Ginger Beer Concept

2025-04-15T05:43:28+00:00

Continuing from a discussion on giko:
My plan is to test drive a simple
fermented ginger beverage with the
following ingredients/materials:

1. Grated ginger
2. Brewer's yeast
3. Water
4. 1-2 chili peppers, to taste
5. Sugar (which type?)
6. 2L plastic bottle

So far I have heard that it is important
to slowly release the gas in the bottle,
and carefully monitor the pressure.
What I imagine is an earthy, simple
drink. Something to be enjoyed after
a day's work, or savored with
some deep-fried foods.
Any suggestions?

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2025-04-17T04:29:08+00:00

I do about 100g of ginger, 100g of sugar per liter.
Kind of sugar doesn't matter.
==> 5.8% ABV fermented dry.

Easiest way to let gas out: poke a needle through the end of a balloon
so co2 gas can get in, but oxygen / bugs / etc don't get in.

You can also very loosely place the lid on top of the bottle but if it's
on too tight, the co2 buildup will make the bottle explode.

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2025-04-17T13:44:20+00:00

I see! And how did you find the carbonation?
I'll try to go to the store to buy the
ingredients today. I'll periodically
update here as the project moves along

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2025-04-19T04:36:48+00:00

> How did you find the carbonation?
Dry wine (completely fermented) should not be carbonated at all.

I ferment dry, add like 4g of sugar per liter and cap the lid and wait
another 2-3 weeks if I want it carbonated. This is the most surefire
way to have something properly fermented and carbonated without extra
specialist ingredients or equipment.

You can also just wait a day after fermentation starts, find a way
to kill the yeast and put a cap on it, if you want your ginger ale on
the sweeter side. Some people throw it in the fridge but you risk
drinking live, active yeast (= all day diarrhea)

Or buy a sodastream machine -- bonus points for supporting our greatest
ally and the only democracy in the middle east if you take this route.

Look into how people carbonate beer. They buy big expensive machines
and lots of tools to optimize the process. It may be easier to make
concentrated ginger ale (eg 8% alcohol and tons of ginger) and mix with
soda water if you want something cheap and boozy but still DIY.

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2025-04-19T15:02:21+00:00

Lots of info to consider. What
does the term "dry" mean to you?
I have heard it in the context
of beer, like Asahi "super dry".
Also, I prefer light carbonation,
just enough to whet the appetite
and refresh you. Not heavy
carbonation you would find
in a lot of commercial soda.
I think I will take the soda
water route just to speed up
my first go at this, though.
I'll call it "Pohon Beer".
Maybe I can even add
jalapenos - plenty of them
in the building to go around!

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2025-04-19T16:40:11+00:00

Dry = all the sugars have been fermented by the yeast to Co2 gas and
ethanol, basically. And they produce a lot more co2 than you'd expect!
The contrast to dry, in the context of wine, is sweet: which makes the
meaning of "dry" more clear.

There are a number of ways to determine whether dryness has been
accomplished, fermentation has ended.

The easiest way is with a hydrometer -- when the specific gravity drops
below 0 (eg that of water), most likely all the sugar (which is more
dense than water) is gone and has been replaced by ethanol (which is
lighter than water). Especially when the standard gravity is below 0 and
remains constant for several days, that's a sign the yeast have finished
consuming alcohol, and are now cleaning up after themselves before they
go dormant and the hooch clears up.

Co2 can still be released from the liquid after fermentation has ended
so it's not a 100% sign that fermentation is still ongoing if Co2 is
being released.

For me, where ambient temps are 25-32*C, it takes about a week for 5%
ABV to ferment with bread yeast (~85g sugar/liter) and then about
another week for things to settle out. Higher ABV takes longer to
ferment and longer for yeast to clean up after themselves. And you lose
flavor.

A cheaper way to see that fermentation has completed: when your airlock
goes inactive (either stops bubbling if it's a proper one, or the
balloon goes limp and deflates completely, if you go the balloon route)
screw a lid on. Check every few hours for the next day to see if
pressure is building up: squeeze the bottle to see if it's gotten
firmer and unscrew the lid to "burp" out any Co2 (you don't want a bomb
going off)

When you test the bottle and no more Co2 is being released in
significant ways, after 2 or 3 days of checking, you can move onto the
next step.

This is the time when you want to add 5g/liter of sugar and possibly a
dash more yeast before sealing the bottle and letting it sit -- I think
10g/liter could be feasible, especially in a plastic soda bottle for a
heavy carbonation. But you're going to have to wait at least another
week or two for the yeast to clean up after themselves and go dormant,
making the drink safe to drink, even though it's only the bit of Co2
you're looking for. Using clear plastic bottles is a great way to check
"finishing" because the drink will become very clear when it's ready
to drink. When in doubt, wait more -- it only improves the product!

All you can really do is trial and error if you don't want to research
about the finer details of carbonation or invest in more equipment. I
think 5g/yeast per liter once fermentation is probably a safe starting
point. Otherwise, double the ginger and ABV, then cut with soda water
when it ferments dry. Takes maybe 2-3 weeks for a drink to be drinkable
after starting fermentation, but more time only helps in making things
smoother and more subtle.

Whether you add more sugar at the end to produce carbonation the old
fashioned way or you plan to mix your dry fermented ginger ale with
soda water, make sure to pour slowly from your fermenter -- near the end
you'll see the nasty "lees" (dead yeast and crap), you don't want any
of that in your final product because it tastes foul and can give you
a tummy ache.

