Treat me like I am stupid....

I presume I used to fiddle about as when I used to make wine I always started the yeast and nutrient off in a small bottle before adding it.
I also added the sugar in stages, but that was 30yrs ago, I guess thinking has changed.

I found it fermented pretty well just at room temperature.

 

I just put corks in the (empty wine bottles from the pub) screwtop bottles - soak the corks the night before & they should go in without a problem.

Temperature for fermentation should be around 20-25'c so you shouldnt need anything to keep it warm this time of year.

Ive done a few batches of turbo cider from apple juice - comes out nice & strong but theres not a lot of flavour left in the cheap juice once you ferment all the sugar out, but its fun to try - theres a huge thread here with more information than you could probably ever want !

Ive just made some Ginger beer from scratch - surprisingly cheap (1.2Kg root ginger is about £3!) so most the cost is the sugar & the yeast. Nice to drink in the garden in the sun so hopefully it will be ready tomorrow !

 

I can't offer any advice but you've bought back a memory for me..........

My dad used to make what was called " Orange Whisky" , it was made just like wine.

It was gorgeous

 

I'm making double the amount while the weather's warm, no heating in the winter and they don't do a 12 volt heating mat as far as I know.

 

I've never made wine but I have made sloe gin & vodka....they were both lovely ....not quite so lovely the next morning when I woke up with a head ache!!!

 

Don't make sloe gin anymore either

 

I followed the "here" link and there was a giant thread that I couldn't seem to negotiate through to find your ginger beer recipe. Would you be able to share that please? I have made wine in the past and understand the process-need to go down to my junk drawer and pick out my hydrometer I really like the soda we call ginger ale and would love to try a hard (alcohol) ginger ale

thank you
Lori

 

I am aware of two problems with screw top bottles
1. If you are using them with screw tops, and it is not fermented out the bottles will explode
where a cork would just shoot out

2. It was mentioned that the neck of a screw top bottle was too thin glass

 

Depends on what final % you'm after

 

"Oxford Nick" "
Temperature for fermentation should be around 20-25'c so you shouldnt need anything to keep it warm this time of year."

Our summer temp is average 14c and rooms heated to 19c, so I would need a heated base then ?

 

Ginger beer from scratch, about 5 gals (22 L) - based on the fine work here, my third & best effort:
Into a big pan -
- 1.5 Kg root ginger - roughly chop then wizz up in the foot processor into a paste - you can take the skin off if you wish, I dont bother.
- Juice of four oranges, four limes, chuck the rind in too if its not too pithy
- Cream of tartar - one packet (about a teaspoon ?)
- about 5l of boiling water (I use tap)
- 100G or so of ginger powder, more for more gingery goodness but may never clear.

Boil for about an hour until the ginger is good & soft

Transfer to primary fermenter (bucket big enough to hold 5 gals + a bit of space at the top, needs a lid & ideally an airlock but just loosely putting the lid on is probably good enough to keep the nasties out, once the fermentation starts the CO2 sits on the top & keeps the air off) - I filter out the big bits at this point with the sieve I use for straining the veg but leave the pulpy ginger in so that the maximum flavour transfers.

- Add 2.5KG of sugar - I use soft brown (like the taste but you get brown Ginger beer) - normal white sugar should work too.
- Add yeast nutrient, about a teaspoon for each gallon.
- Top up to 22 L with tap water, stir well.
- Check temperature - if its 20-25'c or there about, add yeast, use a sparkling wine yeast if you can get one but any brewing yeast will work - bread yeast probably wont give you anything more than 3' proof & so wont carbonate with this amount of sugar (ie no fizz)

Should take about a week to ferment out - if you have a hydrometer you can use it, you should get something like 1.03/1.04 at the start and end at around 0.99 which works out at about 3 or 4.5 % alcohol, add more sugar for more %, but I think that this is best left around that level.

Find enough bottles for 20L or so & rinse out & sterilise - I use SVP cleaner but there are many many other ways to do this. For Ginger beer I have 750ml bottles with a bung (think Grolsh larger) - Aldi have these with lemonade in at the moment I think.

Add more sugar to each bottle before you fill it - about two teaspoons should do it, also add some sugar free sweetener, I use 2 canderel tablets for a 750ml bottle - the yeast is still active so it will use all the proper sugar & hopefully carbonise in the bottle. After about 3-4 weeks it should be drinkable, chill well before opening & it should clear & with a bit of luck be fizzzy too ! As with all bottle conditioned brews, theres a layer of muck in the bottom of the bottle, best not to drink that - it wont harm you but its probably a bit yeasty.

The last batch I made looks like this after 3 weeks - its nearly there, needs another week.

--

So people say - Ive made a couple of hundred bottles & never had one do that - depends on whats going in I guess - one of the projects for this year is a sparkling wine so Im using the ginger beer bottles for that one.

Possibly - 19'c should be OK, 14'c probably wont be - its 27'c in my kitchen this evening !

 

Thank you @OxfordNick I will start assembling the items. I believe I will start with smaller batch.

I have pressure cooked citrus for marmelades with good success. It certainly saved a lot of time and electricity. Do you think this would work with the ginger?