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Actually Ginger is a very old beer. In fact according to some research it was the most popular drink in British Inns and taverns up until the first world war. I presume that those brave young men discovered the joys of Stella Artois and maybe even Budvar whilst being massacred in foreign fields and thought, "why don't they do stuff like this at home?". It's like anything else the beer you can't get is the one you want and our returning heroes shunned Mead, Cider and Ginger beer in favour of more complex stuff and rightly so.
In fact some will tell you that we have actually lost the art of ginger beer making all but completely now and point to the fact that the sweet sugary, fizzy drink that you get at the supermarket is actually pretty far removed from what ginger beer tastes like. I actually quite like the sweet, sugary fizzy drink but I'd still agree with the purists that it bears no resemblance to real ginger beer. It also lacks the 4.5% alcohol of the stuff that I'm going to recommend you make (unless you don't do alcohol). Unfortunately however the purists aren't going to love my version either.
Let's get some history first. I was watching a program called River Cottage on channel four in the UK. It's a great show where this accomplished cook makes you wonder why you ever settled for a hot dog or a burger, why your garden isn't bursting with herbs and spices and why you ever need to purchase vegetables. It kind of washes over me to be honest and I love nothing more than to settle down with a hot dog and cheese toastie in front of the TV and watch this guy tell me what life could be like. Anyway one day he really grabbed my attention. As part of a seasonal summer menu he declared that he was going to make an alcoholic ginger beer in just two days. Two days.... I practically hid behind the sofa to watch excitedly. Why had no-one told me that ginger beer could be alcoholic? Two days.... Why the hell had I ever paid for beer? Two bloody days...Alcohol....good stuff and in just two days. My world collapsed around me. This guy had truly discovered the true meaning of life and it didn't involve preaching or fighting Romans. Nobody was beheaded and nobody even needed to feel guilty. Screw making bread and fish for the masses or turning water into wine (actually keep the water into wine bit) we are talking two days for 4% ginger beer. I watched in quaking awe.....
The recipe involved ginger and lemons and lime and sugar (a lot of sugar) and yeast in an empty two litre bottle that you left to ferment for...you guessed it....two days (maybe I made that up maybe it was four but whatever). I followed the recipe. Something definitely happened in the bottle. I tried it. A bit powdery but gingery. Problem.... no alcohol. Less than 1%. Since there had been a reaction in the bottle I decided to try again but leave it for two weeks. Not bad tasting but still I'm afraid untroubled by alcohol.
I had the bug now however and had started searching the web for recipes. I came across the recipe that the purists probably long for me to print here (although there are some purer than pure purists who still say even that isn't right). I made what is called a ginger beer plant. Search ginger beer plant on wikipedia and then follow the link to the H2G2 site and you'll get instructions on how to create and share a ginger beer plant. Apparently according to the purer than purist ginger beer experts it isn't possible to make this at home but the recipe I tried made an effort to work. The plant involved all the ingredients of the two day recipe but, made in a jar, fed daily with sugar and ginger and then diluted after seven or eight days. I followed the recipe. Whilst brewing the 'plant' is interesting to watch as things float to the surface and back down again. I felt a bit at one with nature as I created this natural gem of a recipe. I diluted it. I released the pressure in the 2l bottles every couple of days and tasted every so often (let's be honest I tasted daily). I learnt to use something called a hydrometer (more on that in a future post) to test the alcohol. It took six weeks to reach 2.7% proof. Properly chilled it actually tasted fantastic. Like nothing I've tried before. Cool, crisp and fresh with a bit of a bite that caught your breath with every gulp. If I could just get this to be a bit stronger and a bit quicker we would be in business. It tasted so damn good that my resolve became stronger than ever. I wanted ginger beer that tasted this good but was properly (4% or above) alcoholic.
