I wrote this when I was 36 years old.
By the time you read it, I will be 37. In mere hours, I will have aged an entire year.
It’s high time we start marking our passing of time not in years, but in minutes. The passing, then, will be less significant – less of a badge to wear, whether it’s honor or shame, depending on your outlook.
Numbers become significantly less important the higher they are. Take the national debt for instance; 15 trillion means nothing to you, really, does it? It’s just a crazy big number to which you might attach anger, but really it means nothing to your brain.
Instead of 37 years old, maybe I’ll be 324, 335 hours old. (Holy frick! THAT is old.) Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.
To mark my new year-that’s-really-only-a-few-hours-when-you-think-about-it, I wanted to make a cocktail that was a little bit crunchy, and a lot a bit fun. So I tried ginger beer (to which I will add rum and lime juice, and it will be the ubiquitous Dark & Stormy).
This. This FAR exceeded my expectations – both in quality and in spiciness. It lives somewhere between the worlds of tantalizing-tongue-tickler and blow-your-face-off-mama-hot. It might be a little closer to the latter.
Letting it sit, though, for just a few hours really mellowed it out a lot, so if you don’t want your ginger beer/ale too strong, cut the ginger down a little, but not too much.
Before I show you how I made this, I want to make two very important points:
- This recipe is slightly alcoholic (VERY slightly) only because of the short fermentation time – just enough to give it a fizz. Based on my completely unscientific judgment, I’d say it’s even less alcoholic than kombucha.
- While, throughout the post, you’ll see this being stored in glass bottles, I don’t recommend you do this unless you’re being very, very, very careful about it. The fermentation process causes CO2 buildup, which – in time – is too much for the glass to handle (and could cause the glass to break and cause a huge mess and/or injuries). Other than for picture-taking, I’m keeping my lids cracked slightly to let the gas escape. It’s better to use a plastic bottle, which allows room for the pressure to build a little (which you’ll want to let escape if you see the plastic bulging). This is one of the very few times I’ve been bummed about not having any plastic bottles in the house.
- This is DELICIOUS. This is also three points.
An Honest-to-Goodness Homemade Ginger Beer Recipe
If you go out in search of ginger beer or ale recipes on the internet, you’ll see two different kinds. One is similar to this (only occasionally different steps) and one is an instant gratification version that mostly just involves making a ginger simple syrup and adding club soda to it.
I pretty much followed this recipe to the letter. The only difference was that I used a little less ginger than the recipe called for, so its intensity shocked the holy batman out of me.
And to be completely frank, I used his only because it was the Dark & Stormy recipe after the initial ginger beer instructions that had me jumping up and down.
Okay. Now for the fun part.
Yes. I forgot to list lemon on that picture. The ginger beer must’ve gotten to my head while I was editing pictures. Please squint a little and see if you can imagine the word lemon in that list. There you go.
Step 1: Grate, Grind, or Finely Chop 2-ish Cups of Ginger
Several people have mentioned to me lately (on yesterday’s post, too) that often there’s no reason to peel ginger. This seemed like one of those times in which there was no reason.
So I just washed it off, tossed several broken bits into my small food processor, and let it do it’s job. It was PERFECT. And so much faster than peeling and chopping.
I kept tossing in little pieces of washed ginger and measuring until I reached nearly 2 cups – not quite. Again, if you don’t want super spicy ginger ale, I wouldn’t recommend using this much ginger. A cup and a half would more than suffice.
After that, you put the ginger in the bottom of your container.
Step 2: Add 2 Cups of Organic, Unrefined Sugar
Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to make this without sugar, because it’s the sugar that the yeast eats. The good news is, the yeast will eat the sugar and convert it, so there’s not even remotely 2 cups of sugar left when you’re done.
There’s actually not much left to go now, believe it or not. If I remember right, this whole process (minus the 24 hour wait time) took about 15 minutes.
Step 3: Add 2 Quarts of Boiling, Filtered Water
I don’t really know what else to add to this step’s instructions.
“Add water” is pretty self explanatory.
Oh yeah! There is more to add. Stir.
Stir.
The end.
Step 4: Add the Juice of Two Lemons
You guys know how to juice a lemon, right?
The secret to a quick and easy lemon juicing is to roll the lemon under the palm of your hand while using pretty firm pressure. You’ll be able to feel it soften under your skin. When it’s a little mushy, that’s when it’s time to juice.
