Ginger Beer!

photo credit: vieux bandit

Ah, the holidays are a great time to try out new stuff
I love ginger beer, by itself and it goes very nicely with whiskey too. Anyway, I decided it would be fun to try and make some ginger beer from scratch, so I googled around and found a recipe (actually the first result for “ginger beer recipes”), bought the ingredients and mixed it all together. Right now I have a two litre bottle of the mix sat next to my radiator, where I’m hoping it won’t explode while the yeast ferments over the next few days!

The recipe is below, but I’m linking back to the original post too because they deserve the credit - and are an ORG supporter too!

Ingredients:

• 2 litres of water, and a two litre plastic bottle (I hear plastic is a good choice rather than glass, because if plastic explodes it’s a mess; if glass explodes it’s dangerous!)
• 1/4 teaspoon of dried yeast
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of grated ginger root

The Method:

• If you want, peel the ginger, and then grate the root until you have approx. 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of grated ginger - depending on taste
• Juice the lemon
• Mix the ginger and lemon together
• Pour the sugar into the bottle
• Add the yeast to the bottle
• Add the ginger and lemon mix to the bottle
• Add water until it is approx 3/4 full, at which point put the lid on tight and shake until all the sugar is dissolved
• Fill with the remaining water, leaving about an inch at the top to stop it exploding while the yeast ferments!
• Place in a warm location until the bottle is hard, should take about 24-48 hours
• When this is done, put it in the fridge over night to stop the action of the yeast
• Done

Hmm…2 days and I should have some nice ginger beer! Maybe I could use this recipe to work on my technical documentation skills :p

All in all, it’s been a really great easter weekend and I’ve enjoyed it very much. What’s nice is that I have another 4 weeks of holiday left!! Of course, all that time isn’t for relaxing, I need to write essays/revise and possibly find a job to earn a bit of money for the summer.