Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Home Brew Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Enjoy this home brew alcoholic ginger beer recipe, its our favourite!
So I always wanted to get into home brewing and we just never had any space in the numerous places we rented over the years. A few years ago we finally bought our own place on the Sunshine Coast and with a few acres and a shed I was able to get into it. I am a complete novice but I enjoy it and save a few dollars along the way. Gives me a bit more money to spend on the Cruiser. Haha.
Anyways, I got this recipe off a mate and have changed it up a bit, usually play around with it each time I put on a brew. This is the fun with home brew.
Ingredients
Extra Spicy. Use only 1 chilly to bring the bite back if you don’t like things too spicy.
- 1 kit Morgan’s ginger beer
- 1kg raw or dark brown sugar (I have used both and I’ll comment below)
- 1 x US-05 yeast sachet
- 500g fresh ginger root
- 50g powdered ginger
- 250g – 350g honey (depends on how sweet you like it)
- 4 x kaffir lime leaves shredded
- 2 x red chillies sliced, seeds and all
- 4 x whole cloves
- 2 teaspoons nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
All the ingredients needed 
Morgan’s Ginger Beer extract 
US-05 yeast 
Method
Snap the fresh ginger root into chunks and then blend in a food processor, we have a Thermomix so I blend it in here.
Bring 3 litres of water to boil in a stock pot and then turn down the heat to medium.
Add honey, blended fresh ginger and kaffir lime leaves, close the lid and boil for 20 minutes.
Add chillies and powdered ginger and boil for a further 10 minutes.
Add the dark brown / raw sugar, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and then boil for a final 5 minutes.
Then turn the heat off and tip in the ginger beer extract (Morgan’s) and stir well for about 3 minutes or so. Make sure you soak the Morgan’s extract in some hot/warm water for about 10 minutes so that it pours nice and easy.
Ginger root blended 
Boiling ginger root and kaffir lime leaves 
Everything mixed in the stock pot 
Soak the ginger extract for at least 10 minutes in hot/warm water 
Use a stock pot
Use a large metal sterile sieve, strain the liquid from your stock pot into the fermenter. I then pour an additional few litres of water through the sieve to get all the flavour out. Then throw away the solids left behind.
Top up the fermenter to the 23 litre mark with cold water. I usually buy two 10 litres bottles from Coles or Woolies and put them in the fridge as you want the mix to get somewhere between 18 and 22 degrees celsius. Stir the mix for a few minutes, take your first hydrometer reading (OG reading) and then pitch US-05 yeast when the temperature is between 18 and 22 degrees celsius.
Ferment for at least 2 weeks around 20 degrees celsius and then bottle or keg. Gets even better with time.
When bottling make sure you buy a bottle tree as this makes life a hell of a lot easier when sterilising everything. Bottling is the worst part of it all, but once you have one brew done, next brew you can open a cold one and sip away during the bottling process. I use a few of the plastic (PET) bottles as as well as glass flip top bottles. The plastic ones I take camping and the glass ones for home. You should get around 28 x 750 ml bottles out of each brew, so roughly 21 litres of ginger beer.
See target hydrometer readings below. With raw sugar you brew will be around 4.30% and with brown sugar around 5.95%.
Target temp 18-22 degrees 
Dark brown sugar (OG 1042) 
Raw sugar (OG 1030) – see the colour difference 
FG 1002 
Mix of plastic (PET) and flip top bottles 
28 bottles total @ 750 ml each
Tips
- Brown sugar will increase the alcohol content of the brew compared to raw sugar.
- Brown sugar will also increase the sweetness slightly.
- Brown sugar will create a slightly darker looking ginger beer than the raw sugar as well.
- Add a bit more honey if you like your ginger beer sweeter.
- If you don’t like spicy things then remove one chilly.
- With the ginger beer extract, make sure you soak it in hot/warm water for at least 10 minutes as this makes it so much easier to pour.
- Ensure you sterile everything with a sanitiser, that includes all cooking utensils etc.
- Put at least 20 litres of water in the fridge the day before as this will ensure you get the mix to the target temperature range.
- Be patient and leave it for the 2 weeks, you should hear lots of activity with the air lock bubbling.
- Use a black marker pen and mark the 23 litre line on your fermenter for easy reference each brew.
- If bottling use carbonation drops as they make life so much easier and work well.
Hydrometer Readings
Raw Sugar:
- OG (Original) – 1030
- FG (Final) – 1002
- Alcohol Content (ABV) = 1030 – 1002 = 28 / 7.36 = 3.80 + 0.5 = 4.30%
- Added 0.5% because I bottled and added sugar (carbonation drops) to each bottle.
Brown Sugar:
- OG (Original) – 1042
- FG (Final) – 1002
- Alcohol Content (ABV) = 1042 – 1002 = 40 / 7.36 = 5.44 + 0.5 = 5.95%
- Added 0.5% because I bottled and added sugar (carbonation drops) to each bottle.
Hope you enjoyed this alcoholic ginger beer home brew recipe.
For more home brew recipes click here.
Recipe and method by Peter.
15/10/2023 @ 7:55 PM
Hey mate currently making my brew – do you use the US-05 packets instead of using the ones with the Morgan’s Kit or as well?
