Beery goodness

While the ginger beer has been bubbling away in the fermenter, I've been looking through more recipes. They basically come down to two types of ginger beer... low-alcohol over-carbonated, and high alcohol... depending on when the beer is bottled.

The low-alcohol versions are using the fermentation as a method to carbonate the drink... the amount of alcohol produced is going to be negligable as the fermentation is stopped early, and the drink will be sweeter as a result. After about a day of fermentation, the ginger beer is bottled and then soon after refridgerated... this stops further fermentation and prevents bottles from exploding from too much CO2 buildup.

Personally, I wanted to try a higher alcohol ginger beer so I ran the fermentation to completion (4 days) using brewers yeast and then topped up the bottles with a little sugar for carbonation after bottling... the result is a little drier, more alcoholic, and unlikely to explode even when kept at room temperature.

10 litres of Red Ensign ginger beer, for around two pounds worth of sugar and ginger. Why would I ever shop at Morrisons again?