Just cut it in half and start squishing down, over your container, with your thumb.
Because we’re going to strain all of this anyway, I didn’t even worry about the seeds that plopped in. They can stay. For now.
Step 5: Stir Again and then Wait About An Hour Before You Add 1 tsp Yeast
You don’t want to add the yeast when it’s piping hot, or else you’ll damage all the yeasty goodness. Wait until it’s tepid to the touch.
For me, this took about an hour.
Now you just dump your yeast in and give it another good stir and cover it lightly. You could even just cover it with plastic wrap, if you don’t want to store this in a plastic jug.
Of note, the yeast I used is actually a beer yeast called Brettanomyces. I only used it because I had it left over from a year ago (while trying to make apple cider vinegar) and wondered if it was still any good. OH MY, it was.
But you can use any kind of active yeast. Even the kind that comes in the little packets that you bake your bread with. The type of yeast you use will change the taste slightly, but for all intents and purposes, there’s no reason not to just use good old bread-baking yeast.
Step 6: Wait 24 Hours, Strain, and Enjoy!
There are several other recipes that suggest a longer brewing time, which you can certainly do. But the longer you brew it, the more alcoholic it’s going to be (and I hear that if you let the alcohol content on this get too high, it can cause some wicked hangovers).
I let mine go for exactly 24 hours, and it neither tastes nor feels alcoholic. In addition, my house is really cold – and the warmer it is, the faster it’ll brew. What I’m saying is: If you don’t want any noticeable alcohol content, don’t let this ferment for more than 24 hours.
I got ahead of myself, though.
After 24 hours, strain everything out using a cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Make sure you don’t see any more yeasties floating around.
Then, you just store it in the fridge, which stops the fermentation process, and you drink it with a nice helping of cold, cold ice.
If, for some reason, it’s too gingery for you, just add a little water to wet it down a bit – or even a little club soda to give it more of a fizzy kick.
Homemade Ginger Beer
- 1-1/2 to 2 cups of ginger (depending on how spicy you want it), grated or finely chopped
- 2 cups of organic, unrefined sugar
- 2 quarts of boiling water
- Juice from 2 lemons
- 1 tsp yeast
In a large plastic or other breathable container, combine the ginger, sugar, and boiling water. Stir or shake well to dissolve the sugar. Add in the juice of two lemons and stir or shake again. Allow this mixture to cool to lukewarm temperature, about an hour. Add in yeast. Stir or shake again. Cover lightly and leave alone for 24 hours. Strain the ginger from the mixture and enjoy! Keeps in the fridge for up to a week. Best enjoyed within a few days, for that kicky gingery taste. (Remember, putting it in the fridge stops the fermentation process, so it’s a vital step.)
If you want to go about this a completely different way, don’t forget about water kefir!
And now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go have fun.
19,460,104 minutes worth of pent-up fun.
That’s what I’m about to have.
Mwah!
5 Fresh Ways to Use Ginger in Homemade Beauty
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, I love it.
I pass this on to my two daughters.
I checked out some of your other remedies, and will try some of them.
Thank you
Mona
Your homemade ginger beer seems very good. Homemade ginger beer is always my first choice for Moscow Mule. It is more powerful than that on market.
hmm…i think it will be a ‘dark and stormy’ night around here for a bit! no worries, as long as i have this recipe, i’ll be good to go!
One of the highlights of my yearly missionary trip to Kenya, East Africa is to drink Stoney ginger beer. Cold or warm most of the time it is a delightful treat for me and not available in the United States. I’ve tried to duplicate it here in the U.S. with no success until I found this sight. I juice my ginger root and lemon but then put both the juice and the by product into the water, sugar, and yeast for 24 hours at room tempature.
God bless you all who have been developing this blog Pastor jim
OMG this is my new fav for the summer! I read the post, got up, chopped about 1 cup organic ginger with skin on (love that!), chose 1.5 cups dark treacle sugar, juice of two fresh lemons, and 2 litres boiling water… stirred that all well. Then got itchy and used the stick blender to get the ginger even finer… left it till the temp was luke, and added 1tsp of local bread yeast and stepped back….
12 hours later I had a wee taste and fell totally in love! 24 hours later and i’m over the engagement and ready for marriage. Seriously. It’s that good…
And everyone who came for a braai (barbecue) today agreed, I’m like the new ginger beer heroine!
