's bubbles. The taste was great and it did have an alcohol kick. Not sure of the exact alcohol content but a few glasses gets you tipsy!

Straight out of the side table. Love it haha!

You need to know the before and after density to work out the alcohol content, you don't use dunk it in at the end and guess. Also 2% and 4% proof is NOT anything like a lager, most lagers are 4-6% by volume so around 8-12 proof roughly....

Thanks for the video. Ginger beer is the best.

I've made many a gallon of alcoholic ginger beer over the years. I've mage it in two ways. No1. Simply add a little of the plant to escape into your normal ginger beer plant brew after you have made the normal brew and before you bottle it. No2 Using a proper brewing kit and allowing it to brew. Not for a day or two but at least a couple of weeks. Allow the bottles to stand in a cool place for at least 6 weeks. I've made all kinds of wine using this method. way back in my younger, partying days. The best ever was rice and raisin. Always use glass bottles and sterilise them thoroughly. No hydrometer was ever used and we had lots of great parties.

But thats not how you do a hydrometer reading...was that just for kicks? Your suppose to do a reading of the mix before fermentation and then a reading after when your ready to drink it and then split the difference. Because on the hydrometer it should say (potential alcohal by volume) which is because its actually measureing the sugar and how much sugar is eaten by the yeast determines the %. Which is why you need those. 2 reading

I would start with the whole lot in a bucket, with no yeast. When I make mine, I take out my ginger beer plant from the freezer and feed it water, ginger, lemon, sugar as I go along over the weeks, monitoring its taste and health and drawing off a glass or two when it tastes good. I carry on like that for the summer then put the plant back in the freezer until the next year. I wouldn't put yeast in it because it needs something more balanced to occur between the yeasts and bacteria. Time to get out my ginger beer plant.

That's no how you make porridge. Haha great job guys 🙂 always entertaining

I got some bubbling away right now!!! After this batch I'm going to try another recipe using wild yeast. Whichever one I like better I'm going to bottle and take on my vacation to my little lake cottage.

More from john!

Wheres is the ginger beer plant?

I am gonna give this a try next. Thanks for posting. I have a big plastic bottle holds 3 qts, so I am gonna guess 2 cups sugar 3 lemons a good tablespoon of ginger and some wine yeast, maybe a half a packet of red star dry wine yeast? Thanks in advance -PawPaw

I use te yeast on the ginger it self and let it go for 2 or 4 weeks.

How long can you store it for? And do you need to do anything to stop the fermenting process?

Thats ....great... Exprememt....dear .....and we succed.....captan....👬💚💪💪💪💪

H many days we will store it

2 or 4 percent?

is that water from the tap potable?

how many days ?

u could really go up to 17% alcohol if ALL of the sugar was eaten by the yeast (if im correct)

Funny but that is not the recipe on the website And I really had to look for the one I did find

british ginger beer lol

It's filled too full If you don't release air in 2-3 hours in maximum I'm sure that the bottle will explode into pieces...or plastic powder

The oils in the lemon zest were evidently discarded, which is unfortunate. Microplane the zest and extract those oils with high-proof neutral spirits, and add that after the carbonation is complete.

Would the alcohol content increase further with time?

to increase alcohol content do you just need to add more yeast and sugar or will it develop over time?

AIR LOCK WHY NOT ?

Fermentation WHY NOT? AIR LOCK NO?

what kind of yeast they use?

3:22 You don't look happy with the beer You're sure you like it??!

where's curly.!!!

Just make it in a bucket, and decant into bottles!

How much time did I waste looking at the other GB videos. Well done you two but I know enough to suspect a lot of info was missing here - oh look! Ryan came. So I'll learn something anyway. I remember ginger beer from 60 years ago, yeast was involved, and waiting a week or two, and fear of explosions. Ah well, nothing fabulous is easy.

put the recipe

How did he work out the alcohol?

can anyone tell me how much percent alcohols have this home made bear

they didn't seem overly thrilled with it, you'd have to drink a craploads before you felt anything, not the healthiest option to get drunk lol

Cool but how would I raise the alcohol content to maybe 7 or 8 percent? That's more like it. How do you even get drunk on 2%?

What a clumsy team these two, they shouldnt be left alone.

If you waiting longer at the maturing process, would the alcohol be stronger? ......hiccup😜

Wtf

These guys are so clueless!

Ryan love said it all. This video is a total waste of time. move on.

Idiocy.

HI guys. Greetings from Australia! Wow, some of the comments here are a bit angry! Surely brewing is more about love than this........ Anyhoo, just found this video and it inspired me to have a go. Just finished my first batch and feel it is a success (i.e. didn't go blind). Will tweak my recipe a bit, not gingery enough, but will keep at it. Admittedly, I did a bit more of the sterilising thing too and feel this method may have merit but I agree that being a bit more measured will add consistency. Anyway, drinkable ginger beer after two days? Love it.

I love the rustic approach these guys have for making ginger beer, was definitely the inspiration I needed to have a go at ginger beer on my channel well done guys.

Wait.... They just broke about 5 rules in brewing and still came up with a drinkable brew? River Cottage continues to be fascinating.

This looks be to a great recipe to make home brew farts.

Definitely give that a go!

Imagine what straining a secondary fermentation and refrigeration of 40 hours could produce?

funny they peele the ginger

2% alcohol is *not* " the same as a beer* And 4% proof isnt..a..thing..

Love the video guys. This is great entertainment, its not the way you make gingerbeer. Your videos are all great. please do better research in future.

Where's the exact recipe? It is not on your site

Traducirlo al español

yea gods .. what a disaster.

This video raised more questions than it answered. Why do you peel the ginger root? Why don't you refrigerate the bottles before opening? Are you surprised when opening a warm beer as well?

Bollocks.

DIS THEY USE ANY YEAST, OR WHAT???

How did they let the CO2 escape?

What size bottle though??