Home-made Ginger Beer! (non-alcoholic)
As a kid, I remember the smell of home-made ginger beer. Amazing! I'd recently been making rhubarb champagne, and experimenting with that recipe with different fruits, which came out quite pleasing : ) and so brought up the nostalgia of home-made ginger beer. So I thought I'd show you what I've been doing the last week, and you might like to give it a go too.
Taken from www.burkesbackyard.com.au, this is the recipe I've used-
Step one:
MAKING THE PLANT
8 or 9 sultanas
juice of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon lemon pulp
2 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons sugar
2 cups cold water
"Add all the ingredients to a large screw top glass jar (use one large enough to hold three cups of water). Stir, screw on lid and leave in a warm place to ferment. In warm weather this takes approx three days, under cooler conditions five to six days. A little froth on the top of the mixture & tiny bubbles rising from the bottom of the jar indicate fermenting is taking place (this can be seen clearly by holding the bottle up to the light). Once fermentation begins, the plant must be fed with four teaspoons of sugar & two teaspoons of ginger every day for one week. (Do not miss a single day or the plant will die.) Once the week has passed, the plant is ready to use to make ginger beer."
Step two:
MAKING THE GINGER BEER
4 cups sugar
4 cups boiling water
juice of 4 lemons (medium sized)
28 cups cold water
"Into a bucket place the sugar & boiling water, stir until sugar has dissolved, then add the lemon juice. Line a large strainer with muslin or cheesecloth. Strain the liquid from the ginger beer plant into the bucket. Gather up the edges of the cloth & squeeze dry. Set aside the residue (this will be used later to make a new ginger beer plant). Add the cold water to the bucket & stir well. Fill screw top bottles leaving a 2.5 – 3cm (1”) gap at the top of the bottle. Clean, dry plastic screw top bottles may also be used. This quantity makes approximately 10-12 bottles. Screw the tops on the bottles & store in a cool place for approximately two weeks."
Step three:
"Divide the residue from the ginger beer plant in half and place in two jars (or throw one half away) Add two cups of cold water to each plant & feed as above."
Note:
I've heard of people having bottles explode on them. Anyone experienced this themselves? So far thankfully I haven't had to clean up such a devastating mess. As you see in the photo of the bottles, I've left maybe 7 cm of space between the ginger beer, and the top of the bottle, and then squeezed the bottle in until the liquid is around the neck and then put the lid on tight. This helps to give the ginger beer more room to expand, which it will. I'll also be placing them in a cooler bag, zipped up in case something does happen.
Home-made ginger beer is definitely worth giving a go. Doesn't take much effort, just patience :) and I can't waiting until i get to try this lot out!
RECIPE and an explanation of THE FERMENTAION PROCESS:
https://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/fact-sheets/food-and-recipes/food-health-nutrition/ginger-beer/