Ginger Syrup

Possibly, but with PG you might want to to do a hot infusion/maceration. It can be a bit thick going through a packed percolator, so maceration is better and the heat will help improve the extraction. After that, patience with filtration may be required, but heat the mixture up (60°C) before filtering an it should help. It will be cloudy though.

Darcy S. O'Neil

In your extract video, you mentioned using propylene glycol instead of alcohol for extractions, could this be used here as well? Lots of fussy customers do not want any alcohol used in the drinks we make

Shaun Tuck

You can try propylene glycol as the solvent. I find it doesn't work so well in a percolator, but if you macerate it and then press the extract out of the ginger, it should work fine, it might just be a bit cloudy.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Is there a way to make this without the alcohol. I can't have it in the house and love ginger beer/ale.

Ryan Johnson

Most oils are relatively stable, though citrus oils do oxidize over a period of a year. The ginger ale extract is being aged so I opted for a little more protection because I'll probably age it for 3 to 4 years. Also, I use clear bottles because it is YouTube and I want people to what I make, but I also store my bottles in a cabinet that doesn't have much light exposure.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Okay, this stuff is really tasty. I’ll need to make a second batch to set aside for aging. One thing that I noticed is that your ginger ale extract is the only thing you’ve shown going into a brown bottle rather than clear. Which begs the question “how lightfast are these various extracts and essences?” I imagine some of the organic compounds might eventually break down with light exposure, and for some reason I imagine an extract or tincture made from whole spices might be more prone than an oil based essence… but is that true?

Siege

Hello, rose oil is typically diluted in alcohol. Historically it was about 1.8 mL in 120 mL of alcohol. Then you can use it a few drops at a time, it is quite a powerful flavour. Cognac oil is done more like a standard essence of 30 ml plus 450 ml but you can do it 7.5 mL into 120 mL bottle with alcohol. It should be fine in 40%. And if you find there is separation (most likely not, but maybe) give them a good shake and they will be fine.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Hey there... in your Gingerale video (not this one on ginger syrup), you mention making a tincture of rose or cognac. I'm curious what medium you'd suggest for that. The solubility list you provide doesn't incidate any meaningful solubility for either rose or cognac oil into PG, VG, or ethanol. Since those are precious ingredients used in small amounts (fraction of a drop for the rose), I'd like to "thin them out" to make measuring tiny quantities easier. Should I just mix the oils with ethanol at, say, 200x so 1drop = 1ml and shake the hell out of 'em before using?

Siege

Depending on the form ginger takes (shogoal, etc) it can be more pungent, but typically the amount of oil in a herb or spice is 1% to 10% and that is where most of the flavour comes from, and when using actual spices the recipes typically follow the flavour intensity. Consider using parts a starting point, but always feel free to adjust. If you don't find the ginger ale has enough ginger, add more. With the other spices, just add a couple of drops at a time and build it up.

Darcy S. O'Neil

By your estimation would it be equal parts in the recipe by weight? Or would some ingredients like ginger be more pungent by weight? Thanks for the quick response.

Hello, I don't currently have a recipe that uses oils only, though I'll see if I can put one together for you. And yes, you can just convert the weights of the ingredients into parts. There is a lot of flexibility in these recipes.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Do you have a Belfast ginger ale recipe that uses only essential oils? The percolator based recipe you show mixes several ingredients together. Or, is it possible to convert weights of ingredients in the percolator into parts? Thanks

Don't pack it too firm, just enough to make it uniform. I left the valve open overnight and I did get a much better yield. Sometimes it is just really slow.

Darcy S. O'Neil

I did, but perhaps not enough. Usually moisten with 50g of solvent to 100g of product. Also, to what extent should I pack it? I usually make it pretty firm but perhaps would be better to ease off a bit. Thanks for the response, love your channel.

That yield is a bit low. For the ginger, I use just store-bought powdered ginger. Did you pre-moisten the ginger before packing it in the percolator? If you just add the powder to the percolator and then add the solvent, it will swell and become too tight to let more pass through.

Darcy S. O'Neil

Tried this multiple times with ground ginger and I think the powder was too fine (purchased already ground). Do you buy dried ginger root and then grind yourself to a specific size? You mentioned in your video you use a #18 sieve, do you want particles smaller than 1mm or larger? Love this method but just trying to standardize for more consistent results and (hopefully) higher yield. I did a separate extract using 100g of sarsparilla, moistened with 40g solvent (45 ABV), then an additional 100g of solvent and literally nothing came out. Added another 90g solvent and got 66g yield. Does this yield sound correct?