Wanted: Ginger Ale Recipe

crozdog

Hi guys,

I like to drink dark spirits with Dry Ginger Ale (eg Canada Dry / Schweppes Dry Ginger) and would like to make some myself.

I've thought of adding ginger / sugar / lemon to soda water, but not tried it yet.

Does anyone have a recipe to make it? If you do, please share....

crozdog

found this tonight: Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale - Cookbook Recipe From True Brews

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Ginger Ale

Makes about 8 cups 
(enough to fill a 2-liter plastic soda bottle)

2-inch piece fresh gingerroot
1 cup water, plus more to fill the bottles
9 tablespoons / 4 ounces white granulated sugar, plus more if needed 
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons), plus more if needed
1/8 teaspoon dry champagne yeast

Peel and finely grate the ginger (I use a Microplane). You should have about 2 tablespoons of grated gingerroot.

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan on the stove top or in the microwave. Remove from the heat. Add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Add the ginger and let stand until cool. Stir in the lemon juice.

Pour the ginger water into a clean 2-liter bottle using a funnel. Do not strain out the ginger. Top off the bottle with water, leaving at least 1 inch of headspace. Give it a taste and add more lemon juice or sugar if desired. The extra sugar will dissolve on its own.

Add the yeast. Screw on the cap and shake the bottle to dissolve and distribute the yeast. Let the bottle sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight until carbonated, typically 12 to 48 hours, depending on the temperature of the room. Check the bottle periodically; when it feels rock solid with very little give, it’s ready.

Refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 weeks. Open very slowly over a sink to release the pressure gradually and avoid bubble-ups. Pour the soda through a small fine-mesh strainer to catch the ginger as you pour.

Recipe Notes

Bottling in Glass Bottles: Sodas can also be bottled in glass or swing-top bottles, but it's more difficult to tell when the sodas have fully carbonated. Therefore, with every batch you bottle, also fill one small plastic soda bottle to use as an indicator for when the sodas have finished carbonating. Refrigerate all of the bottles as soon as the plastic bottle is carbonated; never leave the glass bottles at room temperature once carbonated.

Sugar-Free Soda: Use 1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar per 8 cups of soda to carbonate, but beyond that, you can sweeten to taste with another sweetener of your choosing. The sugar will be almost entirely consumed during fermentation.

Alcohol in Homebrewed Sodas: As long as yeast is being used to carbonate beverages, alcohol will be made as a by-product. However, the short fermentation time limits the amount of alcohol produced in sodas, and it typically comes out to less than 1 percent.

How to Avoid Gushing, Exploding, Overcarbonated Sodas: Sodas can overcarbonate very easily. This can cause geysers when you first open them or bursting bottles if left unrefrigerated for too long. Refrigeration suspends fermentation (and therefore carbonation), but it will start again when the bottles are removed from refrigeration.

It's best to bottle sodas in used (cleaned!) plastic soda bottles since it's easy to gauge carbonation just by pressing the side. Always open sodas over a sink or outside, and unscrew the cap extremely slowly to allow pressure to release gradually.

One of the comments to this post is..."easy recipe for ginger ale is to boil fresh (or crystallized) ginger with sugar and water to make simple syrup, then add it to soda water."

Has anyone tried either approach or read the book??

crozdog

Also this one: Ginger Syrup - imbibe Liquid Culture

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To make ginger ale, simply fill an ice-filled glass a third of the way with the syrup, top with soda water and a squeeze of lime, stir and enjoy.

Ginger Syrup

2 cups unpeeled, washed, fresh ginger, roughly chopped
2 cups sugar
6 cups water

Process ginger chunks in a food processor or blender until finely chopped. Place in a large stock pot. Add sugar and water to the pot and stir. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer over medium-low heat and cook for one hour until a rich syrup is created. Strain the syrup twice through cheese cloth or a sieve into a large jar or bottle. Refrigerate.

punkin

Top one is one we'd call ginger beer. I have a recipe here for a ginger beer plant that Bourbon Girl used to make in non and in alco versions. Was bloody good, but not like ginger ale (which i don't like)

crozdog

Punkin, please post them in the ginger beer thread.