Classic Ginger Beer Recipe (Ginger Bug): 1 to 30 Gallons
The traditional way: fresh ginger, sugar and lemon, fermented for a day or three with a ginger bug, then chilled and carbonated hard. Warm, peppery ginger with a little tang from the bug.
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Classic Ginger Beer at a glance: The traditional way: fresh ginger, sugar and lemon, fermented for a day or three with a ginger bug, then chilled and carbonated hard. Warm, peppery ginger with a little tang from the bug. Medium heat, lightly tart.
Bräu Supply recipe · Ginger beer
Classic Ginger Beer
Ingredients · for 5 gal
| 4.40 gal (16.7 L) | Filtered water | |
| 600 g | Fresh ginger, unpeeled, grated | 120 g/gal |
| 2.76 lb (1.25 kg) | White sugar | 250 g/gal |
| 2.54 cups (600 mL) | Lemon juice, fresh | 120 mL/gal |
| 5.07 cups (1200 mL) | Active ginger bug liquid, strained | 1 cup/gal |
Process
- Steep: grated ginger in water at 190°F (88°C) for 20 minutes, lift it out, dissolve the sugar
- Cool: below 80°F (27°C), then stir in the lemon juice
- Culture: ginger bug liquid, 1 cup per gallon; starting gravity about 1.026
- Ferment: 72–78°F (22–26°C), sealed with the spunding valve at 12 psi, 1–3 days
- Stop: when the gravity has dropped 3–4 points (about 1.026 to 1.022): that keeps it near 0.5% ABV
- Cold crash: 34°F (1°C) for a day
- Carbonate: 3.0 volumes: about 14 psi at 34°F, under the tank’s 15 psi relief valve
Per US gallon of finished ginger beer. The water allows for the room the sugar takes up and the juice and ginger bug; grated ginger holds a little back. Ginger varies: taste the steep and add more if you want more heat.
How to make it
- Fill the fermenter with the water, heat it to 190°F and steep the grated ginger in the basket for 20 minutes. Lift the basket out, squeeze it, and stir in the sugar until it dissolves.
- Cool the batch below 80°F, through a counterflow chiller or overnight with the lid sealed, then stir in the lemon juice.
- Take a gravity reading (about 1.026), then add the strained ginger bug liquid.
- Seal the tank, set the spunding valve to 12 psi and hold 72–78°F. Check the gravity every 12 hours from the first day; the bug usually gets going within a day.
- When the gravity has dropped 3 or 4 points (about 1.022), crash the tank to 34°F. That stops the yeast with the ginger beer close to 0.5% ABV.
- Carbonate cold to 3.0 volumes: set CO₂ to about 14 psi at 34°F and give it two or three days, or use a carbonation stone for the same day. Keg it and keep it cold.
Tips
- Let it go further for a drier, stronger, more traditional ginger beer, but every point the gravity drops adds about 0.13% ABV. At 0.5% or more it is an alcoholic drink in the US.
- Keep a cup of the finished, uncarbonated ginger beer in the fridge: it restarts the next batch faster than a fresh bug.
- Bottling instead? Use plastic bottles you can squeeze, refrigerate the moment one is rock hard, and never leave them warm: wild-fermented bottles are how ginger beer gets its reputation for exploding.
Frequently asked questions
Is homemade ginger beer alcoholic?
Fermented ginger beer always makes some alcohol. Stopped after a 3 to 4 point gravity drop, this one sits near 0.5% ABV; left to ferment for a week it can pass 2%. For none at all, make the non-alcoholic ginger beer, which is carbonated with CO₂ instead.
Can I use yeast instead of a ginger bug?
Yes. Use about 2 g of dry ale or champagne yeast per 5 gallons (a fifth of a packet), and stop it the same way, by the gravity. It is faster and more predictable than a bug, and tastes cleaner and less tangy.
How long does it keep?
Cold and in a keg, three to four weeks. Warm, it keeps fermenting: drier, more alcohol and more pressure.
Related
How to make ginger beer, how to make a ginger bug, non-alcoholic ginger beer, spicy lime ginger beer.