Ginger Ale #5

I saw this lovely fresh ginger at the farmer's market and decided it deserved a batch of ginger beer. I basically used the successful recipe I've been using, with slight changes, like leaving out the pine bark, and basically guessing at the amount of ginger, since my old roommate took her fancy digital scale to Fairfax. To make sure the yeast, which I'd opened for my root flavor experiment, and which hadn't been refrigerated for a couple weeks before that, was viable, I got it going with a bit of the wort as soon as that started boiling. Both the champagne and ale yeasts I had in the fridge bubbled up fine, so I went with the ale.

Wort, boiled 40 minutes:
1 2/3 cup sugar
about 1/2 cup grated ginger
1/4 tsp cardamom seeds
2 Tbsp juniper berries
1/4 cup yarrow flowers
zest of 1 small lemon (a generous tsp)
1/2 gal water

Plus:
1/2 gal water
1/2 tsp citric acid
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp Safale S-04 yeast, pitched when the combined ingredients got to 80 degrees.

The weather has been unseasonably warm (for San Francisco), so this fermented 3 days at somewhere between 75 and 85 degrees. It came out as lovely as any earlier batch and nicely carbonated. It's gingery but doesn't have a lot of bite. The juniper, yarrow, and lemon are pretty much perfectly balanced. Not sure whether the cardamom is showing up. Ginger seems to be a fickle thing, so I guess I need to calibrate my taste buds to the subtleties of raw ginger to account for its variability. Or just enjoy wherever the recipe leads.

Flavor experiment

Last weekend, I set up a little experiment to better understand what some of the individual roots I have taste like. I steeped 8 different teas for around an hour and mixed them with sugar water with yeast so I could make a different flavor in each bottle:

1 tsp of single roots in 4 fl. oz. of water
1 cup sugar to 40 fl. oz. of water
1/8 tsp Safale S-04 yeast

I also did a bottle with Pappy's Sassafras Tea and one with no flavor. Unfortunately, the yeast didn't really take off in most of the bottles. The yeast had spent a few weeks lost and unrefrigerated, but that doesn't explain why some bottles carbonated fine. Anyway, after 5 days fermenting and a couple days in the fridge, I had to taste the results.

What I learned will definitely affect future batches. Other than the classic sassafras and sarsaparilla, the flavors were mild to subtle. If I want these other flavors, I think I need to use more. At the same time, I'm not sure some of the flavors help much, so I'll probably cut back to a simpler recipe and think more about balance.

It's rather difficult to describe the flavors, but here are my notes:

• Sassafras had a strong, up front, very aromatic flavor. 1 tsp for a serving was around the right amount.
• Sarsaparilla was super aromatic. Nutty, sweet, and vanilla. My roommate found it "cloying." I like it, but thinking less might be less overwhelming, I mixed it with the sassafras at different ratios and it seemed the best balanced around 1 part sarsaparilla to 3 parts sassafras.
• Pappy's Sassafras Tea concentrate must have some other flavors besides sassafras--it was nicely balanced and wintergreen flavored. It would be fine with nothing else as a simple recipe.
• Cherry bark had a very nice, subtle woody flavor. I could probably use more of this.
• Yellow dock had a green, grassy flavor. Sort of unusual, but I like it
• Licorice was extra sweet, as expected, with a lingering sweet aftertaste. 
• Birch bark was a bit sweet but also acidic with hints of vanilla. Not really wintergreen. I'd be curious to try some other source to find that element.
• Burdock was not particularly bitter and was earthy and green. This bottle got super-carbonated.
• Dandelion root didn't have much flavor beyond the carbonation, yeast, and hint of alcohol. I should have tried the toasted rather than raw root.

Next step is perhaps to try equal parts sassafras, cherry bark, and yellow dock, with a smaller amount sarsaparilla.

Root beer #8

Somehow I've neglected my root beer hobby for a couple of years. I finally dusted of my bottles and started a new batch. My jars of roots don't seem to have deteriorated, but the wintergreen leaves, which never seemed to have much aroma, were pretty stale, so I left them out. I included a little bit of birch syrup and some "Pappy's Sassafras Tea" concentrate that I picked up in Ohio.

