Ginger Beer Recipe:

This is a very simple and tasty recipe on how to make ginger beer. It is very strong in ginger taste and perfect for the cocktail “Dark ‘N’ Stormy “or just drinking. You can also add half seltzer water for the folks who like a milder Ginger flavor. Below is  a cartoon of the recipe ,thanks to my fantastic mama for drawing it. A natural, classic non-alcoholic ginger beer made with fresh pressed ginger juice.

* You may have to unscrew the lid a couple of times to let the gases out if not it will explode.

Yield: 6 bottles

Prep Time: 30 minutes + 60 hours of infusing and fermentation time

Ingredients:

3/4 cups Brown Sugar
2 qts of Water
1.5 cups of Grated Ginger
2/3 cups Lime Juice,
Fresh Squeezed please it is worth it
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar

1/4 tsp of Baker’s Yeast or Champagne Yeast

Let’s go make some ginger beer…

1.)Bring the brown sugar, water, grated ginger, cream of tartar to a boil.
2.)Place into a large jar and let sit for 24hrs.
3.)After it sat overnight strain the ginger.

4.)Heat the mixture to 65 F, then add the yeast.

Close up picture of the yeast in the ginger beer.

5.) Cover and let sit for 48 hours for maximum carbonation. Bottle if desired. If you do not have the fancy bottler I do, then just put the ginger beer in glass bottles and tighten the lid on. My mother uses repurposed glass mineral water bottles. Some of the carbonation will leak out, but it will be okay.

Make sure you chill the bottles before opening them because they will explode all over.

We enjoyed this distinctly grown up soda (it’s a bit spicy for the kids and not too sweet) with some excellent Kraken spiced rum over ice.  It was a fun center piece to a sausage making party that we threw, a sharp and warming accent to the delicious fatty sausages.

I love Ginger. I have a tendency to keep asking the sushi chef for more and when I was in Japan it was unlimited. I was eating at the sushi conveyor belt restaurant and I must of ate 1.5 cups of ginger. Within 10 minutes, I got a really bad stomach ache and could not go anywhere. It was not fun. I learned my lesson: Do not eat an excess amount of ginger!

Dorian O’Connell guest blogging for Esoteric Food Company…  see her own blog here:

click here to link to www.101sweetpastry.com