Beverage Related News

Wheat beer has always been one of my favorites.  Add some ginger, and you’ve got a pretty good beer.  It’s smooth, easy to drink, and, well, tastes a little bit like ginger.

I would call that a success.

Shakemantle Ginger Ale was a little less traditional than I am used to, but in this case it seems to have paid off.  I can honestly say that this was one of my favorites.

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Usher’s Ruby Ale

The tragedy of recent times has been that the Ginger Ale has been finished and there has been nothing in the works.  This changed Friday.  Finally, I picked up my brewpot again and filled it with bitter, bitter goodness.

This time the goodness comes in the form of a strong, red ale.  The alcohol in this batch is a bit stronger than some of my previous beers, so I think it will be good that this will be the first beer to enjoy kegerator distribution method.

1.5 lb British 2-row Pale Malt
1 lb 60L Crystal Malt
8 oz Vienna Malt
1.5 oz British Black Patent Malt

Place in a gallon of 150 F water, steep for 90 minutes. Sparge with 1 gallon of hot water, then remove the grains.

Bring the water to a boil, then add:

6.5 lb Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
8 oz Malto Dextrin
2 oz Fuggles (9 HBU)

Add water to bring up to 2.5 gallongs.  Boil for 45 minutes

1 oz Kent Goldings
1 tsp Irish Moss

Boil for 14 minutes

1/2 oz Kent Goldings

Boil 1 minute.

Place in primary fermentor and add water to raise level to 5 1/8 gallons.

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Months of preparation and many dollars worth of equipment have finally paid off.

The kegerator lives.

Once all of the pieces were collected the actual construction was pretty simple.  Tubes hooked up to kegs, CO2, and spouts.

Yet, not everything is perfect.

Currently the keg sits full of home made root beer.  It’s going to be good, I can tell.  I mixed it this morning, and tasted a bit of the uncarbonated product.

Unfortunately part of it is now frozen in one of those tubes.  The refrigerator I converted has a freezer compartment which really, really wants to freeze something.

The solution is easy.  I just need to order one more piece of the puzzle.  I need a device which independently controls the temperature of the fridge.  This is easily available, but more than I want to spend at just this moment.

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Homemade Root Beer

This is the recipe I mixed up this morning.  It’s a slight variation on one found randomly on my favorite Internets.

1 oz Birch Root Beer Extract
3 oz Root Beer Extract
1/3 lb Honey
1/3 lb Molasses
1/3 cup Maple Syrup
5 cups sugar

Mix them all in a couple gallons of water, stir to make sure they are all dissolved.  Put it all in the keg, and add more water to fill the keg.  Carbonate and drink.

Depending on how this one really turns out I may be attempting some variations.  I mean, who doesn’t think that root beer has always needed more ginger?