The other day sister and I realized after a little research how easy it would be to make our own ginger beer! This fizzy, zesty drink adds so much flavor to mixed drinks and is tasty enough to drink on its own. We encourage you to try making it yourself. You only need a few ingredients – fresh ginger, sugar, water, and yeast. You can use the active dry yeast you have in your fridge for bread making or you can purchase some brewer’s yeast. Either way – it turns out great!
I’ve discovered that when a recipe calls for so many days to ferment – the temperature in my kitchen must be significantly lower because it takes at least double the amount of time for me to ferment something. I say this, so if this is the case for you as well…don’t give up on it! You will know when popping the top if it is ready to be consumed. It will be fizzy and carbonated.
Ingredients – what you’ll need:
Gingerette
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
Ginger Beer
- 1/8 tsp active dry yeast or brewer’s yeast
- Gingerette (ingredients for this is above)
- 3 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 7 cups filtered water
Step 1 – make your gingerette
Take out a medium saucepan and heat up your water, sugar, and grated ginger to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and let the ginger steep for at least 20 minutes. The next time I make this I am steeping mine for 50 minutes to see if the ginger flavor is more powerful. The longer you steep, the stronger it will be so it is up to your personal preference.
Step 2 – Fill your bottles
After letting your gingerette cool, gather some larger glass bottles of some kind. You can use quart or half gallon mason jars, water kefir bottles or bottles with a flip top. It really doesn’t matter but you need to know how many ounces or cups will fit into the bottle. I used (2) glass bottles that would hold half of the recipe in each bottle. I just divided all the ingredients in half for each of the bottles. You could also use (2) quarts or (1) half gallon mason jar.
Pour the gingerette into the bottle, then the yeast, and it top off with the lemon and filtered water. Give it a good shake or stir it all together and place on the counter for at least a couple of days. It took me a week for it to ferment enough to produce carbonation. You will need to check on the bottle and pop the top every few days to ensure pressure hasn’t built up enough to explode. This may seem intimidating at first but I’ve never had anything bust on me in all of my fermenting.
After it is done fermenting, chill in the fridge before enjoying! And that’s it! Happy fermenting, friends!