1/4 cup birch bark
3 Tbsp sassafras root
3 Tbsp sarsaparilla root
2 Tbsp wild cherry bark
1 Tbsp licorice root
2 tsp yellow dock root
1 tsp burdock root
1 Tbsp birch syrup
1/4 cup sassafras concentrate
1/4 tsp champagne yeast
 1 gal water

After only about 40 hours at 72°, the test bottle was bubbly enough to drink, though I'll leave it in for at least another day to get it foamy, like root beer should be. I got curious about the amount of carbon dioxide in soda and started Googling. A 12 oz can of coke has roughly a liter of CO2 squozen into it. Crazy. Anyway, this tastes much as I remember the last 8-tree ale recipe, though this has only 7 roots in it and I didn't use ale yeast. It has a bit more bitter edge to it. Not sure why. I should maybe do an experiment, making just one bottle using each ingredient alone. I can chew on the roots, but it would be interesting to taste them steeped, sweetened, and carbonated.

After straining the wort this time, I threw the roots back in some water to boil some more to make some tea. More flavor definitely came out. Maybe it would be more economical to use less of the ingredients and steep the roots in the second half of the water after the first. The flavor balance was different though: much more licorice in the second-run tea than in the soda, it seemed.

Fermentation vs. Sodastream, round 1

A few months ago, I bought a Sodastream for instant carbonation. I've mostly used it for straight club soda with a splash of lime juice, but with this last batch of ginger ale, I thought I'd carbonate a bottle with the Sodastream to compare to the fermented brew. I used Safale S-04, which the company's website calls "A well known English ale strain noted for its fast fermentation and rapid settling." It left quite a lot of sediment, which the carbonation instantly stirs up when I open a bottle. It's also really heavy on the diacetyl, which runs over the rest of the flavors in the fermented ginger ale. I've previously used champagne yeast in a number of batches, which, as you'd expect, doesn't give a butterish diacetyl flavor. I think I used Safale S-05 in my one birch beer experiment, and in that context, I liked a bit of butteriness. Fermentis, though, says that their S-05 has "low diacetyl and a very crisp end palate" which sounds better, at least for ginger ale. The fermented ginger ale is also pretty dry, which I like, but might not seem sweet enough for most people's expectation of soda.

The Sodastream-carbonated version is sweeter, with no sugar turning into alcohol. It's much more floral, especially to the nose. The cardamom, juniper, and especially yarrow make it flavorful, even though the ginger isn't very spicy. Pretty nice, though I might add a bit of lemon juice, not just dry lemon zest, to both versions. Because of the particular yeast, the fermented ale is, well, a bit too aley. So I think the Sodastream wins this round. Next time, I'll have to compare it to a champagne yeast or the S-05, and see if the crisper flavor wins out.

Back in Business

For Christmas, my dad made me a new temperature controller to replace the one that melted. So I've finally whipped up a batch of ginger ale using my standard recipe, hopefully with slightly spicier ginger this time. Before pitching the yeast, I put a liter of the wort in a SodaStream bottle. Once it's cooled, I'll try carbonating it the modern cheating way and see how it compares to the true-brewed stuff.

Equipment and instructions

I've been posting my recipes without explicit instructions, since my methods haven't changed much since the beginning. But let me go into a little more detail for those who've been asking.

Essentially, I boil water, throw in the dry ingredients, let them simmer for half an hour, and remove the wort from the heat. I've started adding the sugar at that point so I don't get sticky splatters all over the stove. Usually I only simmer the ingredients in half the water. Once it's cooled a little, I strain the wort and pour it into a gallon jug with the rest of the cool water. When it's down to 100 degrees (or the temp suggested on the yeast package), I pour a little into a dish and add the yeast to proof for 15 minutes and then pour that back into the wort. I've found that I get more evenly carbonated bottles if the yeast is totally dissolved (and thus evenly distributed.) I cap and shake the jug a bit to mix and aerate.

Then it goes into the bottles and capped. I use a powdered sanitizer to get everything clean, though I don't think it's as crucial as it is with beer, since it's only fermenting for a few days.

As far as equipment goes, you ought to be able to make do with what's in a regular kitchen and some used plastic soda bottles. (And I've had people highly recommend not using glass, since it will explode if you let it ferment too long with so much sugar.) I have managed to collect a few semi-specialized tools though.

I think this is all the equipment I use to make a batch:

pot for simmering

measuring cup and spoons

stirring spoon

bowl for proofing yeast

strainer and finer splatter guard to strain

funnel

jug

bottles

bottle caps and capper

Ginger Ale #5

Throwing together a batch with dry lemon zest and a bit more ginger than last time for the holidays.

