Homebrewed Ginger Beer
To make your own ginger beer couldn’t be much easier. This recipe is based on the method detailed in the wonderful book, The Art of Fermentation, by Sandor Katz. It uses natural yeasts from the ginger (that’s why organic ginger is important), and produces a fizzy, effervescent beverage that is delicious.
AND THEN!
You can submit your own varietal to enter the giveaway for a signed copy of the cookbook here! Deadline is November 1st!
Ginger Beer Recipe
You’ll Need:
- Ginger Bug (see below)
- organic ginger, about 4″
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 gallon glass jug
- an airlock (useful), or scrap of fabric and rubber band
- 2″ organic ginger
- 2 Tbs. sugar
- water
Start by making up a “ginger bug”. It won’t matter how much, but I usually start with about a tablespoon of grated ginger (skin and all!). Put your grated ginger into a small jar with sugar and water (about 1 tsp and 1 Tbs, respectively). Cover with some fine cheesecloth to keep out real bugs. Continue to add a bit more grated ginger and sugar each day, until the mixture has become bubbly; it should take no more than a few days. Set aside.
For the next step, you’ll make the base for the ginger beer. Put 4 cups of water in a pot over medium high heat, and add about 4″ of thinly sliced ginger. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for around 15 minutes. Carefully strain and pour this hot mixture into a glass gallon jug. *Be careful to increase the temperature of the jug gradually, as intense temp changes can shatter glass.*
Pour in two cups of sugar, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add enough additional water to bring the level up near the top of the jug. When the liquid is no longer hot, add about a Tablespoon of the ginger bug to the jug.
Stir periodically, until there are tiny bubbles visible in the liquid. Once this happens, you can prepare to bottle it. If you like a tamer ginger beer, bottle quickly, but if you prefer a slightly more alcoholic version, let the mixture ferment for a few days.
As with all carbonated home brews, take care when bottling. Place your filled bottles in the fridge to slow down the fermentation. The ginger beer is best enjoyed within a couple of weeks, but it’s so easy, you can keep making more in next to no time at all, provided you keep feeding your ginger bug!
Sounds like a fascinating process. I can just predict glass exploding for me knowing my luck though. :) I think I’ll have to stick with the non-fermented home made ginger drinks.
I’m definitely trying this simply because it brought back memories of my grandmother. She used to keep her bottled ginger beer in the fireplace in summer so if the gas build up popped the corks they would shoot up the chimney- it also meant they were easy to swipe on a hot day and very much appreciated.
That’s terrific! I keep mine in a back stairwell, but I love the idea of the corks going up the chimney! Well done, grandma!
What a great recipe. I attempted some a few years ago but it was unsuccessful, the ginger bug sounds key and I can’t wait to try it!
You know, I was just thinking, “Inn at the Crossroads should have more drink recipes” and then I go to the blog and BOOM! There one is! I’m really excited about trying this. It will be the perfect topper for a Suffering Bastard cocktail.
Very nice. There’s a very experienced homebrewer called John Wright who specialises in home brew made from foraged ingredients, usually made to centuries old recipes. He works with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at the River Cottage Farm (a project farm; organic, sustainable, seasonal produce etc.) and writes for The Guardian. I’ve posted a link to his articles below in case it interests you.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/series/homebrew-from-the-hedgerow
It definitely interests me, thanks for the link! At any given time I have about a half dozen historic and modern brews going- just waiting to see how they turn out before posting the recipes!
So I’ve started making the bug, but I’m sort of confused what to do after.
Can I just use any old glass jug/bottles that I have or should I get proper brewing supplies? I’ve never done any home-brewing and I don’t know if I need to commit to the contraptions.
How does the bottling work? All the home-brewing sites I have come across assume that I know what I’m doing. Ack, how many bottles do you think it will make?
I’m so full of questions!!
I’m really excited to drink the final results, thank you for your recipe/help!
Great! You shouldn’t need any “real” brewing supplies, which is part of what makes this so fun!
You can use any glass bottles, of any size, so long as you maintain the same proportions. I actually bottled the final brew of my last batch in clean plastic soda bottles- this was because I’m camping in hot weather, and the plastic bottles are designed to withstand the pressure of carbonation. One batch made about a gallon, which just filled two soda bottles.
Good luck, and check back in to let us know how it goes!
I can’t wait to try this out! We do a bit of homebrewing, and I think this would be a great addition to the cellar! (aka our storage unit in the basement). Any idea what temperature the yeast from the ginger needs to ferment?
From an empirical standpoint, how alcoholic does this get? (aka, if you get drunk on three beers, will you feel three ginger beers?) I’m assuming the acidity from the CO2 prevents any potential botulinum growth – not too worried about it, but I learned my lesson from infusing oil with garlic at RT.
