Ginger spice

If you hadn't noticed, Christmas is looming fast and in Australia that means sun, humidity & refreshing ginger beer. I had some success with my ginger beers last year but it still wasn't 'bitey' enough for me, so this time I thought I'd start by upping the ante a bit more...

• Just over 1.5kg ginger, cleaned, frozen and then run through the grater-thingy on the blender (sorry blender)
• 2 lemons, sliced
• 2 limes, sliced
• 2 star anise
• 4 birdseye chillis, sliced
• 2.75kg raw sugar (ish, there was a partially used bag which I didn't bother weighing)
• 1kg wheat malt extract (liquid)

Boil the above for an hour, and with 5 minutes to go add 5g crushed Tasmanian pepper berries & another 4 sliced birdseye chillis

After taking off the boil add juice of two lemons & 3 limes

I left it to cool overnight, strained it into a fermenter and sprinkled WB-06 yeast on the surface. This is a wheat beer yeast and although I should claim that the intention was that the esters of bubble-gum & clove will complement the ingredients, the reality was that it was the only yeast packet I had left in my homebrew box. Although I think that the esters of bubble-gum & clove will complement the ingredients nicely. 

This won't quite be ready for Christmas but should be good to go for the New Year. Can't wait!