2 1/2 oz fresh ginger

8 cardamom pods

1/4 cup yarrow

2 Tbsp juniper berries

1 tsp white pine bark

1 tsp dry lemon rind

1/2 tsp citric acid

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 2/3 cups sugar

1/4 tsp champagne yeast

1 gal water

Fermented for 72 hours, mostly at 72 degrees. It got up to 80 with the oven light and no thermostat one evening, so I cracked the oven door overnight. Down to the low 60s in the morning.

When I tasted the wort, I was worried: it didn't seem to have any ginger bite to it. I picked up the ginger at an Asian market in Daly City, and biting into some leftover root, I didn't find much spice. Perhaps it was grown fast and wet? The spiciest ginger ale I've made was basically the same recipe, but with young ginger with very thin skin from Rainbow.

Once it had fermented, though, it came out quite nice. It doesn't really have any bite, but it is gingery nonetheless. The yarrow is quite pronounced and it tastes more like the standard canned ginger ale. With some rye whiskey, it makes a really good highball.

Meltdown

Before the birch beer, it'd been a while since I'd brewed anything because I lost my temperature control. After I came back from summer vacation, I put my thermostatically controlled lightbulb and fan in the oven to raise bread without taping over the oven knob and my roommate turned on the oven. I came home to a really stinky smoke-filled apartment one night and opened the oven to see this:

Not a pretty sight.

Birch Beer #1

I spent a small fortune on birch syrup to flavor and sweeten my brews. It's really molassesy. I want to keep the first experiment simple, but I can't resist a couple of other ingredients besides the birch. For a half gallon batch I'm going to try...

2 Tbsp course birch bark

1 Tbsp paper birch bark

1 Tbsp birch syrup

1 Tbsp wintergreen

1 tsp sassafras root

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 gal water

1/8 tsp ale yeast

At 65-68 degrees, this fermented for 5 1/2 days, giving it good carbonation, but not to the point of much head. It's pretty tasty. The test bottle seemed molassesy after 3 days, but with more carbonation and diacetyl from the fermentation, it's at a good level. It's quite sweet and buttery--with a less complex flavors than the 8-tree ale. Maybe a touch more sassafras wouldn't hurt, or some pine. This might be a good base recipe to compare the flavor of ale yeast vs. champagne yeast.

Ice cream for floats

Since we were having a party, I thought root beer floats would be a good idea. Here's my refined recipe for vanilla ice cream with a light custardy flavor. Perfect for floats.

4 cups half and half

1 3/4 cups white sugar

2 Tbsp corn starch

2 more cups half and half

2 cups heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

Bring 2 cups half and half to scalding (200 degrees) and while it's heating up mix in the sugar.

Add the corn starch mixed in a bit of cold half and half.

Whisk to thicken slightly, being careful not to boil.

Remove from heat, cool a bit, and add the remaining half and half, cream, and vanilla.

Chill to near freezing and churn; then move to freezer to firm up.

Ginger Ale #4

For our Sunday spring brunch, I thought I should brew up some soda. There's nothing particularly new here, but I'm trying for 11 bottles, even though that won't fit in the gallon glass jug I've been brewing in. Bigger portions on the ingredients to make a more concentrated base, and then a little extra water mixed in some how or another.

3 1/4 oz fresh ginger

11 cardamom pods

3 Tbsp juniper berries

1 1/2 tsp white pine bark

1/2 cup yarrow flowers

1 tsp dry lemon rind

1 scant tsp citric acid

scan 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1 cups sugar

1/4 tsp yeast

1 1/2 gal water

So, even though this is pretty much the same recipe I've been using, this batch didn't turn out nearly as awesome as the last. First, it isn't very fizzy, despite the mini-test-bottle that gushed after 4 days fermentation and a night in the fridge. (Though Fentiman's has about the same amount of fizz.) The rest didn't go in till 5 days. I'm wondering if the bale-top bottles aren't holding the fizz. The big difference is that this ginger seems to just not have had much punch. It has more in common with Vernor's or Canada Dry (I'm aware they're fairly different) than the Caribbean style ginger beers like Reed's. Aside from sharper ginger (the "young" stuff?) a bit more citric acid wouldn't hurt, though maybe that's only needed because of the tamer ginger. Overall it's good, just not the best.

Eight-tree Ale (root beer #7)

Basically, another attempt to get the root beer to carbonate properly. It's going into capped bottled since the swing tops are going to be full of ginger ale. (Above is the root beer and ginger ale in my temperature-controlled 70-degree oven.) I meant to put a whole tablespoon of yellow dock in, but didn't have that much left.

