Ginger Beer

[Charles Heath]

Re: Ginger Beer

Crabby's keg of Ginger Beer was certainly more than appreciated at the Vicksburg NPS LH this past weekend. It was pronounced most excellent by a number of good, tired, and sweaty folks who were darn happy to have such a fine beverage.

[springkeeper]

Re: Ginger Beer

Here is a word of caution from Dr.Chase's Recipes, 1867, on making "Patent Gas Beer"

" There ought to be a little space in the keg not filled with the beer. This beer is ahead of all the pops and mineral water of the day, for flavor, health or sparkling qualities or speed in making. Be careful you do not burst the keg. I have sold this in the principle towns of Ohio, Indiana, and Mitchigan, traveling with a caravan, and obtained two dollars for the recipe of the man who kept the inside stand, and blowed the head out of the first keg of it which he made."

In a recipe for Ginger Beer, honey is used in place of the yeast.

"...let stand for four days and bottle. It will keep for months - much longer than if yeast was used; the honey, however, operates mildly in place of yeast."

[wmkane]

Re: Ginger Beer

Rob,

You ask a good question about dry starter or wet active yeast. I just made up the recipie according to Miss Leslie's instructions (right down to the clay jar), and used 2 tablespoons of dry starter yeast. I found a lot of sediment in the beer as a result . . . Since the yeast had not yet settled, I wound up bottling most of this.

For what it's worth, I started my fermentation at 10:00 at night, and bottled the next day at noon. I used bail wire type bottles and fastners (yes, I know, not period correct, but it's what I had available for this experiment), and so far I have not had any overcarbination . . . I have noted though that hwen I open one to drink, I get a good 'pop' sound . . .

Annecdotaley I found that the beer was very good striaght from the clay jar, and tasted even better when I added a couple of ice cubes.

FOLLOWUP: Please do use caution when bottling. I opened one of my bottles this morning, and the air vented from the bottle was tremendous. If I had filled the bottle to the top, I surely would have had a bath. Also, I am lucky I used the bale type of cork. Otherwise, I surely would have wound up with a foreign object imbeded in my head.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: Ginger Beer

I see in Dr Chase's recipe, he calls it "pop." Must be from the midwest! :) I find the idea of using honey in ginger beer interesting. Letting it stand before bottling is giving it a chance to attract wild yeast, and the honey is going to act as nutrient for the yeast. I'm given to understand two things, though. The first is that honey is not as efficient a nutrient for yeast, so it's going to produce a slower fermentation. It's going to take months rather than weeks to ferment. Second, most modern homes and kitchens are too clean to promote wild yeast growth. So you may have to introduce a starter of some sort anyway. When I first started brewing, I thought the instructions to add "a teacup of yeast" meant dry yeast. So for a couple gallons of liquid I added half a jar of yeast! It fermented just fine, but the sediment on the bottom was very heavy. I once made a batch of spruce beer which was appalling - I attempted to make my own essence of spruce from our discarded Christmas tree branches. In a word: don't :p It was absolutely undrinkable. But it did have great carbonation. I took the entire case outside and popped each bottle just to see how far the bubbles would fly. Without shaking, I could hit my kid's swingset 15 feet from the back porch.

[wmkane]

Re: Ginger Beer

Yet another followup from yesterday.

Last night I decided to enjoy the ginger beer with some friends. We sat out on their back deck, and I started to open the first of four bottles which I had brought along . . . the pressure was so strong that the bale and plunger cork wound up flying OFF the bottle! Half the precious beer wound up on the deck.

Most agreed that the beer was good, and I managed to get the rest of the tops off without launching them, but I did loose half the beer out of each bottle. Back to the drawing board.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Ginger Beer

I say the ginger beer experiments seem to be turning out much better than the fabled pickled potatoes from earlier this season. Ick. They were nasty.

Christmas trees, at least the commercial variety, ought to be a no-go for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the preservative oversprays, pesticide residues, and in some instances green paint. No wonder it tasted bad.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: Ginger Beer

I've had Christmas trees with green paint on them too! The one in question was a home cut, so preservatives etc weren't an issue - it was simply a case of wrong tree, branches too mature, boiled too long. I only fill a 16 oz bottle with about 12 oz of liquid. Usually that gives enough room for the gas without creating "Old Faceful" when you open them.