Love it love it love it!
Crunchy Betty you rule.
xx Dawn from SA
Hmm, me again. I reread your recipe and realize two significant differences between your recipe and mine.
First mine uses 2 cups of sugar but it makes a gallon. Yours makes a little over two quarts. This means yours is much sweeter than mine. You can probably get by with only 1 cup of sugar as you did express concern.
Second difference is that I only use 1/8 tsp of yeast for the entire gallon. I’m not sure exactly what affect this has. I *imagine* that I have to wait longer (2 to 3 days) for mine to properly carbonate whereas yours is ready over night. Mine is probably less alcoholic than yours. (In fact, ignore what I wrote above; quite possibly half your sugar *was* consumed. But if you want less sugar use less sugar and less yeast.) I’ll have to try your recipe and see what happens.
“Unfortunately, I don’t see a way to make this without sugar, because
it’s the sugar that the yeast eats.”
Ah! But as ginger beer is non-alcoholic (that is to say negligeably alcohol) very little of the sugar is actually consumed. So you can actually use just a 1/4 cup of sugar (it’d probably help if you put the yeast directly in the sugar and a cup or so of water before adding to the rest) and use artificial sweetener for the rest. Or so I’ve been told; I’ve never done this myself and to be honest I have my doubts.
“The good news is, the yeast will eat
the sugar and convert it, so there’s not even remotely 2 cups of sugar
left when you’re done.”
Whoa! This isn’t at all true. The actual amount of sugar consumed is so very little that nearly, but not, all of the sugar will remain. Sorry.
Basically, the sugar converts to alcohol and CO2 is the side product. The more sugar eaten the more alcohol in the end. And vice versa, the less alcohol in the end means less sugar having been consumed.
So *theoretically* if you let it sit for a long time so that you give the yeast a chance to eat all the sugar you’ll get a drink with not much sugar but lots of alcohol. (In other words, you’d have beer.)
My old boss made this and she said it was great… I’m going to make mine today because the yeast I purchased is finally here.. Going to let it sit in a growler for 24 hours and will then let everyone know how it turned out…
I had no idea it was this easy! I’m a big fan of ginger beer so this places “next” on my to-do list. I’m curious…how fizzy does it wind up being when it’s ready to drink?
My Dad used to make it with dried powdered gingerandjust feed the yeast with sugar ang waterto keep it going
oh man, I love dark & stormys. My fave, that and Scarlette O’Haras w/ extra lime.
This is the best post ever! I love it, am going to save it and make this ginger beer for deffo. Thanks alot!
I hate to be a pedant – brettanomyces should only ever be used in specialty Belgian beers. It leaves a horse-sweat leathery fug in everything it touches. Just use a saccharomyces strain (common ale yeast, easy to find) and you will preserve the fresh flavour you seek.
I too was surprised at the use of Brett. I am guessing that the sugar/fermentation levels weren’t high enough to get the Brett taste, especially since Brett doesn’t activate or ferment as quickly as Sacch. I will second that if anyone is planning to leave it longer or go with a higher alcohol content version – be wary of using Brett. Also, I would agree with Jessica — stay away from bread yeast as you will more likely get bread-y aromas.
American Ale is probably the easiest and clearest, I don’t know much about wine yeasts but I have heard they also do well in ciders though. Safbrew brand US-50 or T-58 are cheap and should be available at any home brew supply store.
So I made this with Fleschman’s Yeast and well….while it’s pretty tasty, the minute I opened the container I thought someone just popped a fresh loaf out of the oven. It’s a little hard to look past, but when vodka is added and Moscow Mule’s commence I guess it evens the playing field.
One idea to help with the escaping CO2 gas is to use a bottle like this (it was bought filled with apple cider):
http://wwwdelivery.superstock.com/WI/223/1555/PreviewComp/SuperStock_1555R-323915.jpg
Then take a balloon, stretch the opening across the mouth of the bottle, and put one small pin prick in it.
As the gas builds up, it will fill the balloon; and the pin prick will allow it to escape if necessary. If there is a lot of gas it will stretch the hole larger so more can escape.
This ginger beer passed the Jamaican taste test with flying colours…..even my husband, who stood over me, shaking his head and saying, “Ah no so mi mek it” drank 2 glasses one after the other….it’s perfectly delicious!