I'm only an amateur brewer & distiller but I hope this knowledge can
help you. Feel free to update this thread with the results of your
experiments. Try to keep logs: date fermentation starts, recipe,
ambient temperature, date fermentation seems to end, etc etc. Brewing
is an art and a science: either way, notes help.

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2025-04-20T01:40:50+00:00

Out shopping for my ingredients!

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2025-04-20T04:45:57+00:00

The fermentation process has started,
I presume. Added 4g of yeast to 1L of
water, in addition to 100g sugar, and
an eyeballed amount of ginger (~125g).
Fingers crossed here, friends

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2025-04-20T04:47:02+00:00

Will update on temperatures and
progress soon, and reply to the
info post above.

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2025-04-20T04:54:13+00:00

My worry at this time is that I
added too much of the grated ginger,
which had some sugar already added
to it. Evidently this caused the
volume of ingredients to be higher,
and I wonder if the amount of yeast
I added is sufficient. Forums say
that even something as small as half
a packet is very strong. Is this
sensible?

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2025-04-20T05:17:51+00:00

you only need like 1g of yeast honestly, yeast will double every 90
minutes so adding 10x as much yeast only means you end up saving like
5 hours in a 2 week process. But if you're concerned and there's no
evidence of fermentation happening tomorrow, adding a dash more yeast
won't hurt

I would not worry about sugar in the grated ginger, it's probably
incidental and 100g of sugar per liter is already something easy for
bread yeasts to handle

What you should worry about more in the fermentation process is that
the bottle can stay moderately warm. Slower temps, like below 15*C /
60*F will make fermentation happen a lot slower; too slow and the yeast
go to sleep

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2025-04-20T05:26:53+00:00

Since summer is on the horizon, it's
heating up in my apartment right now.
The room is very muggy right now, but
maybe putting it in the same room as
the gas stove is worth trying?

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2025-04-20T05:39:36+00:00

Here's an image, a very rough
ambient temp estimate is
in the desc
https://imgur.com/a/OCoYbJ9

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2025-04-20T07:21:11+00:00

After 2.5 hours, I'm starting to notice
the top of the mixture getting bubbly
and slightly... foamy?

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2025-04-20T07:40:01+00:00

Already starting to notice bubbles rising
to the top visibly. Now I worry it
might blow up when I'm asleep...
we will see!

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2025-04-20T08:03:08+00:00

Try to fill the bottle so there's only maybe .5 inches or 1-2 cm of
air above the liquid. Too much oxygen in the bottle will result in off
flavors -- you want as little oxygen as possible to be exposed to your
drink. Oxygen is what causes drinks to foul up and once yeast get to
work, they don't like it. What an airlock does, aside from letting CO2
gas out, is also keep a layer of Co2 above your hooch to protect it from
oxygen.

And if you're too poor to buy a balloon, just SET the lid on top without
twisting. Or squeeze the bottle, screw on the lid, then unscrew until
the bottle can expand again. Burping the gas every few hours is not the
smart way to go about it.

Short of buying real airlocks and a real fermenter online, these are
what you should do if you don't want the bottle to explode and make a
disgusting mess everywhere -- which will happen!

At least with plastic, you only have to worry about the lid shooting off
as pressure builds. If you were fermenting in a glass bottle you could
have a lot of fun hunting down glass shards. not to mention the sticky
mess...

Fermentation is pretty simple. Clean bottle, some yeast and water, the
right amount of sugar and whatever else, and an airlock. You'll get the
hang of it. In the future I would recommend boiling the ginger with
sugar together to kill off any microorganisms and waiting for it to cool
before pouring it in your bottle and topping it off with clean water.
Your test run should make something drinkable in 1-2 weeks even if it's
not perfect.

Once your ginger wine has finished fermenting, you can also speed up
the aging process by putting it in the fridge for a few days, as cold as
you can go without freezing. That forces the yeast and crap down to the
bottom more. This is a process called cold crashing. Time is best but
cold can help.

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2025-04-20T11:21:18+00:00

Will be going to bed now. Leaving
the lid on as loosely as possible
for the next 18 hours, at least.
Oxygen exposure is unfortunately
inevitable, as my schedule prevents
me from getting a balloon until
tomorrow.

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2025-04-21T18:23:46+00:00

Video from 4 days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL3PDXAczwI

> Homemade GINGER BEER with a KICK - 7% ABV! [10:41]

> This is the easiest way to make flavorful, and BOOZY alcoholic ginger
> beer at home. No special brewing equipment needed but I'll share some
> extra tips and gear that might help you out!

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2025-04-23T00:34:05+00:00

Excellent, watched. I notice the guy test
ran a "bug" (interesting phrasing) and
fermented that further. Reminds me, some
tutorials I read added the step of putting
the yeast in 55°C water... does this speed
up the activation? I once made amazake
(sweet fermented rice beverage), and at
55°C it was done in 12 hours. Very low
alcohol due to such a short fermentation
time and the usage of koji rather than
yeast... or not?

As of right now, the bubbles have slowed.
Only sporadic bubbles are seen on the
top, and a yeast cake has formed on the
bottom of the bottle. Could it really be
finished so soon? My question at this stage
is, when do I pop it in the fridge?

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2025-04-23T14:17:32+00:00

Have been testing the pressure in the bottle for the last 12
hours or so, fermentation seems to have stopped. Going to
wait a few more days before the refrigeration phase to
be on the safe side

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2025-04-24T03:07:11+00:00

I may have been jumping the gun. After
12 more hours, still very minor bubbles
are seen on the top. I closed the bottle tightly 6-7 hours ago and a small
amount of CO2 was just released.
Waiting a few more days is a safe
bet.