I’m hoping to make another batch soon to check my numbers, but from my initial measurements, it’s hardly alcoholic at all. I’d like to let a batch go a bit longer, and maybe even add some yeast nutrients to encourage a bit more of a bite. I think it would be lovely. :)
Late to the party here, but I’ve been enjoying ginger beer since last summer, when I discovered a recipe on Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s blog:
http://www.jeffreymorgenthaler.com/2008/how-to-make-your-own-ginger-beer/
I think the advantage to his method is that there’s no boiling needed (aside from making the simple syrup). That recipe usually comes out very sharp though, so I imagine putting a boil to the ginger also helps blunt some of that tartness, not to mention skipping the awful mashing & straining needed to juice a ginger root.
I can’t imagine the effort it must take to get that much ginger juice! Still, it’s interesting to read other recipes…
I started out making my ginger bug, putting it in a regular glass jar with a metal lid. But after a few days I discovered spots of white mold in my bug and had to flush it…
What did I do wrong? Is mold a common problem and are there tricks to avoid it?
I’ve had the same bug for about a month now, with no mold problems. Is the lid tight-fitting? The bug will need air to breathe…
Yes, it was a tight-fitting lid. Should I leave the lid off and just cover it with some cloth instead?
I’d try that. I’ve got a scrap of cotton held on with a rubberband, mostly to keep out the fruit flies. Good luck, and let me know if it works!
My second attempt at the ginger bug with only a piece of cloth and a rubber band was a lot more successful! I’ve got bubbles!
During the next step, when making the actual ginger beer, should I use a lid on the jar or once more a piece of fabric to cover it?
Fabric! So glad it worked this time! :D
I will! Thank you very much!
I have some one-liter soda bottles here and would love to try this – how do you clean your bottles before bottling? Do you use a sanitizer as one might for winemaking? We do not have a dishwasher (except for our older son), so that is not an option, unfortunately. How much headspace do you leave in the bottle?
I must say I am enthralled by Verridian’s story of grandmother’s ginger beer corks – I rather like the idea of the cork being a safety valve, but cannot invest in the proper equipment for corking just now.
If one must go a few weeks without brewing, can the ginger bug live in the fridge, or must one keep feeding at the same rate and perhaps discard part of it? Does all the ginger that goes into the bug need to be organic, or just the starting bit?
Right, so:
-The same sanitizer as for wine making absolutely works for this.
-I leave about 1″ or so of headspace- there’s not really any kreuzen in the base recipe
-I’m not sure how long the ginger beer will go without being fed; I’m sure that putting it in the fridge will help slow it down, as with sourdough starters
-I’d advise that all the ginger for the bug be organic, but that you can use any kind for the boiled bit.
Hope this helps! Good luck, and have fun!
I’m curious – why is organic ginger so important?
Non-organic ginger is usually irradiated, which kills the natural yeast on the ginger. The natural yeast is what provides the fizz-making fermentation in the ginger bug.
Strange, I’ve heard the yeast for a ginger bug comes from natural yeasts found in the air not the ginger plant. I’m really curious which is correct.
Do you peel the ginger before you make the bug/make the ginger beer? Or is the skin vital to the fermentation process?
I grated it into the bug, skin and all. Peeling ginger’s a bore. :)
Agreed! Thanks for clarifying. :)
You mentioned that this was based off of Sandor Katz’s recipe. My sister actually met him while she was in the US Virgin Islands and bought his book Wild Fermentation.
I was wondering why you removed the lemon juice from the recipe. Does it affect the taste of the final product?
Thanks! I’m going to make a regular batch and then try a couple of varietals to submit to the contest.
I wanted to make a very basic version, to which everyone could add their own ingredients. I’ve had it with the lemon, and it’s great! Glad you’re joining the brewing endeavor! :D
Hey, I followed the recipe pretty accurately but –
After bottling as well as before (tried different approaches) i was left with a gooey white mass instead of a liquid.
Now i wonder what went wrong??
Wow, that’s unusual! What, if anything, did you change in following the recipe?
From all of the other recipes I’ve read about ye gooey mass is the Ginger Beer Plant. You usually strain the liquid from this and use the liquid. The plant can then be halved and fed again. The remaining half you can start a second batch with, toss, or share with a friend.
I’m preparing to make this for the first time (just started up my bug!), but I have one question. When you say: Stir periodically, until there are tiny bubbles visible in the liquid. Does this mean wait for a few hours or days? It me seem a silly question but I’m not a native English speaker, and I’m a little confused by this sentence. By the way, I loved you flaky bread recipe!
It’s not a silly question! I was vague. :) It will probably take a couple of days for the tiny bubbles to appear.
Ok, thanks for the quick reply! I’ll let you know how it worked out!
I have started a bug and after 4 days no bubbles, I have covered with a (Clean Chux which breaths).
I have been adding the sugar and ginger daily Can you help…
Have you tried using organic ginger? Sometimes the normal stuff has had stuff done to it to help it keep longer.
Is it warm enough? If it’s too cold, under or around 60F I believe, the yeast can die or just not be active enough.