Finest Old-fashioned Ginger Beer recipe

INGREDIENTS: Yields 1 liter (33.8oz)

Ginger Root: 1/2 large organic root (a fist full of ginger) or more if desired
Sugar: 3/4 cup high-quality honey OR 1 cup turbinado OR rapadura
Lemon: Juice of one whole organic lemon
Cream of Tartar: 1/8 tsp (This is found in many of the traditional recipes)
Yeast: 1/4 tsp Pasteur Champagne yeast (Red Star) OR Premier Cuvee yeast (Red Star)
Nutmeg: 1 dash (1/8 tsp) or less. Optional, adds heat, other flavor dimensions.
Cayenne: 1 dash (1/8 tsp) or less. Optional, adds heat.
Water: Roughly 1 liter of chilled, filtered water

PROCESS:

Chill filtered water in refrigerator ahead of time.
Puree ginger in blender with 2 cups of the chilled water while reserving rest of water for top off.
Steep ginger puree with honey (or sugars) near 160-180F for 10 minutes. Stir slowly. Cool.
Pour half amount of top-off water into PET bottle.
Add steeped puree to bottle through small weave sieve or cheese cloth and funnel.
Add lemon juice to bottle.
Top off bottle with remainder water to 1 liter mark.
Pitch champagne yeast while liquid is slightly warm.
Cap bottle and shake vigorously.
Place the filled bottle(s) in bucket with a lid - you never know!
Warm fermentation (~85F) for 24-48hrs (If bottle is rock-hard by first day cold crash immediately)

NOTES:

Starting Gravity: 32 (Measured with sugars and or quality honey)
Final Gravity: N/A (Carbonation effects reading)

- A wonderfully strong, well-rounded, old-fashioned ginger drink with a kick.
- Honey adds a much better flavor profile than the raw sugars.
- Separation and cloudiness in final product are of course natural.
- Use only PET plastic bottles as you can moderate the carbonation levels by feel. Never, ever use glass bottles.

Other ingredient possibilities:
- GPB (Ginger Beer Plant) Traditionally used in ginger beer fermentation.
- Raisins for body, mouth feel.
- Cloves for additional flavor.
- Lemon Zest for additional acidity, flavor.
- Lime juice for additional acidity, flavor.

Sounds like great recipe! I will try it out on my next batch.

The only thing, though, is that I hear adding some fresh (unboiled) ginger to the fermentation adds more of a ginger bite. I will probably do this.

Since having posted this recipe I have done a lot more experimentation, research, and made a lot of changes to this recipe :

Things that VASTLY improve the taste are:
1. MOST IMPORTANT: switch to a yeast that imparts the least amount of flavour, such as Safale US-05 dry ale yeast and use the littlest amount possible.
2. Cut out the nutmeg, cayenne, because they make the drink too hot.
3. Cut out the cream of tartar, because there is NO difference in taste with or without it IMO.
4. Only use Honey because out of all the trials and experiments, honey tastes the best hands down.
5. Add one 6oz can of pineapple juice when steeping the ginger mix.
6. Use only limes.

Hm very nice! So that's ready to drink in 24-48 hours? Nice that means I have time to get some started this evening for the weekend. Is it very sweet when it's done? I like it nice and dry.

porcupine73 said:

Hm very nice! So that's ready to drink in 24-48 hours? Nice that means I have time to get some started this evening for the weekend. Is it very sweet when it's done? I like it nice and dry.

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I am glad you mentioned sweetness. I forgot to mention in that list that I have cut back to less than a half a cup of honey per litre. So yeah, don't use 3/4 cup - that would be way too much I think. With less than a half a cup, it is sweet, but nothing like 'soda sweet' at all. If you like it dryer, you could simply use less honey and it would still come out amazing, I'm sure. Also, I get honey pretty cheep at the LHBS if that helps too an any way.

Also, on the ginger amount, I DO like it hot; however, I have found that using only 1.5 oz of peeled ginger per litre is plenty enough for a spicy ginger beer, especially since it's pureed in a blender. I used to use a lot more, but it would kill most folks :cross: