Ginger Beer - Alcoholic Version

Step 4 Savoring

Leave your beer until you think it is done... which depends on you but it will take at least 2 weeks.

I tried a bottle every once in a while and liked it once it was completely done fermenting all the sugar - had a dry flavor that went well with the ginger. You know that your ginger beer has reached this 'dry point' when you dont have to release the pressure of the bottles any more - but make sure that you don't let all the carbonation escape (if you do add more sugar).

Remember that more sugar = more alcohol.
Alcohol is the bi-product of anaerobic propagation of yeast  so dont let oxygen into your bottles. But alcohol is also toxic to yeast so once the alcohol level gets too high the yeast will die off. Bread yeast is able to produce ~3-6% and the best yeast are able to survive in ~15% alcohol, with Ginger beer it is a toss up due to the introduction of wild yeasts.

I like my ginger beer chilled.
Enjoy

Comments

[tthomas10]

do you know what percent alcohol your recipe is. could it be made in a a big pot and stored and decantered out of a big pot?

[saramc]

FYI--you actually made GINGER WINE, not beer & using bread yeast may yield a 12% total alcohol level...you honestly would not be able to tell unless you used a hydrometer before/after your brewing. At some point in time, even if you keep adding sugar your yeast will stop working and no additional sugar will be "eaten" by the yeast and no additional alcohol produced. You can also store your ginger beer--it is just what it is called--in the refrigerator or a cool place once the plastic soda bottoms firm up. If you remove them and allow them to warm up you risk fermentation restarting. And you are right about the raisins, they are just another sugar source for the yeast to feed on. Now, to challenge you--visit a local homebrew store and buy some wine yeast (perhaps Champagne or Montrachet or Cuvee) and make this recipe... the action of the yeast in the fermentation process will impart a different flavor as opposed to your icky bread yeast. And all the stuff that formed on the bottom of your brewing container, you call it PLANT, but in winemaking we call it LEES. Use your search engine and look up SKEETER PEE...a way to reuse your LEES. Congratulations--you are a beginning winemaker.