If you like it hot...Ginger Beer (non-alcoholic)

Disappointed in the commercial ginger sodas, I have set out to do my own. I think I have it close to what I am looking for. I thought I'd share even though it's not that different from what others are doing.

This is for 2 liters:

7oz fresh grated ginger
Zest and juice from 1/2 lemon
Zest and juice from 1/2 lime
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 tsp Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast (might be able to use just 1/8 tsp)

Add ginger, lemon, and lime to sauce pan and cover with 24 oz of good water. Simmer until liquid is reduced by about 1/4 or so, or a good 30 minutes. Strain and squeeze as much liquid from the remaining pulp as you can. Add liquid back to sauce pan and bring back to boil adding sugar until dissolved. Allow to cool and pour into a 2 liter bottle. Add water to fill bottle 3/4 and add yeast. Cap and shake. Loosen cap and squeeze the headspace from the bottle and tighten cap again. Let sit in a warm spot until the bottle is rock hard (less than 24 hours in my experience so far) and then place in the fridge.

anything?

There are actually a couple of commercial Ginger Ale & Beers that I like.

Vernor's Ginger Ale from Michigan is a pretty good Ginger Ale; a little
sweet, but with a strong Ginger flavor to balance it.

Gossling's Ginger Beer from Gossling's Run is a nice strong Ginger Beer
as well.

These might not be available where you are. Whenever I drive to MI, I
literally fill the trunk with Vernor's.

The Gnome Ginger Beer syrup makes a pretty good home-brew Ginger Beer.

Jim.

Thanks for this recipe. I am going to try this soon.

I also may experiment with using less sugar and a longer fermentation period.

I find even the better commercial ginger beers to be too sweet and I wouldn't mind a little alcohol in mine.

We endlessly see posts on how someone is about to try a hotter ginger ale. Or that they liked it immediately after brewing. Not much about long term success.

The science of ginger taste suggests that the real stuff cannot survive long in bottle... it chemically degrades fast. Truely hot ginger ale cheats by adding other peppery spices.

I don't know the facts first hand, but just am a frustrated observer of about a hundred posts circling around the issue and not disproving the above. I earlier cited the sources and gave more details about the science.

all I know is that everyone tries to recreate Reed's (at least a lot of them I see do)

Reed's uses some type of spices in it, but it also uses pineapple juice to a) sweeten the ginger beer and b) mellow out the spice

It's on my to-do list to make my own. Will definitely be playing around with serranos or other chilis and pineapple juice in my ginger beer.

I did try powdered pineapple juice in my last ginger beer batch and it was awful. The powdered stuff just doesn't do the job

(I use the homemade soda company stuff by the way - I think it's 10x better than that Gnome stuff everybody sells)

"Vernor's Ginger Ale from Michigan is a pretty good Ginger Ale; a little
sweet, but with a strong Ginger flavor to balance it."

Speaking as a formerly native Michiganian, who grew up not far from the original Vernor's plant: What they sell as "Vernors" today is a pale shadow of the original stuff. The Vernors of my childhood was so hot that, if you got a bubble up your nose while drinking it, it just about blew the top of your head off. That stuff was vicious. And fantastic over ice cream.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing on the market that much resembles it anymore. Apparently you can't economically age ginger ale in oak barrels for 4 years in today's market. Go figure.

daft said:

We endlessly see posts on how someone is about to try a hotter ginger ale. Or that they liked it immediately after brewing. Not much about long term success.

The science of ginger taste suggests that the real stuff cannot survive long in bottle... it chemically degrades fast. Truely hot ginger ale cheats by adding other peppery spices.

I don't know the facts first hand, but just am a frustrated observer of about a hundred posts circling around the issue and not disproving the above. I earlier cited the sources and gave more details about the science.

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You are correct. The vast majority of commercial ginger ales contain capsaicin for hot flavor. This has been a traditional ingredient of commercial ginger ale for over a hundred years.

There is wisdom in some parables in the form of jokes.

A man was walking down a street at night when he came upon a large group of men searching the ground under a street lamp. He asked, "What are you looking for?" They replied, "Our wallets." He said, "What? You all lost your wallets under this street lamp?" They replied, "No, we lost our wallets elsewhere." The man said, "Then, why are you all looking for your wallets here? They replied, "Because the light is better here."

In this analogy, hot flavor = wallets, capsaicin = where they lost their wallets and ginger = street lamp.

Fever Tree ginger beer is hands down the best and spiciest on the market. In my experience, it's almost impossible to put too much ginger in the homemade variety. I've used up to two pounds in three gallons.

We do house made ginger beer in the bar I work in, and add various spices (cardamom, coriander, black peppercorn, cinnamon, bay leaf, star anise). Just enough to give it a little something extra without tasting like Christmas. It's very spicy and stays that way, but we go through 5 gallons a week easily so there isn't ever any time for the ginger flavor/spice to fade that much.

aruzinsky said:

You are correct. The vast majority of commercial ginger ales contain capsaicin for hot flavor. This has been a traditional ingredient of commercial ginger ale for over a hundred years.



There is wisdom in some parables in the form of jokes.



