The traditional process for making ginger beer is:
1 Maintain a ginger beer starter
2 Steep ginger and citrus zest in warm water
3 Open ferment the zesty water, citrus juice, sugar, ginger and some of the starter
4 Bottle and store in frig when carbed up
I found I could not make too much at a time, because it got overcarbonated easily, and so it was time consuming to have a regular supply.
It occurred to me that the above steps could be combined to this:
1 Make a starter and put it in a container - I use a 2 L glass jar, but a 2 or 3 L jug would be ideal
2 Add citrus juice, sugar, ginger (grated root or powder) and top up with water (I don't use citrus zest now as it takes too long to cut)
3 Stir, cover loosely and ferment for a day or so at room temperature
4 To drink, pour into glasses and fish any root ginger out with a fork
5 When about a quarter is left, go back to step 2 (a layer of what I assume is dead yeast accumulates at the bottom - discard every few weeks)
This is working well during our 8 to 15 degree winter. The drink is cool, spicy, slightly sweet, slightly sour, with a gentle carbonation. I prefer it to the ginger beer I made by the traditional way, which seemed too cold and too frothy.
1 Maintain a ginger beer starter
2 Steep ginger and citrus zest in warm water
3 Open ferment the zesty water, citrus juice, sugar, ginger and some of the starter
4 Bottle and store in frig when carbed up
I found I could not make too much at a time, because it got overcarbonated easily, and so it was time consuming to have a regular supply.
It occurred to me that the above steps could be combined to this:
1 Make a starter and put it in a container - I use a 2 L glass jar, but a 2 or 3 L jug would be ideal
2 Add citrus juice, sugar, ginger (grated root or powder) and top up with water (I don't use citrus zest now as it takes too long to cut)
3 Stir, cover loosely and ferment for a day or so at room temperature
4 To drink, pour into glasses and fish any root ginger out with a fork
5 When about a quarter is left, go back to step 2 (a layer of what I assume is dead yeast accumulates at the bottom - discard every few weeks)
This is working well during our 8 to 15 degree winter. The drink is cool, spicy, slightly sweet, slightly sour, with a gentle carbonation. I prefer it to the ginger beer I made by the traditional way, which seemed too cold and too frothy.