Ginger Ale (kegged)

Inspired by Yooper's recipe, I needed something for the teens to drink tonight. I had a 2.5 gallon keg sitting idle, so here it is:

2 gallons of water at 150F
2 cups grated ginger (juice and shreds were loosely packed)
4 cups turbinado sugar
2 limes, zest and juice
1 lemon, zest and juice

Stir everything together and let steep for until cool. I put the pot outside in 22F air for a couple of hours. Strain and carb.

This is a really good ginger ale! I found myself draining the keg all day yesterday. I hope there's enough for the kids.

r2eng said:

Inspired by Yooper's recipe, I needed something for the teens to drink tonight. I had a 2.5 gallon keg sitting idle, so here it is:

2 gallons of water at 150F
2 cups grated ginger (juice and shreds were loosely packed)
4 cups turbinado sugar
2 limes, zest and juice
1 lemon, zest and juice

Stir everything together and let steep for until cool. I put the pot outside in 22F air for a couple of hours. Strain and carb.

This is a really good ginger ale! I found myself draining the keg all day yesterday. I hope there's enough for the kids.

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The limes seem like a great addition! I'll have to try this!

I took your advice and kept adding ginger - I may go to 3 cups!

I also think a bit of brown sugar would give a nice flavor.

What's the opinion as honey as the sugar used, well, portion of the sugar I suppose.

It would be worth a try - although I am personally not a fan of honey's aftertaste.

I will be doing another batch this weekend, but using 2 cups light brown sugar and 2 cups turbinado or raw sugar. I am trying to duplicate the caramel flavors of Bundaburg (ginger beer from down-under): It's awesome!

Wow, I made 3 gallons of this today, force carbing now. It is really good, thanks for posting your recipe.

I do love me some ginger ale. I also have a thing for the ginger's Thanks for the recipe! I'm going to have to give this one a try for sure.

Replace 2 cups of the turbinado with brown sugar... Just made another batch and it's better!

How long does it take to carb at 36 PSI?

I had 3 gallons in a 5 gallon keg at 20 psi and good carb after 2 days.

I made this a few days ago, and unfortunately my wife isn't a big fan (too gingery). I think it's great, but perhaps I'll cut the ginger in half next time.

FWIW, my wife doesn't like it either.

I also found out that all ginger is not created equal! I made another batch, and the ginger I purchased was less yellow, more mild, and not as much juice (older possibly?). It's much more mild.

My wife likes the ginger ale and isn't really a big ginger fan... so maybe mine wasn't all that strong. It has lots of zest flavor to it.

As an interesting side note, I only have one tap on my tower and connect the beer line to either ginger ale or beer depending on what I want dispensed. The first bit of ginger ale always has beer and vice versa, which got me to drinking shandies. If you haven't already, mix a bit of your fresh ginger ale with a pint of dark beer for a mighty fine beverage (black lager in my case).

Wow! This is the first time I have used this forum for soda and the first recipe is exactly what I am looking for, a ginger ale. What would you compare this recipe to? Please give a comparison that I could easily find. I used to drink Old Tyme ginger beer when I was a kid and that is what I am looking to emulate- ginger to the point of spiciness.

This recipe should suit you!

Replace the Turbinado with dark brown sugar (my newest batch does this). The brown sugar makes it similar to Bundaburg, but spicier.

Let me know how it works for you.

Will do. Thank you.

Glad to help!

Credit where credit is due: Yooper and Paisano's posts led to mine. Yooper's recipe and Paisano's brown sugar make this so good that I have given 25% of my keezer capacity to ginger ale!

I need a bigger keezer

I will give this a try. Ginger Ale is my all time favorite soft drink. Thanks to Yooper and r2eng.

I've heard that rootbeer will taint a keg with rootbeer flavor permanently.. I love me some Ginger ale, but don't want to taint my 3 gal kegs. Will this Ginger ale leave a flavor in my kegs?

Another question: if I carb this up at 30 or so psi, do I need a different beer line length because of the high psi? I use cobra taps & have 5 & 10' lengths. Does it matter which one to use?