1/4 cup sassafras

1/4 cup coarse birch bark

2 1/2 Tbsp sarsaparilla

2 Tbsp wild cherry bark

2 Tbsp wintergreen leaves

2 tsp licorice root

1 tsp yellow dock

1 tsp burdock

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 tsp ale yeast

1 gal water

This came out awesome! Finally! I bottled it in reused Fentiman's bottles with twist-off caps, which, aside from one that didn't seal, worked perfectly. Five days at 70 degrees was at least a day too long; the bottles totally gushed and had excessive head. Despite some root beer lost to the floor and sink and waiting for the head to subside, the foaminess was quite satisfying. Very root-beery. Served at our Spring brunch party. Karen said, "there's a lot going on!" Better than the ginger ale for a change.

Root Beer #6 (diet)

My brother is coming to town, and I thought I should put on a batch of root beer to celebrate. Basically, this is recipe #5, except I'm going to try the stevia experiment from the lavender ale. My hope is that this might be a solution to the flatness problem. Stevia will provide the sweetness, and then I'll prime the beer with enough sugar to carbonate it, but not explode the bottle, so it can brew for a week or more and get totally fizzy... at least that's my theory. So here are the ingredients:

1/4 cup sassafras

1/4 cup birch bark

2 1/2 Tbsp sarsaparilla

2 Tbsp wild cherry bark

2 Tbsp wintergreen leaves

1 Tbsp yellow dock

2 tsp licorice

1 tsp burdock

1/4 cup stevia extract with dextrose

1/4 cup sugar

1 gal water

1/4 tsp yeast

I'll let you know how it turns out.

UPDATE: more fizz that didn't last and I'm less in love with the stevia as sweetener. Ended up dumping most of this to free up bottles.

Lavender Rosemary Ginger Ale #1

Walking around my neighborhood last weekend, I walked past several rosemary and lavender bushes and it inspired me to try a new concoction.

1/2 oz fresh ginger

1 tsp fresh rosemary

2 Tbsp dried lavender flowers

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp stevia extract (cut with dextrose)

1/8 tsp ale yeast

1/2 gal water

Simmered ginger alone for 20 minutes, with rosemary an additional 10 minutes. Removed from heat to steep with lavender for 10 minutes. Brewed 7 days at 70 degrees.

This recipe was really a shot in the dark, so I was completely prepared for it to be disgusting. It is not. Everything settled leaving the liquid totally clear, but the sediment makes it cloudy with a slight pinkish purple tinge. When I put my nose to it, I was afraid it would be too gingery, but after tasting it, I think the tiny bit of sharpness is needed, as the other flavors are very round. It is distinctly, but not overwhelmingly lavender-flavored. I get almost none of the rosemary, so that can be at least doubled. My room mate, who has a cold and had just drunk tea with honey, found the stevia's sweetness a bit odd. I think it's fine, though it isn't just like sugar. Most people would probably judge the level of sweetness right, but I could use a little less.

As far as carbonation, the small amount of sugar has made it bubbly enough. I'm not sure whether more time would make it any bubblier, and we'll have to see if the other three bottles turn out once they're chilled. This is definitely a good start. Perhaps some rose or ginkgo would be a way to add the next layer of complexity.

Warm Christmas

For Christmas, my dad built me a thermostatically controlled lightbulb and fan so I can carefully control the temperature of the oven at fermentation temperature. It's already been great for bread (set at 98 degrees--as high as the home thermostat will go) and I'm about to try 70 degrees for some root beer. Hopefully this will eliminate the lengthy and flakey fermentation caused by our 55-60-degree kitchen.

Root Beer #5

Since I lost recipe #4, I went back to #3, upped the bitters, as I suggested, and added wintergreen.

4 Tbsp sassafras

4 Tbsp coarse birch bark

2 1/2 Tbsp sarsaparilla

2 Tbsp wild cherry bark

2 Tbsp wintergreen leaves

1 1/2 Tbsp yellow dock

2 tsp licorice root

1 tsp burdock

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/8 tsp ale yeast

1 gal water

This is getting close to what I want. It definitely has a much woodsier aroma than commercial root beer, but it's sufficiently sweet (wondering if more licorice or something like stevia can substitute for some of the sugar, though) and has a complex, well-rounded flavor. There might be a little too much bitterness, so maybe taking the yellow dock back to 1 Tbsp would be good.

