Ginger Beer

Real ginger beer is sharp and tingly with the plus of a little alcohol, not like its wimpy cousin, ginger ale.  You can come close with bottles of non-alcoholic ginger beer imported from Britain or the West Indies.  Or try your own.

British schoolchildren, egged on by teachers and parents, used to experiment with ‘ginger beer plants’ by which we meant a mixture of ground ginger, sugar, and yeast (though see below)  It was glorious messy fun.  You put everything in a pitcher, added water, and waited for bubbles to appear. After a few days checking turgid ebullience, you poured off the liquid, bottled it, and waited for a few days.  Then you decanted off the clear part and drank it.

Meantime, the residue was divided in half, and one half was ‘fed’ more ginger and sugar, and everything began again, a veritable perpetual motion machine. It seemed such a pity to throw away the other half that it was all too easy, if your mother was indulgent, to end up with entire shelves laden with seething jars.

And then you could compare notes with school mates about exploded bottles.  The winner in my class buried one in her parent’s vegetable garden, only to send cabbages flying a few days later.  At least that’s what she said.

Quite why ginger beer making was regarded a harmless educational activity for ten-year olds by even the most tight-laced teetotaller among their elders, especially since it was never the subject of lessons in fermentation, I have never been able to fathom. It was great training, of course, for home brewing a few years later.

But age ten, enthusiasm for the messy business of dividing the ‘plant’ every few days quickly waned, not to mention that parents put their collective feet down about providing bottles and having sticky substances all over their kitchens. And clearly, this was not a carefully measured activity nor the resultant brew one destined for ginger beer tastings.

But the drink is a delicious one, and only mildly alcoholic if drunk quickly. Here’s a modification of  the more carefully worked out Women’s Institute recipe. The best kind of bottles are the ones that have a  rubber-ring lined flip cap attached by two metal clips.

1 oz root ginger

1/2 oz cream of tartar

1 lb white sugar

1 gallon water

Zest and juice of a lemon

Yeast

Put the bruised ginger (I like to use more, much more but then one of the few things I’m self sufficient in is ginger), cream of tartar (this optional in my opinion), sugar and lemon zest in a bowl and cover with boiling water. When the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has cooled, add a good pinch of yeast and the lemon juice, cover, and leave 24 hours in a warm room, longer in a cold one. Remove the scum, siphon off the liquid, and bottle.  Ready in two or three days.