How to premix a Hard Ginger Beer like a Pro!

Previously, we shared a blog post How to naturally Brew a Hard Ginger Beer like a Pro! and now its time to share another way to premix a Hard Ginger Beer like a Pro!

There are obvious advantages to premixing an ethanol based Hard Ginger Beer or RTD which makes this an option worthy of your consideration. Firstly, the time it takes to premix an ethanol based RTD saves valuable craft brewery or distillery operating expenses and infrastructure including fermentation tank time and energy costs.  Many craft distilleries also do not have any or sufficient fermentation space to naturally Brew a Hard Ginger Beer.

In addition to infrastructure, time and energy savings you are considerably less exposed to yeast refermentation in your base beverage and decrease the risk of re-fermentation in your cans.  This will enable you to use a wide range of natural sweeteners including sucrose or liquid sugar to balance out the bite or bitterness of the Ginger in your RTD.

The key disadvantage of an ethanol based Hard Ginger RTD is the current ATO Spirits Excise Treatment which was detailed and explained earlier in our blog post How to naturally Brew a Hard Ginger Beer like a Pro!  Quickly, to recap an ethanol based Ginger Beer attracts ATO spirits excise of $101.85 per Litre of Alcohol (LAL) from 5 Feb 2024. If we take a typical carton of 24 x 330mL Cans of 4% ABV Hard Ginger Beer the excise tax alone is $32.27.  The ATO excise tax if naturally brewed for that same case is $19.05 resulting in an additional excise impost of $13.22 per case for an ethanol based Ginger Beer

Take a quick tour of your local independent bottle shop fridges or Dan Murphy's, BWS or First Choice and Liquorland, spin around a few cans of Hard Ginger Beer and you will see that over 80% of them are ethanol based despite the excise tax disadvantage.  This would seem to suggest that taste preference and drinker preferences for a naturally sweetened Ginger Beer to offset the bite of the Ginger is a key consideration in drinker decision making at the point of purchase.

Working within the parameters and guidelines suggested by the ATO for the definition of a spirits based beverage for excise purposes we are going to propose a 1,000 Litre recipe for Craft Brewers or Distillers who want to premix their own Alcoholic or Hard Ginger Beer. Here goes...

GeriD Pro Hard Ginger Beer (Premix) 4% ABV

Vital Stats:

Batch Volume: 1,000 Litres
Target Brix: 5% (note: AU market leaders can be as high as 9-10%)
Target pH: < 4
Ingredients: Ethanol, Buderim Ginger Syrup, Buderim Ginger Juice, Ginger Blavour and/or Ginger Bextract, Citric Acid, Malic Acid, Potassium Sorbate (Preservative 202), Sodium Benzoate (Preservative 211)
ABV: 4.0%

The first key ingredient in your ethanol based Hard Ginger beer is the ethanol!  There are three key suppliers of this ingredient to local craft distillers in Australia:

• Sugar Cane ethanol from Wilmar Australia
• Grape Based ethanol from Tarac
• Grain Based ethanol from Manildra Group

For the purposes of our recipe we are going to assume your using 95% Neutral Cane Spirit.  You can just as interchangeably use neutral grape or neutral grain spirit from your local preferred ethanol supply partner(s).

