Home-brewed ginger beer

Real home-brewed ginger beer has a kick to it. With it’s strong, but not overpowering, taste of ginger. My ginger beer is perfect in a dark’n’stormy or to drink on it’s own as sodapop for adults.

I have now made it several times and are ready to share my recipe. Some of you might have read my tales of ginger beer. The big lesson learned from my first tries was – use plastic bottles – really do!

You brew ginger beer, pretty much like you brew real beer, the process is just a bit easier. By brewing it, like real beer, you take advantage of the fermentation process that really develops the taste. Unlike ginger ale made from ginger juice and sparkling water, the real brewed ginger beer has a real depth to it. Because it is brewed the finished product do have a bit of alcohol in it – if you do not want that – make ginger ale instead.

Re-carbonation

If a bottle goes a bit stale after you have opened it, just pop it back on the counter again for a few hours – it will re-carbonate on its own – super handy.

First try at bottling the stuff. The glass bottles are very likely to shatter and that is a mess!

The finished brew, waiting to carbonate on the counter. The handy thing about plastic bottles is that you can feel when the carbonation is done by touching the bottle. If it is hard, then its done – simple as that.

The finished ginger beer bobbles a la a champagne and a strong, but not overpowering, ginger taste. It is quite refreshing. Tastes great in a dark’n’stormy.

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Ginger Beer

Real brewed ginger beer with a kick of ginger. Tangy, spicy and delicious

Course Drinks and beverages

Cuisine 19th century, American, Historical cooking

Keyword brewing, ginger

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 31 minutes

Servings 8 liter

Ingredients

• 8 liter water
• 1 kilogram sugar white sugar can be mixed with brown sugar for a deeper taste
• 30 gram ground ginger
• 100 gram fresh ginger grated or sliced
• 2 lemon peel & juice
• 1 pinch champagne yeast or dry yeast, but champagne yeast gives a cleaner taste. You can order the champagne yeast online - it is not expensive

Instructions

1. Mix water, ginger, lemon and sugar
2. Bring the mix to a boil. Take it off the stove and let it cool to body temperature (max 40 C)
3. Mix the yeast with a bit of water and let it sit while the beer cools
4. Stain the mixture through a sive.
5. Put it in the container you are going to use for the fermentation process.
6. Add the yeast water to the beer. Add some kind of lid to the container, but don't let it be air tight (use a yeast lock if you can). We do not want to create a oxygen starved environment

7. Fermentation: Let it ferment for a few days in a warm place (room temperature - circa 20C). Taste the beer every day to see if it still taste unpleasantly of sugar. Mine have taken anywhere from two days to a week - it really depends on the yeast and on the room temperature, how long this will take. If the ginger taste is a bit weak, just add in more ginger.

8. Once it tastes good bottle the mixture in plastic bottles. Leave off the milky dredges at the bottom - this is dead yeast and will just make things taste yeasty.
9. Carbonation: Leave the bottles on the counter until they feel as hard as store brought soda - this means that the carbonation is done. Make sure your bottles are very clean.
10. Put the bottles in the fridge to slow the carbonation down. They keep for about a month. If a bottle goes a bit stale after you have opened it, just pop it back on the counter again for a few hours - it will re-carbonate on it's own - super handy.

Recipe Notes

Because this is a brewed ginger beer, it is important that the beer sits somewhere warm while brewing otherwise it will take quite a long time to work though the sugar. Make sure to use plastic bottles - glass bottles are quite likely to shatter because if the pressure build up under the carbonation process.