It definitely has a taste of ale that you don't find in non-brewed carbonated soda. There must be something in the roots that inhibits the yeast, because even at a steady 70 degrees, the root beer carbonates much slower than ginger ale with the same yeast. After three days, a not-completely chilled bottle got a bit of a head, but wasn't super-bubbly, so I gave it another day. Fully chilled after four days fermentation, and it has a nice bubbly feel in the mouth, but doesn't get a head or look very bubbly. 1/4 tsp of yeast in a gallon seems like a lot, but I'll have to give it a try.

Talking about it with my roommate, I counted the ingredients. Perhaps this should be called eight-tree ale. That has a good ring to it.

Ginger Ale #3.1

I brought pre-mixed ginger and herbs to North Carolina to whip up a batch of ginger ale while visiting my brother's family. Just had to add water, sugar, and yeast. I used the bread yeast that was on hand, and in a 70-degree kitchen, it was fully bubbly in two and a half days. Also tried bottle caps on some twist-off bottles, and that seems to have worked fine. An easy New Year's treat.

Kristmas Kola

zest of 1 small lemon

peel of 2 mandarin oranges

1/3 oz piece of cinnamon bark

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 anise star

1/2 tsp kola nut

1/6 oz fresh ginger

1/2 vanilla bean

1 tsp wintergreen leaves

1/2 tsp citric acid

1 tsp maple syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 gal water

1/8 tsp ale yeast

Looking up cola recipes, I found a number of pages listing supposed original recipes for Coca-Cola, and modern reverse engineering attempts. Most used alcohol-based extracts, rather than steeped raw ingredients. I had most of the flavorings commonly used in dried or fresh form, so took a stab at something I hoped would be cola like. While it boiled, it filled the apartment with Christmas scents. Finished, it's pretty unusual. I don't think anybody would take a sip and think Coke or Pepsi. It's hard to tell what the flavors are. Nutmeg and orange seem to dominate. Brown sugar adds something unexpected in a soda. It's not unpleasant, but it's pretty weird.

Ginger Ale #3

2 1/4 oz. young ginger

6 cardamom pods, broken

2 Tbsp juniper berries

1 tsp white pine bark

1/4 cup yarrow flowers

1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest

1/2 tsp citric acid

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 gal water

1 2/3 cups sugar

1/4 tsp yeast

We're on to something here. I took several bottles of this just finished batch to Thanksgiving dinner (fermented in a lighted oven to be sure it would be fizzy on time.) Perfectly floral, ever-so-slightly ginny, tangy and refreshing. It's definitely gingery, but without so much ginger heat. Juniper berries are at exactly the right amount--they would be lost with less, but startling with more. A bit more yarrow, being subtler, probably wouldn't hurt, but isn't needed. It isn't markedly lemony, but is satisfyingly citrusy. The cardamom seems lost--maybe a couple more pods to see next time. The pine, too, doesn't seem to be adding much, but perhaps that's as it should be.

The more gingery recipe certainly deserves to be called "Carribean." What we have here might be more of a "mainland" version.

Ginger Ale #2

A couple weeks ago, I visited the new pizzeria in my neighborhood, Pi Bar. I spied in their cooler a tiny bottle of Fentiman's Ginger Beer, and asked for a bottle on the way out. I'd intended to savor it at home, but the bartender opened it for me. It was 125ml of delight, sharply gingery, but with strong herbal fragrances. The label keeps nothing secret: it lists ginger, speedwell, juniper, and yarrow extracts, rather than the usual, coy 'natural flavors.' Although it contains carbonated water, this British company seems to actually brew with yeast at some step of their production. So I promptly went to Rainbow and bought juniper berries and yarrow flowers. (They didn't have 'speedwell.') These, I hoped, would add a better complexity to the ginger-sugar combination than the fruit juice of my last batch.

3 oz young ginger (no skinning needed)

4 cardamom pods, broken

2 Tbsp yarrow flowers

1 Tbsp dry juniper berries

1 tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp citric acid

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 2/3 cups sugar

1/8 tsp ale yeast

1 gal water

I opened a bottle after six cool days, and it was drinkably fizzy, though I'll give it another day before chilling. It's very satisfying, with a hint of herbal scent. I think the cream of tartar gives it a smooth mouth-feel. It definitely can use a good bit more of the juniper and especially the yarrow, which smells lovely raw. It might, at some point, be worth trying to extract the essence with alcohol, rather than just boiling, though that opens up a whole new line of experimentation...