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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> Brewing Forum --> Gear/Equipment --> Keg Lines and Ginger Beer

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skitzo2000
Pittsburgh, PA
42 Posts


My wife loves Ginger Beer so I made her a keg of NA Ginger Beer.   The keg kicked and I cleaned the lines with line cleaner, and I just setup a new keg on that tap, and theres a definite ginger taste in the new beer.

So am I screwed and I need to replace the line(I know its cheap).  Or is there a way for me to flush out the taste?




Posted 34 days ago.

homebrewdad
Charter Member
Birmingham, AL
2480 Posts


I can't speak to ginger beer, but I know that root beer supposedly never comes out. 



Posted 34 days ago.

skitzo2000
Pittsburgh, PA
42 Posts


You may recall my post about my semi boring Belgian, well thru this tap it has a little more character, but not what I was looking for



Posted 34 days ago.

homebrewdad
Charter Member
Birmingham, AL
2480 Posts


Lol @ character. 



Posted 34 days ago.

mchrispen
Bastrop, TX
485 Posts


I would fill the lines with line cleaner and let this sit for a few hours before replacing the lines. You could also try a solution of baking soda and water before hand (a buddy swears by this - never tried it.)

Otherwise, yeah. Seems that sugary drinks foul the lines pretty badly.




Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by mchrispen

skitzo2000
Pittsburgh, PA
42 Posts


Well Thanks for the suggestion mchrispen.  I left some line cleaner sitting in the line for 2 days, and nope still got that ginger taste.  Oh Well the LHBS is open today, so I guess I'll just buy some more line.  Lesson Learned



Posted 34 days ago.

Mith
Austin, Tx
4 Posts


Skitzo, I'd reccomend buying line in bulk. It will save you a lot of time and money over your LHBS. This is just an example, I don't know what diameter you're using, but you can find all the standard sizes 5/16, 3/8, 1/4 etc in 100ft sections. At $.16 per foot, it's about half the cost of my LHBS. 





Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by Mith

mutedog
Washougal, WA
29 Posts


Huh, that's really interesting, I've made a number of fermented ginger beers (with ginger bug) and put them on tap and not had any line fouling issues with them. I don't even clean my lines, I just hook up the next beer and 'clean' the line with an initial short pour. It's kinda hard to believe that the sugar is the culprit?



Posted 34 days ago.

skitzo2000
Pittsburgh, PA
42 Posts


Thanks for the suggest @mith I'm lucky to have a really cool LHBS near my office that I do regular webwork for.  In turn I have a rolling credit at the store.  And the owner typically charges me cost on most items.

@mutedog It might be the strength of my ginger beer thats the problem as much as anything.  My wife likes her ginger beer with Punch, and this one has that in spades.  I used five pounds of fresh ginger in a five gallon batch.  And really not that much sugar at all so it would be NA. I honestly can't even drink the stuff its so potent, but she loves it.




Posted 34 days ago.

mutedog
Washougal, WA
29 Posts


Ahh, that may be it, I've made some pretty potent ginger beers, but I've never used 5lbs of ginger.



Posted 34 days ago.

homebrewdad
Charter Member
Birmingham, AL
2480 Posts


Five **POUNDS**?  Good golly, miss Molly.



Posted 34 days ago.

skitzo2000
Pittsburgh, PA
42 Posts


Yeah I slowly morphed the recipe over time, I started with some of the base recipes online which mostly pointed to 2#/5 gallons, but she said nope not even close.   So I bumped it up the next time to 3#'s and she said it was ok, but not quite.  So I decided not to screw around and go all out, and I went for 5#'s.  She agree's its the best batch yet.  For reference:

5#'s fresh ginger, Peeled and run thru the food processor
1# Light Brown Sugar
.25 Gallon Pomegranate Juice

Bring the water to a boil and add brown sugar
Stir to dissolve all of the sugar
Add the Ginger (I used a BIAB bag) steep the ginger for a long time (I steeped for about three hours)
Cool to about 80F
Add to keg
Add Ginger Bug(Google it if you don't know)
Allow to ferment for a few days, then check it should be really carbed at this point
Purge the keg and add the pomegranate Juice

Place on gas and serve.   It will be super cloudy and have lots of punch.




Posted 34 days ago.

smcvail
Stevensville, MT
1 Posts


Skitzo, could you tell me how much bug you use for that recipe?  Thanks I Ann liking forward to trying this.

Thanks,
Sean





Posted 34 days ago.

skitzo2000
Pittsburgh, PA
42 Posts


I used about 100ml, of decanted sludge.



Posted 34 days ago.

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