Paisano's Amazing Ginger Ale (soft drink)

This is an easy but amazingly tasty ginger ale that's full of flavor. You can easily adjust the strength of the ginger flavor using the suggestions below. My kids and swmbo are frequently asking me to brew more. Although it's really good when cold and carbed, the flavors are also fantastic when served warm right from the brew pot. Don't be surprised when you find that it has all been drank so quickly. Make a mild version for your kids and you may end up father of the year!

Recipe Type: Soda
Batch Size (Gallons): 1

Ingredients
5 quarts water
2-9 ounces Fresh Ginger Root*
2 Clementine oranges**
1 lemon***
3/4 Cup brown sugar

*2 ounces of ginger yields a very mild but noticeable ginger flavor that is a bit stronger than commercial sodas, 5-6 ounces makes for a prominent ginger taste (my favorite), and 8-9 really begins to produce warmth in the mouth. If you don't know if you like bold ginger flavor, I suggest you try 2 ounces and taste it. Swmbo likes it spicy warm at around 8-9 ounces.
** Ive substituted 1/4 Cup orange juice before and it turned out great but it lack the oils from the peels
*** Ive substituted 3 Tablespoons of lemon juice but same as above.

Directions

• Place 4 qts. water in a pot, place a wooden spoon vertically in the pot and mark the 1-gallon level on the spoon with a pencil
• Add the remaining quart of water and heat on high.
• While the water begins to heat, peal and weigh the ginger. Slice the ginger into thin coin-thick pieces (I don't own a grater and this is how I maintain consistency) then cut ginger pieces into quarters, steep in the pot.
• Wash the outside of the lemon and oranges then peel each, keeping the fruit and peels. I tear the peels up into coin-sized pieces.
• Upon boil: add the orange and lemon peels, then squeeze the peeled fruit into the pot and drop the squeezed fruit sections into the boil.
• Boil all ingredients and stir occasionally until the brew is reduced to the 1-gallon mark on your wooden spoon.
• Add brown sugar and boil for a couple of minutes.
• Strain (then drink a cup of it warm -- it's amazing!)
• Chill and carbonate by your preferred method.

Often, we don't wait for it to carbonate but drink it "still" right from a gallon jug in the fridge -- yum!

BTW, I don't like super sweet sodas and try to limit my kids' sugar intake. The 3/4 Cup brown sugar produces a medium sweetness. You may prefer 1 Cup for a more commercial-like sweetness.

I modified my recipe with 1/2 dark brown sugar, and it's much better. Good call on the brown sugar!

The clementines sound excellent... I'll try that next!

How would you carbonate that, other than kegging?

KoedBrew said:

How would you carbonate that, other than kegging?

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Force carbonating is what makes the most sense. One could use yeast, but the sugars present in the solution pose problems. If you go the yeast route, do research first.

Has anyone tried Paisano's recipe w/ a Soda Stream maker?
I'm expecting one in the mail anytime and would like to try this recipe?

If any Soda Stream or other forced carbonator users have tried the recipe, did you have any trouble carbonating the "still" mix sugar and all. I know that Soda Stream instructions for soda w/ their syrup have you carbonate the pure water first, then add a capful of soda syrup after. Thanks.

I am not familiar with the soda stream product. However, if it is a force-carbonation mechanism (i.e., carbonates water which is then flavored), then I suspect it would work just fine.

I'm eager to try this recipe! I do have a question regarding the sugar though.

I strongly prefer to use turbinado sugars (evaporated cane juice) to white or brown sugar (processed with molasses added). Do you have any experience with this variety of sugar and how it affects the sweetness and/or taste?

Thank you very much!

Ayianna said:

I strongly prefer to use turbinado sugars (evaporated cane juice) to white or brown sugar (processed with molasses added). Do you have any experience with this variety of sugar and how it affects the sweetness and/or taste?

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I am familiar with turbinado sugar but I've not used it in this recipe. I would suggest finding and equivalency chart for turbinado and other sugars to get a starting point, and then experiment with sweetness from there. Let us know your results! Good luck!

