Ginger beer

Ginger beer is something that I have mean't to do but have been a bit nervous about exploding bottles.
Mary bought me a coaster with a Ginger beer recipe from Graytown a couple of years ago but I never got around to doing anything about it.

 

 Another hold back was not having the correct vessel and a 2nd air lock for the brewing process.
So this time around I went looking for a simple vessel from the Warehouse and ended up with a 22$ 20l water vessel. I didn't think it through, and don't think it was the wisest purchase as it has a lot of nooks and cranies so is hard to clean.

Fermented or non alcoholic

 There are a few videos out there on the subject, some have more alcohol than others. I thought I was just making a refreshing drink, but there is also an alcoholic beverage as well. 

 Process 5th Jan 2020

I watched a few videos on  the subject and I'm not sure that I haven't banjaxed this first batch.
Some of the people boil the ginger, others don't. Some add lemon zest, others don't.
I decided to chop up and boil in a little water about 150g of ginger and also peeled the zest off the lemons and put that in the boiling water, I think that was wrong as the mixture tastes more bitter than gingery.
I also wasn't sure whether I was trying for alcoholic or non-alcoholic. I wanted to put the yeast into the big vessel, let it ferment in there, then bottle it. In the bottles I can put a bit of sugar for carbonation for the fizz, just like the beer, so I know I wont have exploding bottles.
Recipe that I did

• 150 g ginger 
• zest of 2 lemons 

boil in a small pot and then let sit for an hour
  Strain and pour into large vessel
 add 2 lemons juiced and strained
750 g white sugar
overall water 8-9 litres
Added powdered ginger 1.5 tablespoons (into large vessel)
Added 1 1/2 teaspoons bread yeast.

Sitting in cupboard to ferment. Doesnt seem to be active though as no bubbles in trap. I don't have a high expectation of this at the moment, but I'll wait and see.

6th Jan 

No bubbling from air lock. I put another teaspoon of yeast in to the mix but there doesn't seem to be much activity at airlock. I think this is mogadored. I have it on the bench to keep an eye on. There may be a gingery, sugary fluid to drink but I'll let the yeast settle out first.

7th Jan

After thunking about it I realised I could just put some yeast in a glass of the ginger beer that I'd poured out. That way I can see i yeast is reacting. It was. So in fact I'd put lots of yeast into the mix.
Anyway I bottled the Ginger beer and put them on the bench. I possibly overfilled some of them only leaving about 10-20mm between cap and liquid.
I turned the tops through 180 degrees and heard a little hiss. Did that each morning/evening.
Of the 2 glasses left over from bottling, the taste was very nice. 

9th Jan- Spray all over

I opened one cap of one bottle and it started spraying all over the place. I realised that I hadn't fully released all the gas and there was a massive buildup of CO2 in all the bottles. After taking to the sink, covering cap with my hands to direct spray down into the sink, almost 1/2 the liquid emptied from the bottles, so only about half the ginger beer left.
The one thing I didn't want to happen, happened. So not good. Next time I'll leave in large vessel. I think the gas was getting out via the grommet edges.