More research and my success with wine mentioned below spurred me on. This time I upped the ingredients, put them in a five gallon bucket and added a sachet of brewers yeast from a local home brew shop. Bugger me but ten days later it was 2.7% proof and it had been that way since about day six. What was going wrong? It wasn't helpful to read forums where people claimed this worked because it didn't. In desperation to see if the experiment could be saved I added a couple of t-spoons of wine yeast to the 2.7% brew. It started brewing again. 4 days later and we had a four percent brew.
Problem.... The above brew didn't taste great. Not bad but, you have to be honest with yourself about these things, not great, be even more honest, below average. Now I was getting beat.
Because it didn't taste great I didn't drink much of it after the first week but, once the wine stock started getting low, I chilled another bottle about two weeks later. No way!!!!! It tasted great and had achieved the glory of 4% proof. Now all that had to be done was to refine the recipe. I'm not going to go through all the successes and failures but below is the key to making a superb 4-5% ginger beer that tastes truly great.
You need for 5 gallons/ 22 UK litres:
4-5 lemons
4-5 limes
About ten knuckles of ginger or two 200ish gram jars of 'easy ginger' (ready chopped ginger in oil).
2 kg sugar (normal shop bought sugar is fine and no, 2kg is not a mistype)
2 t-spoons of cream of tartar (apparently this might be optional but I've never tried it without)
2 t-spoons of wine yeast
Equipment you need:
A five gallon, food safe bucket (they call this a fermentor). Food safe is important buy one from a brew shop or maybe ask your local bakery to give you one of the ones they get supplies in. Don't use the bucket you use to wash the car.
A lid for the bucket with a hole pierced in the middle
A bubbler that goes in to the hole (brew shops sell these for pennies)
A length of tube to syphon off the beer (future post for syphoning or google it now)
11 empty and clean 2l fizzy drink bottles. (They must be fizzy drink bottles not still drink bottles as they need to be able to handle pressure)
Method:
Zest the lemons and limes (the peel has a strong flavour, get a zester or use a grater on the skin)
Half the lemons and limes and stick in the microwave for a minute (this makes them easier to squeeze
Grate your ginger finely or...open the jars of grated ginger
Boil a kettle (approx 2litres) of boiling water.
Pour the boiling water in to the bucket (avoid inhaling the vapour it's apparently bad for you)
Add the 2kg of sugar and stir till dissolved
Squeeze the lemons and limes into the water
Add the other ingredients and stir
Add two T-spoons of cream of tartar
Top you're bucket up with 20 litres of tap water (the guide on the bucket I bought from the brew shop was wrong. The only way to know you're topping up exactly 20 litres is to top up using ten two litre bottles.
Stir
If you have a hydrometer it's time to take a sample and record the opening reading. If not go to the next step.
Add two t-spoons of wine yeast.
Put the lid on, put the bubbler in and leave in a place that's as close to room temperature as you can get.
7-10 days later (If using a hydrometer you want a read below 1006, if not wait 10 days):
Clean and if possible sterilise the 2l bottles (google it if unsure or ask a parent with a small child, they are forever sterilising things)
Add a tablespoon of sugar to each empty bottle (that's four t-spoons or 2 desert spoons)
Syphon the liquid into the bottles leaving about 2.5cm gap at the top
(Don't worry if it tastes slightly flat and odd at this stage. There's still magic happening)
Cap the bottles tightly and store somewhere where it wouldn't matter if they exploded (hasn't happened to me yet but apparently it probably will)
Leave for ten days. (Patience, patience, patience)
Refrigerate a bottle for at least one hour
Pour out a pint glass and marvel at you 4-5% stroke of pure home brewing genius.
By all means you should now pat yourself on the back. You are a true brewer and, let's face it, apart from the bucket this stuff was way cheap. You now have 10-11 2l bottles of heaven. It tastes much nicer and fresher than shop bought ginger beer but beware...It's 4-5% proof. It gives you a headache and shaky hands if you over indulge. It would be illegal to drive in the UK after just one pint.
Drink sensibly, improve the recipe and then let me know how you got on.
There is no better way of saving money and making yourself happy than to create your own alcoholic home made fizzy drink.
Go for it
TQ