16/10/2023 @ 9:17 AM
G’day Jack
Just use the US-05 sachet. No need to use the one that comes with the kit.
Cheers
Peter
23/06/2024 @ 12:57 PM
Hey mate , thank you for your delicious recipe. I just made my first batch . I noticed that when I poured the mix into the fermenter and topped it up to the 23 litre mark , that there was a lot of ginger sediment floating on top . Is this normal ?
03/07/2024 @ 6:23 PM
G’day Lance
Glad you liked the recipe mate although I can’t take credit for it.
You’ll get a little bit of sediment but, also depends on how well it’s strained. The sediment won’t matter much. It should fall to the bottom and you’ll only get a little bit in a few bottles. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Cheers
Peter
19/06/2022 @ 5:16 PM
Hi Peter
Thanks so much for the recipe. I followed it down to the T and it tastes amazing!
The only problem I have is that it turned out flat!!
I used one Morgan’s carbonation drops per 375 ml and it’s flat.
I did do some experimenting with up to 4 drops and that seemed to have more of a fizz.
Can you please explain how you prime your ginger beer?
Many Thanks
Tom
20/06/2022 @ 9:57 AM
G’day Tom,
Glad the ginger beer tasted good but, yeah a flat brew is no good.
I also use the same carbonation drops and bottle into 750 ml bottles using two drops, so we are using the same ratio. My process is straightforward. Once I have sanitised all the bottles and they have dried. I simply add the carbonation drops to the bottles, 1 per 375 ml and usually batches of 10 at a time, then fill the bottles leaving no more than 10mm from the liquid to the top of the bottle. I then seal straight away. I let carbonate for at least 2 weeks. I find the ginger beer takes a lot longer than a beer brew. I have had issues with flip top style bottles carbonating as after a while they do not seal so well. I usually bottle my ginger beer into plastic or glass screw top bottles and do not have an issue with carbonation.
What type of bottles are you using and how long did you let them carbonate?
Cheers,
Peter
30/06/2022 @ 2:45 PM
Hi Peter,
Thanks again for the great delicious recipe!
My bottles are nice and carbonated now at 30 days since bottling.
I agree that ginger beer takes longer to carbonate than beer. Also, Melbourne’s winter can be very chilly, slowing down the process
Time to put on another batch… but this time I am prepared to wait…
Tom
04/07/2022 @ 8:56 AM
G’day Tom,
That’s awesome to hear mate. Yeah it does take a fair bit longer for the ginger beer to get its fizz. Glad it turned out good for you.
Cheers,
Peter
03/05/2022 @ 7:32 PM
Hey again Pete, sorry for being such a pest haha just really wanna get this brew tasting amazing, anyway how long do you condition for before having a taste?
03/05/2022 @ 7:46 PM
No worries mate. 2 weeks in fermenter and then at least a week in bottles. The longer the better. It’s a test of patience this ginger beer, but well worth it.
18/04/2022 @ 8:59 AM
Super keen to give this a try! Using that much ginger with the Morgan’s tin doesn’t make it to rough?? I like it more sweet then bite so will try with brown sugar, Will let you know the result 🤙🏻
19/04/2022 @ 8:57 AM
G’day Billy,
We do not find that it is too rough with using that much ginger. We actually find it is the perfect amount, but this will depend on your taste. We like our ginger beer to have a strong ginger taste and plenty of bite. That is also why we add a few chillies for more spice. If you like it sweet then brown sugar is definitely the go verse raw sugar.
Thanks for reading mate.
Cheers,
Peter
20/04/2022 @ 12:10 PM
Awesome man, do you have and apple cider recipes?
21/04/2022 @ 4:41 PM
Na mate, never tried an apple cider. We aren’t big drinkers of cider so it has not been on our radar. I have seen plenty of recipes online, but never tried one.
30/04/2022 @ 6:36 AM
Hey man, just done up a batch yesterday arvo amd followed all the instructions right hopefully, it’s my first time ever brewing so I hope I didn’t do something wrong but my air lock isn’t bubbling yet? Is that normal?
I tasted the hydro meter sample amd it was honestly beautiful, really really tasty
30/04/2022 @ 5:17 PM
Hey mate.
That’s awesome. Na don’t expect to get a great deal of bubbling. It’ll take some time. It’s not like a beer brew that starts to bubble really quickly and all the time. You’ll probably start to get some activity in a couple of days. You should start to see it foaming up soon. But the ginger beer brew never has as much activity as a beer brew. After the 2 weeks you’ll see the change in the hydrometer reading.
It does taste so good hey. Glad you like it. I’m sure it’ll come out tops.
Cheers mate.
Peter
13/03/2021 @ 4:42 PM
You didn’t mention how it tasted? I am curious because doesn’t the yeast convert all the sugar to alcohol leaving it quite fry and not sweet at all?
15/03/2021 @ 10:48 AM
G’day Mark,
Tastes great mate. Using raw sugar reduces the sweetness to a good level depending on how sweet you like it. Using brown sugar increases the sweetness significantly. So it really depends on how sweet you like your ginger beer. We prefer it to be not too sweet and we find this recipe has the perfect balance of sweetness and bite.
Cheers,
Peter