Homebrewing Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for dedicated home brewers and serious enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I'm about to brew a ginger beer and was wondering if the choice of yeast is as important in a ginger beer, where the ginger dominates the flavour.
I've got the yeast-under-the-cap packet and a US-05 to choose from & wondering if the results will be much different.
Does the yeast choice make a noticable difference? Why?
If you're making Ginger Beer, you really need a Ginger Beer Plant, which is a particular kind of yeast/bacteria blend. This will help get the appropriate acidity in the finished product.
If you're making Beer flavored with Ginger, I'd say use a yeast that's appropriate for the beer style. I used Safale S-04 (and a dead package of Wyeast 1099) for my Ginger ESB. I think the fruity esters from the yeast complemented the ginger flavors well.
This is a little different than "Ginger Beer", so I'm not sure what you are exactly making because your post does not make it completely clear. However, I have had success making a naturally fermented Ginger Soda from a recipe our of Sandor Katz's wonderful book, "Wild Fermentation" which I recommend to any beer maker as an interesting read.
Anyway, essentially the recipe starts with making what he calls a Ginger Bug. This is the "yeast" of the process. Essentially, you mix 1 cup water with 2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger and 2 teaspoons white sugar. Leave that covered with a cloth on your counter for 2 days to a week.. until it starts bubbling. Add more ginger and sugar every 1-2 days as needed.
(This recipe makes 1 gallon, so adjust accordingly.)
Now, when you go to make your soda.. bring 1 gallon water to a boil with 1.5 cups white sugar and 2-6 inches grated fresh ginger (depending on how strong you want the ginger taste to be). Let that simmer for 15-20 minutes.
As it cools, you can optionally add the juice of 1-2 lemons for another flavor. In my latest batch, I added carrot juice for more fun!
Once it cools down to 80F or so, add the strained ginger bug from above. Katz says to bottle it directly in your bottles, but I've had that be over-carbonated, so I ferment mine in a small carboy for about 10 days. Then I bottle with priming sugar to get the right level of carbonation.
Anyway, that's a naturally fermented ginger soda. Super tasty!
Well if you threw a hefewiezen yeast in there it would be odd, so yes yeast choice matters.
I've used hefewiezen yeast in ciders (wyeast 3068) and it added a slightly fruity flavor that bakka mentioned. Don't see how the subtle contribution of the wyeast would overpower the strong ginger flavor.
I thought I read somewhere on homebrew SE that one could use standard bread yeast as a ginger plant starter. My ginger beer yeast had died, so I thought I'd give that a try ...
The results (for other people's benefit) was quite a nice Ginger Beer, but it took a long time to complete the fermentation. it was suggested in the "kit" that I got, that 7-10 days fermentation in the bottle would finish the ginger beer. But the bread yeast version has produced a lot of gas - I relieve the pressue twice weekly - and the liquid has taken a long time to ferment. I'm now in my 5th week and it is still producing gas, but finally turning alcoholic!
Didn't go wrong with WLP715 Champagne yeast.
This particular yeast is neutral tasting - as opposed to some estery flavours that most ale yeasts would impart to the end product.
And if you are aiming for a higher ABV, this particular strain has a high attenuation and a quite a high alcohol tolerance.
Let's not forget ladies and gents that "Ale" is the term for beers fermented with a top fermenting yeast. The terms Ginger Ale and Ginger Beer are more or less interchangeable (unless of course you decided to make a ginger lager...) Traditionally a "small beer" with a negligible alcohol content calling it ginger beer or ginger ale has no reference to alcohol content! It would be most consistent to refer to an alcoholic ginger beer as such. But as long as the word police don't come knocking, you can call it whatever you want. That won't change the fact that it is what it is. Happy brewing!
