Ginger Beer

Ginger Beer is slightly misleading of name. It is a gingery home made beverage, I usually drink mine before it ferments too far into something recognizable as alchohol. I started my ginger beer 4 days ago. The Ginger Beer is started by adding 1 1/2 cups of water with 1 Tablespoon sugar and 1 Tablespoon powdered ginger or chopped fresh ginger (I used fresh) and 1/2 teaspoon of yeast. So far it has been very simple. Every day you add 1 Tablespoon sugar and 1 Tablespoon ginger to the mixture and stir. Make sure from start to finish all utensils and jar that come into contact with the Ginger Beer are sterile and keep jar covered with something were it can still get air, I am using cheesecloth. The ginger beer started getting a bubbly foam type consistency on the top yesterday (that would have been on day 3). Picture below is on day 4.

Right: Ginger Beer
Left: Sourdough Starter

The mixture is bottled on the 7th day. To do this you add your ginger and sugar mixture one last time then strain the ginger beer starter through a cheese cloth into a container big enough to hold at least 20 cups of water. After straining the ginger beer starter into the container I start another batch with half of the grated ginger that is left in the cheesecloth from the present batch (throw half away or give to a friend). I then stir in 20 cups of water, the juice of 2 lemons and 3 cups of sugar. Next, put the mixture into plastic bottles (clean and sterile!) to set for 2 to 3 days until bubbly (the plastic may swell a little, if this happens put in the fridge immediately! This slows the fermentation) Do not use glass as it could explode when the gasses form, then put in the fridge. For a more detailed Ginger Beer recipe or find our more about its origins etc.... click here and here.