Hmm... Not many people sharing recipes lately... Guess I'll need to kickstart this thread again... with BOOZE~!
Renegade's Alcoholic Ginger Ale!Brewing booze at home is dirt simple. Here's a recipe for alcoholic ginger ale that you can experiment with, and that uses no special ingredients or equipment beyond what you probably already have at home.
Ingredients:- Ginger - 50 g per litre of water for a strong flavour - reduce to about 15 g per litre of water for a mild ginger flavour
- Flip-top bottles - e.g. Grolsch bottles, or in a pinch you can use regular plastic soda bottles
- Yeast - you can use plain old baker's yeast, though specialised yeasts like champagne yeast will work better
- Sugar - Lots. 50~100 g per litre of water to start. More later... Try to use caster sugar (icing sugar) if you can, but this isn't crucial.
- Lemon juice - 1 lemon per 5 L is fine
- Cheesecloth - you can use a regular J-cloth as well if you don't have any cheesecloth or muslin, though it's probably a good idea to boil that first
- Filtered water - However much end product you want to have, use that much water
Step 1 - Ginger slurry (or chop)Put your ginger into a food processor and liquify it. Add in some water to help. This will depend on your food processor.
If you don't have a food processor, just chop it up finely.
The finer the ginger, the stronger the flavour. So, you can use less ginger and create a slurry, or use more ginger and just chop it. Given the high prices of ginger here, I create a slurry. Again, adjust the amount of ginger for your own tastes. 50 g per litre of water in a slurry is
extremely strong.
Step 2 - SyrupPut your ginger slurry into a pot & add the lemon juice, some water and sugar (see above for ratios). Use all the sugar, but don't add all the water. You only need enough water to dissolve the sugar. Heat the pot hot enough to dissolve the sugar. It doesn't need to boil, and it's better if you don't boil the ginger.
When the sugar has dissolved, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature (IMPORTANT). You can add cool water to hasten this, but some sugar may precipitate - not a big deal, but it's better to have it dissolved.
Step 3 - Strain the syrupStrain the syrup into a large container/bowl. Use cheesecloth or something fine to get out as much of the particulate ginger as possible. You will still have some cloudiness though, which is fine. You may need to strain it more than once if you have a slurry. (Your tolerance for sediment is what's important here.)
Step 4 - Add yeastAdd water to your syrup to make sure it is room temperature. Add 1 teaspoon of yeast per litre of water. (How much water you add here isn't very important - add as much as the container will hold.) Stir the mixture.
Step 5 - First bottling stepPour what you have into bottles equally. e.g. Pour until all your bottles are equally x% full. Top off the bottles with water, but make sure to leave a good amount of room at the top! 75% full is fine if you're planning on making it strong & going through step 6 more than 2x. Do NOT fill the bottles - they will explode.
Cover the tops of the bottles with cheesecloth (or anything similar) and leave it for a day...
Step 6 - Groundhog day stepThis step you can repeat a few times. Twice is good, but you can do it 5x if you like. This is where you'll be creating more alcohol.
Add between a teaspoon and a tablespoon of sugar to each bottle (a teaspoon is fine). Cap the bottle and turn it over a few times to let the sugar dissolve. Uncap the bottle & replace the cheesecloth on top. You can add a tiny bit more yeast if you want to experiment, but this isn't necessary.
Step 7 - Cap itAdd a teaspoon of sugar (not a tablespoon) or less. This will be consumed and create carbonation in your ginger ale.
Cap the bottle and leave it for 2~5 days in a safe place in case it explodes. Do not refrigerate it yet. This is where you'll get the fizz.
Step 8 - Fridge time!Put it in the fridge until you're ready to drink.
When drinking, add in some sugar or sugar syrup to sweeten it as the ginger ale will be very dry.
The quality of what you'll get above is going to vary, but the recipe above requires no special ingredients and everything can be obtained in any grocery store.
Step 9 - Post back If you tried it, post back after your 7th or 8th glass!
