Ginger beer (unwanted) excitement!

[Captain Zep]

Mrs McB and I are lovers of (quality) ginger beer.

We started the ginger beer plant from H2G2, which should give a continous supply of ginger beer, in a making your own yoghurt fashion.  We (not really me, but my wife did all the actual work) went through all the fermentation process, then made the ginger beer itself on Friday night.  We made six Barr's bottles of the stuff and laid it up for the two weeks instructed. 

This morning, four and a half days later, Mrs McB happened to be in that cupboard and noticed that the metal bottle caps were convex.    I took the lid of of one of the bottles out in the back garden...  The bang was incredible!    The cap flew over our garden, over the old lady over the back's garden and into the next street.  The ginger beer itself flew higher than the house and then took seconds to fall back down to earth, leaving about 2cm in the bottom of the bottle.

It was scary opening the remaining five bottles, the pressure in them was incredible.  Hats off to the manufacturers of AG Barr's reuseable glass bottles - a quality product to withstand that. 

It seems that the ginger beer was still fermenting in the bottles despite us following the instructions to the letter.  Thank goodness the bottles were checked after four and a half days.  If they had been left for the recommended fourteen, it could have been like a small bomb going off with the glass from six 750ml bottles as shrapnel. 

Back to the old recipe methinks.

RJMcB

[Chris S]

LOL! 

My Mum used to make Ginger Beer. It was lovely, but every now and then - the house would rock to a Kablammmmm! from the cellar.

[border-rider]

When  I worked at Vimto as a student, they had a batch of bad fizzy pop bottles that came back to the factory (full)

It was deemed too dangerous to try to open them to empty them, so we spent a fun afternoon throwing them at a brick wall:)

[eck]

Does that mean you'll be having to fill your bottles with Irn Bru instead this wekend? 

[velocipede]

If you dont want to ditch the recipe here's a way to cut down the unwanted excitement!!

Re-cycle old plastic carbonated drinks bottles: rinse/ soak in hottish warm water (not boilin- they go funny shape- I tried that)
Fill the ginger beer mix, but leave a few inches air gap at top to allow expansion. Screw top back on.

Let gas pressure off slightly every couple of days when the bottles feel tense like checking a tyre pressure....
If they do blow, you only get a ginger puddle and not a shrapnel fest.

To limit chances of plastering your walls with ginger beer, bottles can be wrapped in an old towel for increased safety. If you're very safety conscious...
I use this for elderflower champagne and havnt had a blow out yet dispite powerful fizzing on unscrewing finished product

Cheers!!!

[Captain Zep]

If you dont want to ditch the recipe here's a way to cut down the unwanted excitement!!

I may well try that velocipede, thanks.  I'd like to give the recipe another go as when some of the ginger beer landed on my face from its unplanned flight, it tasted lovely! 

RJMcB

[Captain Zep]

Does that mean you'll be having to fill your bottles with Irn Bru instead this wekend? 

Ssshhh! You know that Irn-Bru is my secret weapon.  The stuff's just caffeine & sugar! I believe that the version that they export to Englandshire has 30% less sugar! What use is that as a performance enhancing substance sports drink? 

RJMcB

[nuttycyclist]

Following several arrivals home to find the cork had popped from a bottle and the ginger beer was all over the floor, I decided to wire the corks in.

I put a penny on top of the cork as per a champagne bottle to stop the wire cutting in.

I can read the date the coin was minted from the impression left in the ceiling.

[iakobski]

It seems that the ginger beer was still fermenting in the bottles despite us following the instructions to the letter.

It is supposed to ferment in the bottles - but not quite that much!

There are so many variabilities in things like age of yeast and ambient temperature, however carefully you follow the instructions. Either learn to tell the stage of the fermentation from taste and appearance before bottling, or invest in a hydrometer to take out the guesswork.

[Captain Zep]

Care to share the recipe? As I don't know the specifics, I can only say that there could be a number of reasons to your having a "gusher" :

1. Too much sugar... (to carbonate homebrew, you need 3/4 cup of corn sugar per 5 gallons..)

2. Wrong yeast type...

3. Bacterial infection...


You could use plastic bottles (as was mentioned) but make sure to sanitize and disinfect them first with a homebrewer's sanitiyer and disinfectant (there are tons on the market) so as to avoid any bacterial contamination.

Whenever I brew, I make sure that any and all items that will come into contact with the beer is both sanitized and disinfected.

When it comes to fruit, I usually pasteurize it before adding it to the fermenter.

You may also want to boil your water before using it (this can solve a large number of problems)


Be warned : while no known pathogens can exist in beer, this may not be the case for Ginger Beer.


Cheers,
Awfers

It was the h2g2 recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A827426

We (really just Mrs McB) made some cracking ginger beer from an American book from the 50's she has.  We'll probably go back to that - tasty and less exciting. 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The type of sugar seems to make a difference.  European beer recipes assuming beet sugar are very 'enthusiastic' when made with sugar cane sugar.