Ginger Beer

I don't think you can find a more refreshing and soothing drink than ginger beer. Ginger beer is, in fact, different from ginger ale. The beer has alcohol (thus the name...obviously) from yeast fermentation while ginger ale is non-alcoholic. The ale is typically made with a ginger simple syrup that is mixed with soda water, which creates a similar effect and is much quicker. The beer on the other hand relies on yeast to ferment the sugars to create the carbonation while spitting out a wee bit of alcohol (seriously...it's only ~0.5% alcohol by volume). I think ginger beer is often tastier and more ginger-ey, which is why I decided to make it over the ale.

Jessica actually sent me this recipe.

2-4 ounces ginger juice (depends on how spicy you want it).
Alternatively you could use a ~3-4 inch piece of ginger and finely mince it if you don't have access to a juicer
4 ounces fresh lemon juice
6 ounces granulated sugar
.8g or 1/4 teaspoon of baker's yeast (I used active dry)

Makes 2 liters

It is very important that you use plastic and not glass. The yeast are fermenting the sugars and therefore putting of carbon dioxide gas and ethanol...this has the possibility of creating a very unpleasant glass bomb. The plastic can still break (less likely), but it will be a much easier and safer clean up.

Combine all ingredients into either a 2L plastic bottle or two 1L plastic bottles. Fill the bottles the rest of the way up with water leaving ~1" headroom. Cap and shake to combine everything. Stash the bottle(s) in a warm spot that is ~70F for 24-48 hours. You'll know the beer is ready when you push on the plastic and it does not give anymore (another reason to use plastic bottles!). Place the bottles in the fridge for at least 4 hours before opening allowing for the fermentation to be retarded and the carbon dioxide to dissolve into the water. When you uncap the bottle be careful...it could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 minutes to unscrew it without the beer exploding everywhere.

Enjoy either plain over ice or with a good bourbon/rye (I used Rye 1)!

You could also add in other flavors/herbs to the beer when you mix the ingredients together to make a herb scented ginger beer. Or, maybe, one could try using honey...hmmm.

Rich Red Ale Part IV: Bottled

Well, the beer was finally done fermenting in the primary and secondary fermenters so it was time to bottle it. Before bottling I mixed in priming sugar, which is simply to give the surviving yeast a boost to carbonate the beer once it is sealed in bottle. It still looks and smells like beer so let's hope it turns out well in the 4 weeks remaining!

Also, picked up some Kirby cucumbers and beets at the Pasadena farmer's market today so look for future posts on Bread and Butter pickles and pickled beets!

Rich Red Ale Part III: Transferring the beer

Well, week one of the fermentation process is already done so it was time to transfer the beer to the secondary fermenter. This will allow the beer to be clearer when bottling and filter out the dead yeast cells allowing live ones to continue fermenting. Upon opening the lid I was pleasantly greeted by a strong beer aroma and noticeable foam, which can mean only one thing. It's working! However, there were some specks on the surface that could have been left over wort or yeast...or contamination. I have to ask a few homebrewing experts to find out, but I think it's fine.

Rich Red Ale Part II: Brew Day

After getting all the ingredients together and finding 3 hours to devote to paying attention to a pot...I decided to brew! While I'm not going to go into all the chemistry and biology that is occurring step by step (unless you want to drop a question into the comments about it) I will summarize the process.

First I began by steeping the specialty grains I mentioned in the previous post in water held around 160 degrees. While you can extract sugars from these, this time I only wanted to get their flavor out.

After steeping the grains (much like tea) I brought the mixture up to a boil and threw in the light malt extract (for the yeast to feed on later) and let it dissolve. After doing this I put in the first hop bag (called the bittering hops). Let that boil for 50 minutes. Put in the second hop bag (called the flavor hops) and let that boil for 10 minutes. Then I took the pot off the heat and added the third hop bag (called the aroma hops).

After adding the hops the pot was put in the sink, surrounded by cold water, to cool down the wort to 70-80 degrees so that when I pitched (fancy brew talk for adding) the yeast they all wouldn't die. Once the wort had reached around 70-80 degrees I poured it into my primary fermenter and added the wet Scottish yeast and sealed it!

This will ferment in the primary fermenter for 1 week and then will be transfered to the secondary fermenter. This allows me to clear the dead yeast from the primary fermentation giving me a clearer beer. Hopefully I sanitized everything correctly and I won't get any wild yeast growing in my beer!

Oh, yeah, making beer in a small apartment kitchen can get a bit cramped and tricky...

Rich Red Ale Part I

Brewing your own beer is one of those things that is often though to be confusing and hard, but in reality is extremely simple and rewarding. All it takes is a little patience and a small investment. There isn't a much more rewarding thing than cracking out a beer that you brewed and taking a sip and finding out that not only did it work, but it actually tasted good! Of course, there is the flipside where you open up either your fermentor or bottle after 2-6 weeks only to find out it is contaminated and ruined. But that shouldn't happen if you take a few precautions!

I've brewed one beer before this one that was an extract beer, which is the simplest you can make. This recipe, the Rich Red Ale, will build upon that by steeping various grains to add more flavor. Malt? Grain? What is he talking about?

Malt: Without getting to much into it malting grain allowing you to get a combination of enzymes and starch from grains that, when heated, will activate the enzymes turning the starch into fermentable sugars for the yeast to live on. A lot of recipes called for malt extract (including this one) which is the sugars already converted from starch by the enzymes.

Grain: Malt comes from grain, but if you add grain (without malting it) directly to your brew then you're providing the yeast with unfermentable sugars that will simply add flavor to your beer rather than be converted into alcohol like the malt extract discussed above.

Hops: Hops are basically flowers. They provide the beer with a ton of different flavors depending on the types and how much you use, along with preserving the beer. They contain two different types of acids that act as antibiotics to keep out bacteria (and preserve the yeast) along with adding bitterness and a variety of flavors. These are typically added during the boiling process of brewing (what one is making here is called "wort"). If hops are added after the wort is taken off heat or while the beer is actually fermenting then they are called aroma hops and are typically just adding oils for flavor.

Yeast: These are what makes wort into beer. They take the fermentable sugars and metabolize them into Co2 and alcohol. What type of yeast you use will change the flavor profile of your beer. You can use dry yeast or wet yeast. I think most brewers prefer wet yeast since it gives you more versatility.

Water: Relatively obvious, but what you add all of the above to is water. Simple enough.

The ingredients for my Rich Red Ale includes:

-Light dry malt extract

-Belgian Weyermann Melanoidin malt, Belgian Caravienne, and British Crystal Malt (these are the grains mentioned above....not extract so they won't be fermented and will impart flavor)

-Cascade hops

-Kent Golding hops

-Priming Sugar

-Wyeast Scottish Yeast (wet yeast)

I'll make another post about the process of actually turning this into beer later on!

For more information and and the actually recipes I'm using click here.