Ginger beer II: 5 gallons

After the success of the last batch, I’m doing a second. Bigger, because why not?

After we enjoyed the initial ginger beer attempt, it was going to be a staple. Figuring out a house recipe would be awesome and if we could have a custom probiotic drink on hand - especially something that could be had as-is, diluted if needed or included in mixed drinks of various sorts, hey, wins all around.

When it comes to brewing, much of the effort is going to be the same whether your batch is a quart or a gallon or 5 gallons…so why not knock out a big batch if you like the outcome? Another benefit of brewing a bigger batch is the ability to experiment: maybe try 5 different yeasts or see if you want to add additional ingredients up front (citrus juice, citrus peel, turmeric, berries, etc.) or as needed, etc. Maybe make a base recipe but add additional ginger to a few different versions?

The last batch was very active. Even burping it at least 2-3x daily, it managed to explode non-destructively during one pressure release. It expelled a cup or two of beer over its section of the kitchen, making the floor, countertop and dishwasher contents sticky. It was a decent loss of volume…so maybe less sugar is key, or a less active yeast (I used a lager yeast at room temperature, so…). Whatever the reason, one tweak is using a blowoff tube instead of trapping CO2 and burping occasionally. To carbonate, we’ll track fermentation and transfer to a keg before fermentation is complete, trapping CO2. Maybe we’ll also referigerate it to slow things down… Maybe we’ll keg the 5 gallons into two 2.5 gallon kegs and treat them differently…