A week ago I started making some Ginger Tea Beer, using an expensive piece of root ginger, some lemons, some yeast and a lot of sugar and water. It’s been sat in a bucket in my office for a week now. Initially the specific gravity was 1.014, and has now gone to 1.006 which shows the yeast has been fermenting the sugar, but not by much. The stuff also tastes quite sweet and is somewhat bland.

More lemons and ginger are required, I’ll have to get some tomorrow from the supermarket. In the mean time as a bit of an experiment and to potentially add some flavour I found a half mouldy tin of black treacle and 1/4kg of brown sugar. The treacle was boiled in a pan to remove any mould (only the tin was moudly, the stuff in it was fine) and I then added the sugar and some water to make a sticky, very nice tasting syrup. Some more yeast was activated and the whole lot tipped into the bucket.

And instantly the bucket produced a load of foam. Yeast respiration is evidently a very quick process!

Specific gravity now 1.014 again and has a pretty nice flavour at the moment. Lacks the ginger spice though. I also can’t taste the tea. I think it needs a really really strong brew of tea and a lot more ginger to add the required bitterness to the flavour.

Experimental brewing is kind of fun though