Ginger Beer

It's been an interesting month for me. Very full and very busy, it's been a time of harvest and change in the garden, so there has been a lot of work to do (there is still). It has also been a month of celebration for me, celebrating the success of my little garden and also my birthday!

So I've been making celebration drinks, starting with ginger beer.

It is surprisingly easy and delicious!

GINGER BEER

for each 750ml plastic bottle you will need

1/8 teaspoon of brewers yeast (I used freeze dried bread yeast)

80g sugar

1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger

1/2 lemon juiced

1/2 tablespoon of honey

I used 750ml plastic bottles for this. You can scale the recipe up or down depending on the size of your bottles, but make sure you use plastic bottles as they can explode during the brewing process. Sterilise any bottles using sterilising tablets or powder, you can buy these from shops that stock brewing supplies.

Using a funnel, put all of the ingredients in the bottle and half fill with water. Put the lid on and shake the bottle to dissolve the sugar and honey then top up with water leaving about 3cm head space. 

Put the lid on tightly and leave the bottle in a warm place for at least 48 hours. I left mine for a week and a half, releasing the pressure on two occassions, because I wanted a good strong ginger flavour.

Strain the ginger beer, rebottle it and leave for a couple of days until the bottle feels very hard and you can't squeeze it anymore, then refrigerate.

yum

all the ingredients, ready to go