Good Afternoon. So, I'm new to all this and I just started my first brew (Brewer's Best IPA). It's been in the fermenter for just 48 hours now and since the beer won't be ready for a month or longer, I was thinking I'd make some soda to test out my keg system, and pass some time.

Will this work with a 5 gallon corny keg? What level do you recommend setting it at?

Thanks

Was thinking about making 4 or 5 gallons of it to make the most out of using a keg. How long would this soda solution hold up? A few weeks?

And how high would you carbonate? 20psi for a day or two maybe?

Thanks

Has anybody tried a yeast carbonation at this point?

I brown sugar ought not be edible to yeast (being sucrose), but I don't know about the molasses (but will be looking into it shortly...).

I suppose that the addition of some corn sugar and yeast at the time of bottling might do the trick. Since my fermenter is coming available tonight, maybe I'll give it a go this week.

NBrasseur said:

Has anybody tried a yeast carbonation at this point?

I brown sugar ought not be edible to yeast (being sucrose), but I don't know about the molasses (but will be looking into it shortly...).

I suppose that the addition of some corn sugar and yeast at the time of bottling might do the trick. Since my fermenter is coming available tonight, maybe I'll give it a go this week.

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With the sugars, it will definitely ferment. However, keep in mind that this is a fairly sweet solution without much in the way of non-fermentable dextrins. As a result, I would expect that it would result in a fairly low FG and be pretty dry. If I were going to ferment, I would add amber or dark malt for residual sweetness, as well as providing the yeast with nutrients not found in the sucrose. Keep me posted, since I've not tried this.

I have been trying my hand at some sodas and ciders recently, and I have been skipping the back-sweetening step in favor of laziness.

I tell people to add sugar to taste after it is carbonated. There is still some residual sweetness leftover in most of my sodas, but I just give people a little warning first if they like it sweet.

I just made a Kvaas/Ginger Ale with 1 lb of pumpernickel that I boiled for 10 minutes and let steep for 8 hours. I strained that liquid off into my mr beer kit with 1 oz of ginger, lemon juice and zest, chopped raisins and large chunks of chopped ginger (another ounce or so), 1lb of corn sugar and ~1lb of honey.

After about 4 days it is still a little sweet, so I put some into a couple bottles with some priming sugar. I will wait a week before putting it in the fridge and testing it out.

Hoping to come out with a low-alcohol (2-4%) brew with a lot of ginger nose.

Next time I will definitely be using lemon and/or oranges directly in the brew, rather than just zest and juice.

Looks like I'll be trying this recipe in a week or two. I'll be carbing in the bottle. Please let us know if anyone has had good success with bottle carbing and what modifications you made. My plan otherwise is to follow above and drop the brow. Sugar by 1/4 and replace with 1/4 corn sugar and use Nottingham ale yeast. I'll cold crash after 24-48 hours.

Yum

This recipe is currently boiling away on the stove. It smells AMAZING! I will be force carbing in 2 liter bottles. Can't wait to try this!

I'm thinking of trying this with yeast carbonation as I don't have the means to force carb...I plan on bottling in plastic bottles and refrigerating after 48 hrs....at this point the yeast has not had enough time to produce alcohol correct? I plan on letting my 3 year old drink this and I would like to not have a drunk toddler lol...

P.s. am planning on using champagne yeast

To give my opinion...go with force carbonation. Not only does it prevent bottle bombs with sodas, but as you mention you would be making some alcohol. How much? It all depends on what temperature, how much yeast and how active the yeast still is...but overall there's no way to know 100% for sure.

If you really can't force carbonate, I suggest making a "syrup" concentrate method by boiling this recipe down without sugar (to about 1/5th the volume starting with maybe 1/2 the water). Then adding sugar at the end. After that you can mix with bottled carbonated water, make sure everything is cold before mixing!

I used to do the above syrup method before getting a carbonator and bottle, and now I have a kegging system. If you are serious about making soda, you should at least have a carbonator.

Carbonator like soda stream or the like?

What do you guys carbonate this to?