Ginger Cider Recipe

Ginger Cider Recipe

When we had our bar in Bath, we sold a ginger cider called Stoney Bonk. It was delicious, refreshing, zingy and amazing served chilled or even warm on a cold winters day.

So we thought we would recreate stoney bonk by combining a ginger beer kit and a cider kit, to make our own ginger cider at home.

Ginger works so well with apple cider adding flavour and a spicy warmth. The ginger beer kit is made with malt extract so adds body as well as flavour to the ginger cider.

The Ginger beer is a kit made by Simply, but there are a few ginger beer kits available, so you can use any ginger beer kit you can get your hands on.

The cider kit we are using is a John Bull Cider kit. These have been made for years and have a nice scrumpy flavour that works well with other ingredients, but you can use any cider kit to make this ginger cider.

There should be enough sugar in the 2 kits combined to make this ginger cider come out around 5% ABV. If you'd like it a little stronger, you can add some more sugar.

Ingredients:-

1 Simply Ginger Beer Kit
1 - John Bull Cider Kit
3 litres boiling water
Cold tap water
50ml Wine Sweetener
150g Priming Sugar

Scroll down to see what equipment we'll need.

Equipment:-

2 x 23 litre fermentation buckets
Bottles
Jug
Hydrometer and Trial Jar
Thermometer
Syphon
Spoon
Scissors
Tin Opener

Scroll down to see how to make this recipe.

Method:-

Place the unopened pouch of Simply Ginger Beer in a bowl filled with hot water from the hot tap and leave to warm up for 10 minutes. This will make the ginger beer syrup easier to get out of the pouch.

While the pouch is warming up, put your kettle on to boil as we need 3 litres of boiling water.

Remove the pouch from the hot water and dry it off with a tea towel.

Open the pouch of Simply Ginger Beer and pour it into the fermenter.

Open the tin of John Bull Cider concentrate and pour this into the same fermenter.

Using some of the boiled water, rinse out the simply ginger beer pouch and the john bull cider tin and add this to the fermenter.

Add the remaining boiled water to the fermenter and stir the ginger beer and cider concentrate to mix with the boiled water.

Top the fermenter up to 23 litres with cold tape water and stir thoroughly to mix everything together.

Add the yeast nutrient and mix.

Take a hydrometer reading and keep this for next time. Watch our video if you need help reading your hydrometer. - https://www.brewbitz.com/pages/video-how-to-use-a-hydrometer-with-beer-wine-spirits

Sprinkle on the yeast from the cider kit.

Put the lid on and place in a warm place 18-22°C for 7-10 days

Once all the fermentation activity has stopped, take another hydrometer reading to confim.

The SG reading needs to be 1.014 or below. If it is higher than this, put the lid back on and leave for a few more days to finish fermenting.

Transfer the ginger beer cider to a clean fermenter being careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom of the fermenter.

Take a taste and decide if you need to add any sweetener.

We suggest adding 50ml sweetener, but you can add as little or as much as you want to get the the sweetness you desire.

Add the priming sugar and stir to dissolve.

Bottle straight away and then put the bottles back into your warm place doe 7 days for the secondary fermentation to take place in the bottles.

Transfer the bottles to somewhere cool and allow to clear.

After 2 - 4 weeks you can put sa bottle in the fridge and chill it down.

Open it up and pour carefully to avoid disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the bottle.

Sit back and enjoy a refreshing glass of ginger beer cider.

Cheers and happy brewing.