■ 🕑 1. Ginger Beer Concept
│  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? 
│   
├─■ 🕑 2. 
│ │  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. 
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 3. 
│   │  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
│   │   
│   └─■ 🕑 4. 
│     │  > 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. 
│     │   
│     └─■ 🕑 5. 
│       │  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! 
│       │   
│       └─■ 🕑 6. 
│           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. 
│            
├─■ 🕑 7. 
│   Out shopping for my ingredients!
│    
├─■ 🕑 8. 
│   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
│    
├─■ 🕑 9. 
│   Will update on temperatures and
│   progress soon, and reply to the 
│   info post above.
│    
├─■ 🕑 10. 
│ │  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?
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 11. 
│   │  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 
│   │   
│   └─■ 🕑 12. 
│       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?
│        
├─■ 🕑 13. 
│ │  Here's an image, a very rough 
│ │  ambient temp estimate is 
│ │  in the desc 
│ │  https://imgur.com/a/OCoYbJ9
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 16. 
│   │  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. 
│   │   
│   └─■ 🕑 17. 
│       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. 
│        
├─■ 🕑 14. 
│   After 2.5 hours, I'm starting to notice
│   the top of the mixture getting bubbly
│   and slightly... foamy? 
│    
├─■ 🕑 15. 
│   Already starting to notice bubbles rising
│   to the top visibly. Now I worry it 
│   might blow up when I'm asleep... 
│   we will see!
│    
├─■ 🕑 18. 
│ │  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!
│ │   
│ └─■ 🕑 19. 
│     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?
│      
├─■ 🕑 20. 
│   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
│    
├─■ 🕑 21. 
│   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. 
│    
├─■ 🕑 22. 
│   Taste test #2: Very spicy with a dry flavor.
│   Some sweetness at the end which leads me 
│   to believe that maybe it only fermented to 
│   ~4% or so. I could certainly feel I was
│   drinking alcohol when I took a sip.
│   
│    
├─■ 🕑 23. 
│   If I want to age it for longer,
│   is the fridge alright? Or should
│   it be back at room temperature? 
│    
└─■ 🕑 24. 
    It's very spicy and delicious,
    which I partially credit to 
    the dried sliced chili peppers
    I added early on.