I wanted to let you know what I’ve done in the meantime. I’ve made ginger beer.
The mrs. found a recipe on the BBC food channel webpage and I gave it a try in a 1/2 gallon jug I had handy.
It came out very drinkable for something that only fermented about 7 days. I will definitely try it again in larger amount. My wife loves ginger beer but can’t drink alcohol for health reasons. I might have to experiment with CO2 and add fizz to it for her without the wee little yeast beasties.
Well plants anyway. 🙂
Here’s the recipe I tried, have a look while I read back and remind myself what I did right last time.
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/ginger-beer-recipe
—————–
notes mainly for myself.
SG right at 60, showing 6% potential alcohol.
Will measure again before bottling, and again when finished. One of these days I’ll figure out what they mean. 🙂
—————–
July 28th:
Decanting to secondary fermentation, new numbers are surprising:
Potential Alcho: 1/2% (the math means this is 5.5% at the mo.)
SG: 1% – I think that means nearly all the sugar was converted to alcohol.
I’ll move it to two gallon water bottles, and add 1/2 cup honey and lighly chill for a month. Early September I’ll check for flavor and add sugar or honey again. Then bottle after that.
I’m going to buy the honey now, and think about how much sulfite to add to stop fermentation. 5 1/2% is enough alcohol.
That’s the plan anyway…
wish me luck!
——–
Discovered there was room for a third 2 gallon bottle in my mini fridge. That just means room for another batch sooner than I expected success.
Recipe called for 1/4 teaspoon for 6 gallons of liquid and so having 3 gallons I made it tiny tiny bit I just couldn’t bring myself to even put 1/8 teaspoon into my mix. Sue me I don’t want to sacrafice taste!