Looking for the perfect alternative to a cold beer? Homemade ginger beer does just the trick! Being able to control the sweetness level allows you to perfect your brew and get all the delicious ginger flavours, without the mountains of sugar of the commercial stuff.
Ingredients for making 2 L Ginger Ale / beer
- 1 inch grated ginger
- 250 ml boiled water
- 1 tsp / 5 g Ginger Beer Yeast
- 2 L water at room temperature (22ºC - 30ºC)
- 0.25 cup/ 60 ml Lemon juice
- 1.3 cup/ 250 g Brown Sugar ( Avoid for non-alcoholic version)
- White sugar for carbonation
- 1 tbsp sanitiser and additional 2 L water for sanitisation
- Fermentation Jar 2 L and Airlock
- Airtight bottles 1L X 2
- Funnel
Procedure
- Wash all equipment to be used with hot water.
- Add 1 tbsp sanitiser in the fermenter and fill it completely with water. Keep aside for 15 min. Swirl and discard the water.
- Steep the fresh grated ginger in 250 mL of boiled water for 10 minutes and then strain the hot ginger liquid into fermenter.
- Mix the brown sugar in 2 cups water till dissolved and transfer to the fermenter ( Avoid this step for non alcoholic version)
- Add lemon juice to the fermenting jar and pour in the remaining water.
- Add the yeast, close the lid and shake the jar for 1 min.
- Place the airlock and keep aside for fermenting for 1 week.
- Once every 2 days, just swirl the jar few times, to get rid of excess gases trapped in. (Optional step)
- After 6 days, wash the carbonation bottles, a small jug and a funnel with boiling water.
- Transfer the ginger beer very slowly into the jug avoiding the white/ grey sediments at the bottom.
- Add 1 tbsp white sugar in 1 liter size of carbonation bottle. Top up with ready ginger beer leaving 2 inch space on top. Close the lid tight and keep aside for a 3 days.
- After 3 days, open the lid slowly and carefully to remove excess gas, close it back and transfer to the fridge.
- Enjoy chilled !