I
know your birthday was a few weeks ago, but I couldn’t post again without
letting you know
That
the light in your heart shines like the sun up above, and I wanted to
thank you for all your love
Your
love for your body, your love for the earth, your love for us readers, and for the
power of self-worth
Love
is the light that transforms the soul, and each of your posts, Betty, add to
the huge beautiful whole.
There is a magnificent importance to the wisdom you share: we change
the world with our love and our care.
Sorry
for posting this all in a silly rhyme, understand that as a child care worker I
just speak like this half the time!
I hope you had a truly magical day, keep on being, living
and sharing your love, always.
LOVE ginger beer! It was a new discovery when I traveled in New Zealand. Thanks for the easy instructions. I’ll be making this super soon!!
I thought this sounded great and drove to the store last Thursday to get some ginger to try it out. They were out of ginger, so I decided to pickle jalepenos and make dried banana chips and save the ginger beer for another day. But while I was digging around my fridge, I found a box of strawberries that needed to be eaten, so I concocted a strawberry-lime “cocktail” mimicking your recipe. I thought “beer” just sounded wrong with strawberry. I let it ferment for a couple of days, transferred it to bottles and sealed them off. Sunday night, my roommate and I decided we would crack one open and see how it turned out. After the explosion, as we sipped on the 4 ounces of drink that remained in the bottle and scrubbed the ceiling, we decided calling it strawberry champagne was probably appropriate. It was delicious. We are going to collect some bottles and have a fruit cocktail party this summer, making these out of all sorts of different fruit concoctions. I still haven’t figured out how to go about opening up the other two bottles I have chilling in my fridge. Word to the wise, keep the bottles cracked longer than you think you have to.
Happy Birthday!! 😀 This sounds super amazing. I didn’t think it was possible to make ginger beet at home that easily. Definitely giving this one a try!
Happy happy birthday!! May your year be crunchy and wonderful!
Happy Birthday! And thank you for the recipe! I’ve made a batch after reading your post and the whole family loves it. Thanks again!
Made this right way, and just strained it, chilled it for a bit. I did change this a bit by adding Limes, I LOVE limes and didn’t have 1
& 1/2 C of ginger I only had about 3/4-1 C, so this wasn’t as
strong and once the 24 hours was up I added a bit of carbonated lime
water. After a few sips I really like it, but at first Jim and I thought
this was a bit too ‘odd’ tasting, but after I added some ice cubes, fresh
limes slices, and a splash of carbonated lime water, yummy! Bought 3 knobs of fresh ginger so I have plenty ginger to make this again, plus the ginger is so good for you!
I’m making this right now. Got a huge bottle of it standig right next to me and I can’t wait to taste it in 10 hours and 26 minutes from now.
I’ve never tried this before, though, one time I’ve brewed Absinthe with my father in law. It was really simple, really nice and really funny!
Happy Birthday! This looks do-able, I am soo trying this, this weekend. We LOVE ginger ale, I really love lime with my ginger ale so I am thinking of using some limes, don’t think that would cause any issues, do you? Thanks for all the gr8 ideas!
Ooooo…Yay! I LOVE Ginger Beer. I’m from St. Thomas and this is a popular drink there. If you like this you should also try Sorrel.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday! We are probably going to make this tomorrow since it looks so good and easy! Thank you again!
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Happy Birthday!!!
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I LOVE homemade ginger ale… but just like my kefir soda, the fizziness is ever elusive. You’ve given me the courage to try, try again. It’s probably my cold house.
Have a Dark & Stormy for me in the meantime and I’ll toast your birthday tonight with a glass of local Zin 🙂
Could I substitute some kombucha cultures for the yeast? I have a lot left in the freezer from when I used to brew Kombucha on a regular basis. Or would it be better to use the yeast?
Happy Birthday!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Woo Hoo!
I tried making a much more labor intensive version of this once that took weeks and used powdered ginger. I think I’ll try your version next time.
I was awarded the Versatile Blogger award and I’d like to pass it on to you – if you accept them. I really enjoy your blog and have learned much from it. If you’d like to accept, go to this link – http://ramblingsofahappyhomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/whoo-hoo-id-like-to-thank-kari-from.htmlHave a wonderful birthday!Pam
Happy birthday!!
This is also the same recipe we use to make ginger beer. Enjoy your dark and stormy!