1. Spirit: Safely add 38.4 Litres of 95% Neutral Cane/Grape/Sugar Spirit into your mixing tank.
2. Ginger: Stir in 37.15 Litres of Buderim Ginger Syrup [Ingredients: Cane Sugar, Water, Ginger (5%)] to bring some Crystalised Ginger tang and sweetness from the cane sugar lifting your Brix level to 5%.  The brix level of Buderim Ginger Syrup is 74.3% so we are getting a dual dose of ginger kick and sugar sweetening to balance the tang!
3. Ginger: Stir in between 20 and 40 Litres of Buderim Ginger Juice [Ingredients: Ginger 99.5%, Citric Acid 0.5%] to give some Ginger kick and turbidity to your beverage. Typical dosage rates for Buderim Ginger Juice vary between 2-4% and the level of Ginger intensity and turbidity is always a matter of personal preference.
4. Flavour: you will need to add up to 5 Litres of Ginger Blavour Usage Guidance: Start your addition rates at 0.1% and work upwards from there.
   Highly recommended to do bench trial samples of your base beverage and do lab bench dropper tests to dial in your dosage before you mix up your first big batch of Hard Ginger Beer.  You need to add Ginger Flavour to Hard Ginger Beer to round out the character and maintain stability and tang and bite over the full shelf life of your drink.  Again a quick market survey of hard ginger beers will reveal all the ethanol based ginger beers have ginger flavours added to them as well as fresh ginger juice or ginger syrup.
5. Flavour: alternatively or in addition to using up to 5 Litres of Ginger Blavour you can use up to 0.6 Litres (600mL) of Ginger Organic | Bextract™ | Zingiber Officinale which is a supercritical C02 extraction of steam sterlised organic kibbled ginger.  Ginger Organic | Bextract™ is Supercritical C02 cold extracted from premium organic Indian kibbled ginger for a more true to nature and natural ginger flavour extraction. Don't take our word for it - try for yourself! Or, reach out to us for a sample at Service@BeerCo.com.au.  If you are adding Ginger Organic | Bextract™ for extra kick and authencity Usage Guidance: Typical addtion rates: 0.3 to 0.6g per Kg of beverage (0.03% - 0.06%).  As per the Ginger Blavour additions we highly recommend some smaller bench lab style trials where you dose the base mixture and do internal and/or external taste tests before scaling up to a full production batch.  With Ginger Blavour and Ginger Organic | Bextract™ you can always add more but once its in the beverage you can not remove and dilution becomes a real challenge to manage if you overdose your flavours.
6. Water: top up your mixing tank with clean sterile RO or distilled filtered water to 1,000 Litres.
7. Acid / pH Balance: it is very important when you are premixing premium package spirits or RTDs that you lower the pH of your beverage for product stability and to help sharpen the taste and bring out the crisp flavours.  Here we recommend the addition of either/or/and Citric Acid and/or Malic Acid.  Used in combination you will add typically up to 1g/L total to taste and to lower pH below 4.  For this recipe we suggest starting with 500g of both Citric Acid and Malic Acid
8. Preservatives: You must use preservatives in any ethanol based Ginger Beer to assist with preservation of taste over time but most importantly to reduce the risk of fermentation in your package product.  Unless you can pack asceptically and/or tunnel pasteurise your Hard Ginger beer you must mitigate any risk of natual yeast and bacteria in the atmosphere infecting your beverage and causing a natural refermentation in your package product.  The most commonly used preservative is 211 or Sodium Benzoate.  Sodium benzoate is a salt of benzoic acid that is found naturally in cranberries, prunes, plums, apples, and other fruits. It is soluble in water and works against yeast and bacteria. It is generally believed that sodium benzoate is safe and harmless, and is often used as a preservative in food.  Dosage Guidance: 150ppm is normally sufficient for shelf stable beverages.  15g per 100ml will get you 150ppm per mL so a dosage of 150g for 1,000 Litres of Hard Ginger Beer should be sufficient.  Preservative 202 or Potassium Sorbate can provide additional product safety if you want to be cautious.  Potassium Sorbate is typically used at a rate of 0.15-0.3% (if used alone) or 0.1-0.2% (if used in combination with other preservatives).  If you are going to use with Preservative 211 Sodium Benzoate in combination a dosage of 0.2 Kg or 200g should be sufficient to stablise the product and prevent any spontaneous fermentation post packaging.

In summary, our suggested starting whiteboard for an ethanol Hard Ginger Beer could look like this:

We cannot stress highly enough the importance of doing small scale bench or labl trials before you dial up to your full batch production.  You can do a division to 10L and then even split your base out to 10 x 1L before flavour dosing, pH balancing and preservative to make sure your happy with the taste of the beverage.

BeerCo.com.au would like to reiterate that we are not product development specialists or new beverage designers and also recommend if your new to premix premium package spirits that you consider engaging with an industry professional to formulate your RTDs so they hit the high mark when they hit the market.  You only get one chance to make a first impression as they say!

If you need help with anything or wish to discuss the wide array of adjuncts and aids and fermentables for your next Hard Ginger Beer please do not hesitate to reach out to us at Service@BeerCo.com.au or call us on +61 490 501 392 and have a great Brewing and Distilling and Selling week!

Please Note: Legal Disclaimer

We are not here to provide product development, legal or tax advice and you need to check with your in house or oustide experts for new product development, and your legal and/or professional accountancy advisors regarding the Australian Tax Office excise classification before you file your ethanol based Hard Ginger Beer as a spirit based beverage for tax purposes.