Home-made ginger beer is an old favorite that’s easy to make and super yum for your taste buds. This is an “alcoholic” type ferment, although with this particular recipe the idea is that it’s considered non-acoholic, saying this – it’s very hard to not have *any* alcohol content, so please be aware of this.
This liquid ferment uses a “sourdough” type of culture called “the mother” which you can make yourself. A word of caution – this brew has a reputation for blowing up bottles, the reason being is to make the drink sweet you have to put un-fermented sugar in the bottle. The yeasts in the brew continue fermenting to create bubbles (CO2) and will eventually create *so much pressure* that the bottles can blow. The solution is to make a batch for a special event and then drink it all then, do not let it linger on your shelves.
So how do you make it? Here’s our much loved recipe – enjoy!
.
Starting the “Mother”
Teaspoon yeast
Teaspoon of sugar
Teaspoon of ginger powder
1 cup of water
In a glass jar, mix these ingredients together and cover with a cheesecloth or a loose fitting lid. Every day add an additional teaspoon of sugar and teaspoon of ginger, after around 1 week it’ll be ready to use. You’ll be able to tell as it’ll be fizzy (you’ll see little bubbles) and smell incredible.
The mother – she smells *amazing*
To make 10 Liters of ginger beer
250g grated fresh ginger
100g dry ginger
Teaspoon of chili flakes
Teaspoon of peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks
Desert spoon of cloves
1 kg sugar
10 liters of water
6 lemons
Method
Make 3 liters of tea with all ingredients, except sugar and lemon.
Boil for 1 hour and let cool.
Dissolve in the sugar and add the juice of 6 lemons – add another 7 litres to this brew to bring it up to around 10 liters.
Once it’s cooled down, add the mother. In terms of how much of it you add, you can put 90% of the liquid (almost one cup). You can then add more water and keep feeding it to keep it going for the next batch (if you choose).
Bottle into old soft drink or beer bottles, we prefer glass bottles.
It will be ready in 2 days and it’s best to drink it all within 7 days.
Invite mates over and drink!
This simple ferment is just so wonderful on a range of levels. Not only do they taste great, making your own cuts out the need for fizzy drinks from the shop – another thing you can do to reduce hanging out in the supermarket – enjoy! ]]>
Yum!!! Can’t wait to try it! When do you use the ‘mother’ and how much of the mother do you use in the recipe? I can’t see it in the methods 🙂 So excited to put all the bottles we’ve been storing to good use!!
Hi Caitlin – oops1 I’ve just altered the ‘method’ to include it now. In a nutshell, “once it’s cooled down, add the mother. In terms of how much of it you add, you can put 90% of the liquid (almost one cup). You can then add more water to the mother and keep feeding it to keep it going for the next batch (if you choose)”.
Ooh, looks great, thanks for the recipe! Will give this a go for Xmas I think. Just to clarify, do you add the other 7 litres of water with the lemon juice? No need to boil again? Cheers, Erin.
That’s right Erin :-), I’ve just modified the method above to make that more clear. So you add the additional 7 litres (approx) once you’ve put in the sugar and lemon and there’s no need to re-boil.
A couple of things I’ve tried that have help my gingerbeer success are having one plastic ex softdrink bottle to use as a gauge i.e. When the plastic one is as hard as a rock its time to knock back a few glass ones. And using grated fresh ginger for the mother, it has a natural yeast on the skin that frements beautifully saving you having to buy the packeted variety.
As Simon said, you don’t need to add yeast to the mother, just use grated fresh ginger and you’ll capture wild yeasts. The rest of your recipe looks great, though. I’ve been looking for a fiery brew!
Hi I’m new to all this and just want to clairfy when you say ready in 2 days and consume within 7 days. I thought ginger beer is around 6 weeks and best after 6 months. We don’t drink soft drink so i was hoping to make ginger beer as a special treat and presents ie long term consumption.
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Yum!!! Can’t wait to try it! When do you use the ‘mother’ and how much of the mother do you use in the recipe? I can’t see it in the methods 🙂 So excited to put all the bottles we’ve been storing to good use!!
Hi Caitlin – oops1 I’ve just altered the ‘method’ to include it now. In a nutshell, “once it’s cooled down, add the mother. In terms of how much of it you add, you can put 90% of the liquid (almost one cup). You can then add more water to the mother and keep feeding it to keep it going for the next batch (if you choose)”.
Ooh, looks great, thanks for the recipe! Will give this a go for Xmas I think.
Just to clarify, do you add the other 7 litres of water with the lemon juice? No need to boil again?
Cheers, Erin.
That’s right Erin :-), I’ve just modified the method above to make that more clear. So you add the additional 7 litres (approx) once you’ve put in the sugar and lemon and there’s no need to re-boil.
Great, thanks Hannah!
A couple of things I’ve tried that have help my gingerbeer success are having one plastic ex softdrink bottle to use as a gauge i.e. When the plastic one is as hard as a rock its time to knock back a few glass ones. And using grated fresh ginger for the mother, it has a natural yeast on the skin that frements beautifully saving you having to buy the packeted variety.
Nifty tips Simon – thanks!
As Simon said, you don’t need to add yeast to the mother, just use grated fresh ginger and you’ll capture wild yeasts. The rest of your recipe looks great, though. I’ve been looking for a fiery brew!
Is it a specific type of yeast?
Hi Risa, we’ve used both brewer/s or baker’s yeast and they work well 🙂
Hi
I’m new to all this and just want to clairfy when you say ready in 2 days and consume within 7 days. I thought ginger beer is around 6 weeks and best after 6 months. We don’t drink soft drink so i was hoping to make ginger beer as a special treat and presents ie long term consumption.