A man was walking down a street at night when he came upon a large group of men searching the ground under a street lamp. He asked, "What are you looking for?" They replied, "Our wallets." He said, "What? You all lost your wallets under this street lamp?" They replied, "No, we lost our wallets elsewhere." The man said, "Then, why are you all looking for your wallets here? They replied, "Because the light is better here."



In this analogy, hot flavor = wallets, capsaicin = where they lost their wallets and ginger = street lamp.

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So you are saying that a ginger-jalapeno or habanero beer would be something to aim for of i wanted that spicy ginger taste?

So you are saying that a ginger-jalapeno or habanero beer would be something to aim for of i wanted that spicy ginger taste?

drumuglyknuckles said:

So you are saying that a ginger-jalapeno or habanero beer would be something to aim for of i wanted that spicy ginger taste?

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Yes, but not Jalapeno because it has too much of a non-capsaicin flavor. Personally, I would try Bhut Jolokia (Ghost) Peppers, 0.1 gram/gallon (wet weight) as a starting point. I have a gallon plastic bag full of them in my freezer that I grew in my garden. Allegedly, there are fast burn and slow burn kinds of hot peppers and I don't know which would be best in ginger ale. The fast burn kinds taste similar to radishes, to me. It wouldn't hurt to experiment with radishes.

Interesting note on radishes. What other flavors from jalapenodo you mean?

drumuglyknuckles said:

So you are saying that a ginger-jalapeno or habanero beer would be something to aim for of i wanted that spicy ginger taste?

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Habanero would be better than jalapeño because you could use a lot less of it, and because habaneros taste fruity instead of like a vegetable.

drumuglyknuckles said:

Interesting note on radishes. What other flavors from jalapenodo you mean?

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Pepper flavor.

drumuglyknuckles said:

Interesting note on radishes. What other flavors from jalapenodo you mean?

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The part of the flavor that isn't hot. I grew a variety of jalapeno named "Fooled You Jalapeno" that had absolutely no heat. It tastes like lawn grass to me.

Let me clarify something. The fact that there are fast-burn and slow-burn varieties of peppers implies that there are fast-burn and slow-burn kinds of capsaicinoids. This is an additional variable that you should not ignore. Habanero is slow burn. Hot banana peppers are fast-burn but weak like radishes. You should try both kinds to determine which is best.

See http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/243tkv/why_do_some_hot_peppers_have_a_slower_burn_than/ .

What do you guys think about whole pepper corns? I use then in stew and they seem to give a fast burn, and taste hot unlike ground pepper

drumuglyknuckles said:

What do you guys think about whole pepper corns? I use then in stew and they seem to give a fast burn, and taste hot unlike ground pepper

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The pumpkin pie recipe that I use has a little fresh-ground black pepper in it. Pepper goes very well with the ginger, cinnamon, etc, and if it's fresh it has kind of a lemony taste.

drumuglyknuckles said:

What do you guys think about whole pepper corns? I use then in stew and they seem to give a fast burn, and taste hot unlike ground pepper

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No, black pepper has a strong odor that would probably clash with the odor of ginger.

aruzinsky said:

No, black pepper has a strong odor that would probably clash with the odor of ginger.

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i disagree about the flavor clash, but all is speculation until its made. i had a black pepper stout from oyster bay craft brew out of seatttle, the beer was wierd but it worked.

I currently have an interesting brew of spiced ginger beer on the go, fits all the criteria in my box so far, transfering it to secondary ton ight and cold crashing. I have used scotch bonnet chilli peppers, they have give it the fiery taste and burn i have been looking for.

ThatChefGuy said:

I currently have an interesting brew of spiced ginger beer on the go, fits all the criteria in my box so far, transfering it to secondary ton ight and cold crashing. I have used scotch bonnet chilli peppers, they have give it the fiery taste and burn i have been looking for.

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Sounds good. Wanna post the recipe?

drumuglyknuckles said:

Sounds good. Wanna post the recipe?

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As soon as I am satisfied with the final product i will contribute what I have. I need to tweak it slightly

I used to make ginger ale in the plastic two liter soda bottles with shredded ginger, lemon juice, yeast, etc. it was really good, but my son kept wanting it hotter, and the flavor ended up suffering as I tried adding more pulp. Since it is "alive" it's not as practical and portable as a static beverage. I finally came up with a recipe for the syrup that I am perfectly happy with.
But here is my secret weapon: a Braun juicer (from the thrift store). I peeled the ginger root and juiced the chunks. Out came this wonderful yellow opaque spicy juice.
The more you heat the juice, the milder it gets, so I only warmed it up a bit to help the sugar dissolve.

1/2 cup ginger juice
1/2 lemon (the juice of)
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey

I put it into a plastic condiment squeezer and keep it in the fridge. I have a soda stream to make soda water. A few squirts into the seltzer and a couple ice cubes and you have a delicious spicy drink!

I don't know why people talk about chile in ginger ale like it's a bad thing. I made some with 3 lbs of ginger and a tsp of chipotle and it was face meltingly awesome. One of the best things I've ever drunk.