Happiest birthday wishes to you, Betty! Another fun-filled, educational post (with some bubbles, even); what a great way to start a new year. XO
Again, Awesome! Ginger ale/ beer rocks! Happy Birthday Betty!!! {(^o^)}
Happy Crunchy 37th Birthday!!! I am definitely going to try this. I love ginger.
Happy Birthday! 🙂 I’ve been making ginger beer like this for years from a recipe a Jamaican friend of mine gave me. I go to the wine store and buy champagne yeast which is very light and makes for a nicely fizzy ginger beer with a very smooth flavor. I love my homemade ginger beer mixed with Pimms over ice in the summer. Best drink ever!
Happy Birthday, Betty!! Mine just passed as well, I may have to give myself a belated treat with this recipe though!
My husband and I are seasoned homebrewers (beer and cider). There are LOTS of things you can use to feed your yeast besides just sugar. Molasses, honey, maple syrup (we only use grade B) and brown sugars are just a few things that immediately come to mind and would taste great in a ginger beer.
Molasses! YES. That sounds a-MAY-zing. Thank you for chiming in. If you have any other tips, I would love to hear ’em!
If anything else pops into the ol’ noggin I’ll be sure to pass it along 🙂
do you use the same amounts of those alternatives as sugar? or how do you adjust it? I’ve made ginger ale with sugar, but haven’t made it so much because I freak out seeing all that sugar. I’d love to try an alternative.
On the Gracious Pantry.com (a site that referred me to here, so I think it is ok to mention it here) you have a file that confirts how you can replace sugar by stuff like agave, maple syrup and so on.
Holy schnikeys this looks amazing! Soon as my house warms up a lil this spring the ginger beer making is ON!
Could this be made with honey instead of sugar? Based on my (admittedly not great) research, even cooked honey is healthier than sugar. And yeast loves honey. (That last bit is based on much experience with baking different kinds of bread.)
I ask partly because my husband loves ginger ale (beer, whatever) but is diabetic and honey metabolizes better than sugar. I’m trying to convert all of my sugar-containing recipes to honey.
Any input would be appreciated!
YUM! Raising a ginger beer toast to you on this day of your birth! Hope its a great one!
Thanks for this. It will be my Crunchy weekend project. Have a great birthday! Love from Marian in England. XX
Looks refreshing! Happy Birthday! 🙂
I am forwarding this to my DH. He loves ginger beer!
How great! I was hunting around the internet last night for a ginger beer recipe! synchronicity, perhaps? Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I’m going to make it for my ginger loving kids!
Happy birthday!
This looks delicious. I had no idea it was so simple to make homemade ginger beer!
Happy Birthday! Hope you have a fantastic day 😀
I enjoy your blog and I would like to recognize you by awarding your blog the Versatile Blogger Award. If you would like to accept it, please go to my blog to receive it here:http://canninggranny.blogspot.comIf you do not accept blog awards, please let me know and I will forward it to someone else instead.Thank you,Pam (Canning Granny)Reply
Happy birthday, and thanks for the fabulous tutorial! I shall toast you in 24 hours.
Hot, sweaty happy birthday hugs from the hottest, most humid corner of Australia. I shall think of your icy cold ginger beer while I’m sweating my butt off (and I kinda mean that literally!) at work tomorrow 😀
This is very exciting to read – I have always wanted to try it but had no idea it was so easy. Hey I saw something once about using balloons to seal the bottles. That way they expand with the CO2 produced, without risking damage to your pretty bottles (or self). Might be worth a shot?
About that balloon thing, do you just put a balloon on top of the bottle your are using? Because that would be fancy!
Happy Birthday! Enjoy!!!!
Yay Betty! happy birthday! You don’t look an hour over 324, 334! Have an excellent, fun-filled, wonderful, relaxing, envigorating, glorious birthday! Hugs from Denmark.
hi Wishing you an absolutely fabolistic diliriously happy Birthday.
Thank you so much for all your posts I just love them. I’m still new to all the crunchy stuff, have put Three jars of Vinegar to infuse for cleaning. Lemon Verbena ,Lemon Peel and Ginger all fresh. one with sage and Lavender. And the third is Thyme and Peppermint. Hope they all turn out nice.
Enjoy your day and I hope you get spoilt rotten.
Monika from Johannesburg South Africa