A Ginger Beer Recipe

After dropping most of the Coca Cola drinks off our menu (for a range of reasons) we have been a bit lost for bubbly drinks that taste good and don’t make us hyper or alcoholics. We rediscovered Ginger Beer after trying some Bundaberg Ginger Beer but as our budget tightened I started casting around for a slightly cheaper option and came across the following recipe. Originally from NZ.Com it is a simple enough recipe as it does away with the need for a yeast bug…plain ol’ yeast granules do the trick. It is also flexible enough to puddle with until you get the taste to your liking.

The Original Recipe

Recipe is for 1.5 L plastic bottle

• 2 tblspns warm water
• 1/2 tspn sugar
• 1/4 tspn dried yeast granules

• 1 cup sugar
• juice of 2 lemons rind of 2 lemons
• 1 tspn to 1 tblspn dried ginger

Put first measure of sugar in warm water to dissolve, add yeast and stir. Place in warm place to start working.

Finely grate or slice rind from 2 lemons and place in a heatproof container with the 1 cup of sugar, the lemon juice and the dried ginger. Pour over 1 cup of boiling water and leave to steep for 10 minutes.

Strain into 1.5 L plastic bottle in which the ginger beer will be made. Top up bottle with cool water to near top so that final temp is approx. body temp. Add yeast to bottle as soon as it shows signs of working, ie. it foams.

Cap bottle tightly. Mix thoroughly and put in a warm place. Leave until bottle becomes undentable. Depending on the yeast this can take anything from 12 hours to 3 days, but best to check regularly, as I guess there is a risk of explosion with this!

Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and open with great care!