Ginger Ale

[BriarCreek]

With it being a rainy day, I'm getting some inside chores done.  I harvested one of my ginger pots today and am starting a new ginger bug for making ginger ale.  It's pretty easy, you can use fresh ginger you buy at the grocery store too.

 

Take about 1/2 cup of water (if you have city water you may want to use filtered water) and mix it with some sort of sugar

This can be almost any kind of sugar--honey, maple syrup, molasses, white sugar...whatever you've got

Mix enough of it to make the water somewhat sweet--2 or 3 tablespoons or so

Peal a nob or two of fresh ginger and grate it to get a couple tablespoons or so 

Mix this into your sweet water

Cover it with a cloth and leave it in a warm place

The next day grate another nob of ginger and mix up a little more sweet water and put this into your first batch

Do this for a few days until you see the mixture bubbling

You now have a ginger bug-much like a sour dough

 

From here you can add around 1/2 cup or so of your bug to a quart or so of almost anything sweet-like fruit juice or sweet tea or even more sweet ginger water. The sweeter it is, the faster it will getting nice and bubbly. Don't worry, the sugar will be eaten in the process so it won't be super sweet by the time you drink it. Put this into some sort of bottle you can seal and let this set on the counter for 5 to 10 days.  Then put it in the cooler for a couple hours and you have a homemade ginger soda.  If it sets for too long the fermenting will become a ginger wine--not very strong but alcohol none the less.

 

 

[emily]

Nice one! Thanks

[Rustic]

Nice! I make my own root beer so I will have to try this. Thanks for sharing!

[Tana]

Rustic are you willing to share your root beer recipe?

Its my favourite drink, but difficult to get in the UK.

[Rustic]

Sure I can! I'll start a new thread though so I don't hijack BriarCreek's thread. :]