1

the Simply Ginger Beer kit I've brewed and just part-bottled is horrible. The chemical sweetener taste is overpowering and even though I have bottled 20 500ml flip-tops (more for practice than anything), I fully expect to be poring this thing down the sink soon.

BUT... before I do, is there anything else I can do with the brew? I.e. an ingredient for something else or convert it to something. I hate the waste!

Mere Development
  • 678
  • 1
  • 9
  • 25
  • 2
    Try to make vinegar with it, even if it is a whole lot of vinegar...

    Otherwise use/experiment with it for cooking.

    Or maybe mix with another beer (but this way you would risk spoiling the other one too...)

     – Paolo Apr 12 '13 at 09:44
  • 3
    Surely this comment is good enough to be put into an answer no? – Jared Meyering Apr 12 '13 at 13:27

2 Answers2

3

If it's a chemical sweetener taste, I don't think there's much you could do.

You could try a big cold crash on them, bring them down to 1c or so and slowly pour off amounts where you don't get the chemical sweetener taste.

What chemical sweetener did you use? There may be people with similar issues, but for future reference it'd be useful to know what to avoid!

EDIT: judging by your earlier post, you bottled after March 25th, so about 2 weeks ago, assuming minor delays here and there. How long did you leave your bottles in the fridge? I normally recommend at least two weeks if you used any kind of malt extract, and ideally longer. I had a discussion recently with a friend in Australia who described something similar to you, but he left the beer for another month and he states that it now tastes fantastic.

Doug Edey
  • 684
  • 4
  • 9
  • 1
    See this post for classification on the sweetner.http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/9640/sickly-sweet-ginger-beer-acesulfame-k – Jared Meyering Apr 13 '13 at 23:07
1

Some ideas:

  • Try to make vinegar with it (see this). To do that you need to leave the beer in contact with air to oxidize and preferably add bacteria (or the mother). You can get it from a non pasteurized vinegar you buy (if it has some sedminent, it is hazy, or some lumps in it it should be good) or from some home made vinegar.

  • Use it for cooking. Depending on how bad it tastes you could want to risk and use it to replace whine (for example in a boeuf bourguignon recipe, or some similar long time boil meat recipe, or in a risotto), or try to make some sauce with it (for example a bechamel with half broth and half beer). For sure to try those you need to spend some time and some money for an uncertain result.

  • Mix the bad beer with another one, to try to balance the excessive flavours. Even if the risk of have the double of c**ppy beer is there :) Make a try with a small quantity before.

Community
  • 1
Paolo
  • 1,516
  • 4
  • 19
  • 36