Hi, I am new to home brewing, thought Id try my hand at a old school fermented ginger beer. Im about halfway through the process and was looking for some tips or guidance on how I plan to proceed.
So far, I made my ginger bug (like a scoby for kombucha, or starter for bread) earlier last week, and this Saturday I boiled ginger, spices, lemon juice and common white sugar with purified water, let cool to about 90F, and then mixed in my bug. My hydrometer showed 12% potential ABV (@60F). I have batch now fermenting to two glass 1gal jars with screw tops and air locks.
Going forward I want to bottle half as is, and boil the other half to remove alcohol so my pregnant wife and nephews can enjoy. Obviously I will have to inject CO2 in the non alchohol batch, but I would like to bottle ferment the normal batch to create natural carbonation.
I also want the finished product to be fairly sweet, not like soda mind you, but more like a dessert wine, so I was planning on dosing with sugar again before bottling to get the right balance.
What I am fuzzy on is how to dose the normal batch in a way that it recarbonates without blowing up or converting all the sugar into more alcohol, and retains the sweetness.
Thanks in advance