Ginger Beer

Ginger beer starter on day two, there's not much to see

Finally it's sunny more days than it's not, I've been planning some brewing experiments and now seems like a good time to get started. The Archivist has fond memories of his family bottling ginger beer and suggested that I get the family recipe. His mum wrote back, she and her brother used to use a method like this with bakers yeast and dried ginger when they were kids. She didn't recall the method that they used later.

So I decided to an experimental approach and culture a wild ginger beer starter. I found a recipe and I started things off in the hot water cupboard about three weeks ago, combining water, ginger and sugar in a loosely covered jar. I bottled the first batch 6 days later in 1 litre Italian made stoppered bottles scavenged at garage sales. After two weeks the beer was still flat and I moved the bottles from the garage to the living area, six days over 30 degrees later, a batch bottled in cheap and evidently shoddy Chinese made bottles started exploding, so I decided to try the the first batch was again.

The resulting beer is has a good ginger zing and has a slight and pleasant sourness from the microbes that you don't get in the commercial variety. If you can wait the recommended two weeks it will be more fizzy if it's left longer to ferment.

Now I need to try it in a Dark 'n' Stomry.

Ginger Beer
Makes 4 litres
Adapted from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

8 cm or more of fresh ginger root
500 g sugar
2 lemons or limes
Water

To prepare the ginger beer starter add two teaspoons of grated ginger (skin on) and two teaspoons of sugar to 250 mL of water. Stir well and leave in a warm spot, covered with cheese cloth to allow air circulation. Add this amount of ginger and sugar every day or two and stir, until the bug starts bubbling in two days to a week.

Make the ginger beer any time after the bug become active. Boil 2 litres of water, add about five centimetres of grated ginger root (add up to 15 cm for a really intense ginger beer) and 500 grams of sugar. Boil for 15 minutes and cool.

Once the ginger-sugar-water mixture has cooled, strain the ginger out and add the juice of the lemons and the strained ginger bug (if you want start an ongoing process keep a few tablespoons of the bug and replenish it with water, grated ginger and sugar). Add enough water to make four litres.

Bottle in sealable bottles, leave the bottles to ferment in a warm spot for about two weeks. You will be able to see bubbles of carbon dioxide rising to the top of the bottle when fermentation is active.

Chill before opening and be prepared for strong carbonation.