Page 2: Base recipe and Method

2. Base recipe

This is the standard recipe. Initially we will learn simple method to make alcoholic drink. All types of alcoholic drinks beer, wine, vodka or whiskey can be made afterwards by modifying our simple base method.

Generally 1 Kg of Sugar is recommended with 10 liters of water for 5% ABV. We generally want 8% to 12-14% ABV.

Recipe: (We will always calculate other ingredients for 10 Liter water. Using 10 Liter makes it easy to calculate other items.)

·       Water - 10 Liter water (only RO water. General tap water won’t work for most recipe)

·       Sugar - 2.5 Kg to 3 Kg Raw sugar

·       Flavoring agent – 10 gm hops or any flavoring agent

·       Yeast – 5 gm ( you can also use more like 10 gm or refer to instruction on packet)

·       Yeast Nutrient: Refer to Yeast nutrient section

2.1 Method

Method is same for all recipe. We prepare wort using Sugar and Water then add yeast. We transfer this material in fermenter. After 8-14 days fermentation will complete. All sugar is converted into alcohol as fermentation completes. After that we can pack our final product for storage. Generally we will store beer/wine in small bottles and leave it for secondary fermentation.

Steps:

1.     Preparation: Clean all equipments and vessels using good soap + antibacterial product

2.     Making wort: Boil 10 liter water add 2.5 Kg to 3 Kg sugar and completely dissolve the sugar.

3.     Cool down wort to room temperature: For this we can use simple trick. Instead of boiling 10 Liter water in step 2, we will boil only 7 liter water and make ice from 3 liter (boiled) water before one day. Now add this 3 liter ice with 7 liter wort to cool it down fast.

4.     Activate yeast: Boil 200 gm water with 2-3 spoon sugar and cool down upto room temperature. Add yeast at room temperature. This will activate yeast and you will see bubbles in this mix.

5.     Add yeast to wort and mix well

6.     Prepare flavoring: If you add hops or other spices directly to wort, you have to manually remove it later. To avoid this we will boil hops or spices in small container and add this extract to wort before transferring it to fermenter vessel.

7.     Transfer wort to fermenter: Transfer wort + yeast + flavoring mix to your fermenter and add airlock.

8.     Fermentation: Put the fermentation vessel in cool and dark place for about 2 weeks. When bubbling stops all sugar is converted into alcohol and our product is ready.

9.     Clean your beer/wine: use gelatin to clear beer or wine so yeast and other material settle at the bottom of your vessel. This will take 2 days. This is optional step.

10. Packaging and secondary fermentation: Now we will transfer our beer/wine into small bottles. We will add small amount of sugar. This is called priming sugar and it will help add CO2 into bottle. Adding CO2 is called carbonation.

Chill this bottle in freeze before drinking !!! Cheers !!!

2.2 How to modify Base recipe?

Making Mead: Mead is an alcoholic drink made from Honey. Honey itself has antibacterial properties. So making mead is relatively easy.

Here is our base recipe -

• ·       Water - 10 Liter water (only RO water. General tap water won’t work for most recipe)
  ·       Sugar - 2.5 Kg to 3 Kg Raw sugar
  ·       Flavoring agent – 10 gm hops or any flavoring agent
  ·       Yeast – 5 gm ( you can also use more like 10 gm or refer to instruction on packet)
  ·       Yeast Nutrient: Refer to Yeast nutrient section

We only need to replace Sugar from Raw sugar to Honey. So our Mead recipe is –

• ·       Water - 10 Liter water
  ·       Sugar - 2 Kg Honey
  ·       Flavoring agent – 10 gm hops or any flavoring agent
  ·       Yeast – 5 gm
  ·       Yeast Nutrient: Refer to Yeast nutrient section

All other things are same. Even our method does not change. As Honey does not have any nutrient we will add yeast nutrient in this recipe.

Problem with Mead: Fermentation period of Mead is very long. Generally it takes 4 to 6 weeks to ferment the honey. And ageing is recommended from 6 months to 1 year.

Can you make a recipe even easier than Mead? Yes.

Simple wine: If we have grape juice we can easily make wine. Just add yeast to the grape juice and perform fermentation.

Wine recipe:

• ·       Water – No water. Use fresh juice or readymade juice like Tropicana or Real brand. We can use any fruit juice like Grape juice, Apple juice or Watermelon.
  ·       Sugar – None  (you can add 50 gm/Liter if you want)
  ·       Flavoring agent – None
  ·       Yeast – 5 gm
  ·       Yeast Nutrient: None

For Home brewing, we generally start with Wine or Mead making. As you can easily make alcoholic drink using juice or honey. Next step will be Ginger bear.

2.3 Alcoholic Ginger Beer Recipe (for 10L)

 1. Bring to boil and simmer for about 15 mins:

• 500g ginger – chopped or sliced (I use a food processor with a bit of water). You can use more if you want.
• Skin of 10 lemons or limes – avoid the white pith (I use potato peeler)
• Juice of 10 lemons or limes

Optional:

• Cloves
• Cinnamon sticks
• You can fairly much add anything (provided it doesn’t have a preservative in it) you think you will like the flavor of in your ginger beer eg fruit, spices etc

As much water as you can fit in your pot with enough room not to boil over– a bigger pot is best but if you only have a small one, use that.

 2. Take it off the stove and add your sugar.

Stir to dissolve.  Use 1 Kg sugar / 10 liters for approx. 5% brew –1.5 Kg for approx. 7.5% brew.  You can use plain white sugar or mix brown and white for a darker colored brew with a slightly richer flavor.  Or you can use honey or any other fermentable sugar.

 3. Wait to cool and pour into a plastic food grade bucket with lid.

Recommended that you sterilize your bucket first with metabisulphite.

 4. Top up to 7+3 liters with ice if needed.

 5. Cool to room temperature.  Add yeast nutrient (optional but recommended)

 6. Add your yeast according to manufacturer’s instructions.

 7. Within 24 hours you should have fermentation activity –

You should see bubbles and probably a yeasty fragrance.  

 8. Leave until fermentation stops –

or it doesn’t taste at all sweet anymore.

 9. Strain

 10. Options at this point for carbonation and sweetening.

• Drink as is (probably not to most people’s taste).
• Sweeten to taste just before drinking
• Sweeten to taste just before drinking and soda stream it to make it bubbly
• Sweeten to taste using a non-fermentable sweetener (you can use lactose, maltodextrin, stevia, sucryl, Splenda etc).  Dissolve 60g sugar in a small amount of hot water, cool and add to your ginger beer.  Mix through well.  Bottle in bottles suitable for pressurized containment.  Leave somewhere warm and within a week or so it will be ready to drink.
• Sweeten to taste using sugar.  Dissolve additional 60g sugar in a small amount of hot water, cool and add to your ginger beer.  Mix through well.  Bottle in bottles suitable for pressurized containment.  This is a balancing act.  Wait a few days and hope it has the right amount of carbonation.  Open and if right immediately chill the rest of the bottles in a very cold fridge and drink fairly quickly.  Your ginger beer will probably taste the best using this method BUT it is the most difficult to get right.  The sugar in the ginger beer that sweetens it will keep fermenting until it is all gone.  This will also be too much carbonation and your bottles when opened will turn into a rather impressive geyser.  Even in a cold fridge the yeast may continue to ferment slowly increasing the carbonation.  A good way to judge when it is ready is to bottle in PET bottles.  Have your ginger beer about an inch from the top.  When putting the lids on squeeze the bottle so the level of ginger beer is very near the top.  When the bottles are hard your ginger beer should be ready.