Ginger beer gone bad

ClimberC

Hey all,

I tried to make a ginger beer a month ago by dicing roughly 400g of ginger root and putting it in 5l of warm water with 500g of sugar. It was bubbling away fine and smelling slightly of ginger. When it came to bottling, i had a taste and it just tased of bleach (I sanatised everything with milton). I thought i might as weel bottle and see what the end product will be ( was hoping for the ginger taste to develope, was clutching at straws)

Tried the bottles yesterday and absolutely no taste of ginger, just bleach.

What really confused me was that my friend tried the same thing but he blended the ginger and was careful about rinsing out everything, but again, little or no ginger taste and a bleach like taste.

We only used normal brew yeast.

Any Ideas on what went wrong??

leggit

ClimberC wrote: »

Hey all,

I tried to make a ginger beer a month ago by dicing roughly 400g of ginger root and putting it in 5l of warm water with 500g of sugar. It was bubbling away fine and smelling slightly of ginger. When it came to bottling, i had a taste and it just tased of bleach (I sanatised everything with milton). I thought i might as weel bottle and see what the end product will be ( was hoping for the ginger taste to develope, was clutching at straws)

Tried the bottles yesterday and absolutely no taste of ginger, just bleach.

What really confused me was that my friend tried the same thing but he blended the ginger and was careful about rinsing out everything, but again, little or no ginger taste and a bleach like taste.

We only used normal brew yeast.

Any Ideas on what went wrong??

If it tastes like bleach, smells like bleach, it's probably bleach.

Milton isn't good for sanitising stuff as it has a tendancy to cling to the surfaces it touches and you probably noticed that the fermentor and bottles still smelled of it no matter how much you rinsed it.

Best thing to use is 30mls of thin bleach (Supervalu 69c) and 30mls of vinegar (any vinegar) in 20 litres of water. You don't even need to rinse afterwards and this sanitises reallu well.

I used Milton the first time I did a brew and got lucky that I didn't get that taste of bleach but I wouldn't use it again from what I've heard.

Put it down to experience and try the bleach/vinegar method next time.

Leave the brew you have now in the bottles for a couple of weeks and try one from time to time to see if the bleach taste goes away is the only real advice I could give you for the current batch.

I'd also boil everything as opposed to putting it in warm water. Boiling ensures everything is clean and it would probably help in getting the flavour from the ginger. Boil it for 15-20 minutes or so to get the flavours going I'd say.

sharingan

Grate or preferably blend the ginger. Then boil.

400g is a crapload of ginger for 5L of brew.

Note that the ginger flavour and intensity will diminish with brewing.

If you were to make non or low alcohol ginger ale with the same amount of ginger it would kick the bollox off of you (in a good way).

If you are using milton, or any kind of cheap steriliser, then you have to rinse properly.

I still think it is odd that you got a strong taste and smell of bleach, yet your brew still fermented. Was it still sweet? I have found that ginger beer with regular table sugar will go completely dry if it ferments fully.

mikewest

I agree with sharingan, you need to rinse if using milton other bleach products.

For extra ginger bite freeze your ginger before use, I think it breaks down the cell walls in the raw ginger.

ClimberC

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply, i havent had anytime to myself for the last few weeks :rolleyes:

I probably should elaborate on the taste... Its hard to explain, its not really bleach, thats just the best i can explain it. I have never tasted anything like it before.

My friend tried the exact same fermentation and got the same results, but he was super carful about rinsing. The only thing that we havent tried is the boiling and freezing. I will try them when i have some spare time and keep you posted.

Oh before i forget, The recipe did ferment and it did carbonate

gozunda

Interesting result...;)

I have previously made GB but mine blew up and decorated the hot press!

For sterlising bottles you can buy specific sterlising agent from home brew shops

Or

Simply use a Diswasher set to max temp setting - I find this as good as other means

Alternativly look up sterilising using your oven - this works quite well too

ClimberC

gozunda wrote: »

Simply use a Diswasher set to max temp setting - I find this as good as other means

Alternativly look up sterilising using your oven - this works quite well too

Plastic bottles :cool:

gozunda

ClimberC wrote: »

Plastic bottles :cool:

option 1 then

sharingan

ClimberC wrote: »

Plastic bottles :cool:

Well you wouldn't ferment ginger beer in plastic bottles (they will explode) - you would need to use a proper container that can release the gas and then siphon into bottles later. You could get away with using 5L PET water containers for ginger beer fermentation - large enough to take the pressure during early stage fermentation between manual burping.

But I wouldn't use anything smaller than that.

With ginger, a cheap food processor is a great solution. If you are being a bit rough and ready, you don't even need to peel them. However the skins tend to float on the surface and this can be a source of infection if you are not careful (I have seen them go mouldy).

ClimberC

sharingan wrote: »

Well you wouldn't ferment ginger beer in plastic bottles (they will explode) - you would need to use a proper container that can release the gas and then siphon into bottles later. You could get away with using 5L PET water containers for ginger beer fermentation - large enough to take the pressure during early stage fermentation between manual burping.

But I wouldn't use anything smaller than that.

With ginger, a cheap food processor is a great solution. If you are being a bit rough and ready, you don't even need to peel them. However the skins tend to float on the surface and this can be a source of infection if you are not careful (I have seen them go mouldy).

sorry, ment plastic bottles for bottleing, a 5L plastic bucket ws used.
The friend blended his to FCUK as well as peeled it and fermented it in a glass demijohn. All i cant think of that could have went wrong is that we didnt boil it or that the ginger was bad somehow

Mr Benevolent

Just brewing 8L GB atm and there's slight sulphur smell that seems to be slowly going away. Any reason for concern?

ClimberC

Confab wrote: »

Just brewing 8L GB atm and there's slight sulphur smell that seems to be slowly going away. Any reason for concern?

Actually now that you mention it, that could be what mine is like, like i said, its hard to explain.......