Ginger Ale

I put together a ginger ale attempt the other day, pretty straightforward. This time I varied my procedure a little bit (for how I did it last time, see my cinnamon soda thread): put 1 cup sugar straight into 2L bottle, added 1/4 tsp bread yeast directly to that, grated about a tablespoon and a half of ginger (about an inch and a half to two inches worth of ginger root) and made a slurry out of that with 4 tbsp lemon juice.

At this point I realized I didn't have a funnel, so mixing things directly in the 2L bottle was going to go... poorly. I ended up using a spoon to move the ginger into the bottle, then topped it up with water. Gave it a few shakes and capped it.

This one took a lot longer to ferment than the last one where I rehydrated the yeast (~36 hours vs ~12). I'm curious to see if I still get the strong sour smell I got from the bread yeast last time - if I don't, I'm willing to wait an extra day or so for it to be carbonated.

Will taste it when I get home and update this thread.

I tried it last night and it was delicious. It didn't seem carbonated enough, so I left it on the counter again overnight to build more up, stuck it back in the fridge this morning.

But it tasted really good.

Good work!

How did the lemon juice taste?

You can't taste the lemon juice, it just gives it some acidity.

This ginger ale is pretty much perfect for my tastes - it's got a fairly light, clean ginger taste and a very gentle sweetness. I'm very happy with it.