I have soaked both root beer kegs and ginger ale kegs in Oxyclean and have had no remaining odor. I do it all the time with root beer and ginger ale. IMO, the root beer odor left in kegs from suppliers comes from sitting for long periods of time with the soda concentrate in the keg. NOT from soda like we are making here.

The hose length thing is in debate on another thread. In my experience (having ginger ale and 3 beers on tap all the time), I have 12' hose on all kegs, and have pressure set to 12 psi and 37F. No issues, ample carbonation for soda and beer.

Do you peel the ginger first or just grate it as is?

Always peel it

That is what I thought, but no one had mentioned it. Thank you.

Jknapp said:

I've heard that rootbeer will taint a keg with rootbeer flavor permanently.. I love me some Ginger ale, but don't want to taint my 3 gal kegs. Will this Ginger ale leave a flavor in my kegs?

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The keg itself does not get tainted. It is the seals that can pickup the flavor. So, if your keg does pickup the flavor, all you have to do is change the seals.

Funny, I didn't peel the ginger and it was fine. We just finished 3 gallons a couple nights ago (after burning out and not touching the keg for a couple weeks) and I swear I liked it more once the lemon/lime zest mellowed a bit. I'll definitely be revisiting this recipe.

Why peel it?

what is gigner beer? I know ale but what makes it beer? SNG question

So for 5 gal, does this look bout right?

5 gal water @ 150 F
5 cups grated ginger (rather have weight cause "loosely packed" cup can vary)
5 cups turbinado
5 cups dark brown sugar
5 limes
2.5 lemons

Rigger103: - not sure what the difference is. Commercial examples, IMO, make Ginger Beer heavier and more intense. I actually prefer it.

Bk2X: Looks good, try it! The good thing is you can always grate more ginger, add more lime, etc. Ginger is also very variable in intensity. I like the brighter yellow, "fresher" ginger but it is hard to tell until you start grating it!

Good deal, thanks for the quick response. Going to make up tonight, will post results.

Got it carbed up and tested over weekend but it was WAY too much of everything. Probably need to cut the entire ingredient list in half for 5 gal of water. The original recipe is definitely not linear haha.

It was still cloudy so I will give it time to settle then reevaluate. Hopefully can just cut it with water.

I made some using solely turbinado and it is REALLY good! I used about 2 cups ginger. I packed it in so it's more probably. It has great bite to it, but it doesn't burn. I did blind taste tests with Bundabergs (which ended up being a disappointment) and Reed's Extra Ginger Ale and mine won both.

great ginger ale!

Thanks for this, putting it all together now but only had lemon/lime juice and demerera sugar. Otherwise the same recipe. I chose to not peel the ginger on account of laziness, but I did wash it pre-grate.

Tastes nice in the pot still warm, though not as potent as I'd want. I'll leave it for now and see if carbing helps, though it still needs an hours or two so steep.

This is good, but I think my ginger is a bit on the mild side. Next time I'll do at least 3 cups of ginger, maybe even 4, and knock the sugar down some too.

It's tasty, for sure, though not carbed yet so that'll be the sure test. But it needs more kick for my liking, bit too sweet so far.

Awesome starting point though, thanks again for this!

Thanks for the recipe r2eng

I made this up exactly per the second draft (brown sugar and turbinado sugar). It was a really big hit, although maybe a little sweet for my taste buds. Plan to rebrew it with half the amount of sugar.

From the keg it poured awesome though. It poured with a head and looked like real beer.

Yeah, I have had to back off on the sugar when the ginger is mild. It varies wildly!

The last batch I made was almost hot, as the ginger was REALLY strong.

Glad you like it!

I'm about to make a batch of this for a party we are hosting next week. Has anyone figured out the best way to scale it up? As mentioned previously, just increasing all the ingredients linearly isn't the right method.

I'm looking to make a 5 gallon batch. Thanks!

Make 2x2.5g batches and mix em! I don't know, but I do know that one should not leave their ginger out until it grows shoots and leaves...cause it has virtually no flavor or kick left to it by then.

Hah, good point! I'll just give a moderate scale up a shot and see how it goes.