ginger beer

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ginger beer

Downsizer Forum Index -> Recipes, Preserving, Homebrewing

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gnome

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 730

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 09 6:10 pm Post subject: ginger beer

I dont know about the rest of the country, but around here fresh ginger root is really cheap at the moment - you can get a punnet full for 50p off Morecambe market.

So stumped for what to do with it all, i decided to make home made ginger beer this weekend.

You need:
1 lemon
about two ginger roots
water
sugar
yeast
a funnel
a sieve
a grater

disolve about half a cupfull of sugar in warm water. if you are a good downsizer, you will probably know a sweet shop that will let you have the leftover sugar from the bottom of the sweet jars, and this is perfect for this sort of thing.

add a teaspoon of yeast. brewers yeast is best, but you can get away with bakers yeast. put that mixture in a bottle and leave it somewhere warm to ferment.

Grate a couple of ginger roots into a cup or small bowl (I used an empty noodle pot) until you have about two tablespoons full of grated ginger. Then squeeze a lemon into it. or at a pinch, a couple of tablespoons of Jif. I squeezed an orange in too, coz i just happened to have a few.

give it a good stir and then put it into a jug and add water. if the tap water you have is as foul as the toxic waste that comes out of our pipes, you might like to use a bottle of sparkling water from your local supermarket. you can get it for under 20p, and you have a handy plastic bottle to make your ginger beer in.

Give it a good old mix, and then use a funnel to pour the yeast mixture and the ginger mixrure into a 2 litre plastic bottle (or two one litre glass bottles if you are really dead set against using plastic. be warned though - they might explode. I'd say to hell with being green - there's nothing wrong in using a plastic bottle if you have one handy.

screw the top on tight, give it a bit of a shake, and then put it somewhere warm. you might want to loosen the top for a moment every four hours or so.

a day later - get your seive and pour the ginger beer into another container through the seive and funnel.

pop it in the fridge for a few hours, abnd then drink.

James

Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 2866
Location: York

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 09 3:33 pm Post subject:

last summer I made some ginger beer which ended up bone-dry, extremely fizzy and quite strong. After drinking a pint, I felt quite wobbly. certainly not something to give to little neaphews (...or then again...)

how do people keep their ginger beer from becoming alcoholic and dry? I whant a reasonably non alcoholic, slightly fizzy, slightly sweet brew?

I used dove farm bread yeast, btw (which, as an asside I have noticed will ferment to a very high abv given half a chance)

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 09 3:36 pm Post subject:
I use jocorless's Ginger Beer Plant technique here It's not alcohol free by any means but it's not any great strength either.

gnome

Joined: 19 Apr 2006
Posts: 730

Posted: Tue Feb 17, 09 5:05 pm Post subject:
well, if you leave it to ferment, it will keep on fermenting til it's quite strong, but if you put it in the fridge after 24 jours, it will kill off the fermentation process, so will remain sweet and not very alcoholic. "Low alcohol" in the Corless household means you get your eyesight back after a couple of days though.

James

Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 2866
Location: York

Posted: Wed Feb 18, 09 9:04 am Post subject:

gnome wrote:

"Low alcohol" in the Corless household means you get your eyesight back after a couple of days though.

fine by me, but for little neaphews who still need to see when they go to school, I think its best to minimise synaptic damage. Lucky I tested the ginger beer before letting them loose on it...

SmattyB

Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 127
Location: Just landed in Aarhus, Denmark.

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 09 9:51 am Post subject:

Here's another way to do it, just half way through 2 gals of the stuff at the moment.

It's a recipe I took from a home brew site a couple of years ago and have played around with quantities and times to my taste, sweet & fiery. I have had one failure when the whole batch just tasted of brewed sweet liquid, but I think that was a bad batch of ginger root, so it is worth tasting a bit before you start.

Smatt's Brewed Ginger Beer

Ingredients (1Gal)
1 Lemon
500g Sugar
1 gal water
1 tsp dried yeast
200g fresh root ginger
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp cayenne pepper or any chili powder (optional, but I like my ginger beer fiery).

Method
1 gal water in large pot and on the heat
While the water is heating;
Zest and juice the lemon
Coarse grate the ginger (quick wash, but don't bother to peel)

When the water is boiling, chuck everything in (not the yeast!) and simmer for 15 mins and turn the heat off and leave to cool overnight. This infuses all the tastes.

Next day, start the yeast in half a glass of tepid water with a pinch of sugar.
Warm (25-30 C ish) the mixture and stir in the yeast.

Pour everything (including grated ginger) into a demijohn and seal with a bubble seal and let it ferment for about 48hours until steady bubble rate.

Sieve the whole lot into a sterile bucket and transfer into plastic screw top bottles, tonic water/coke bottles work well, but if you use spring water bottles, make sure they were sparkling not still water.

Leave the bottles at room temperature for 24hrs to generate the bubbles. Worth putting them in the bath or the like as I have had one explode (messy!)

Then, if you can wait, put the bottles in the fridge overnight to settle and to slow the fermentation right down � Open and enjoy (makes great 'Moscow Mule' with a decent Vodka!).

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 09 3:21 pm Post subject:
Mmmm, I bought a pound of ginger for 50p at the weekend. Now I know what to do with it.

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