1541 - 1-2-3 Ginger Beer

For hot summer days, I made home-made ginger beer. 

Here's how:

You need glass bottles with built-in stoppers.  For each 750 ml - 1 l  bottle you need:

1. water to fill the bottle
2. 1 ½ inch of ginger root
3.  ½ lemon
4. 1 tsp sugar
5.  ⅛ tsp yeast

Bring the water to a boil, using as much water as you have bottles to fill.  Simply multiply the dry ingredients by how many bottles you are making.

Use a food processor or a grater to grind the ginger into a pulp.  Juice the lemon.  Put the ginger, sugar, and lemon juice into the water.  Turn down the water and simmer for 15 minutes.  Your kitchen will smell wonderful!  Allow the mixture to cool.  

Put the yeast in your bottle. Using a strainer, pour the mixture into the bottle, trying to strain out as much of the solids as you can.  Don't seal the bottle with the stopper!  Instead, place the stopper gently in the hole and cover the top of the bottle loosely with plastic cling wrap.  

Place the bottle someplace cool and dark for three days: 1-2-3.  A closet works well.  After three days, you can stop the bottle properly and store it in your fridge. If there is sludge in your drink, after three days it will have settled to the bottom of the bottle. 

The ginger beer is very strong with sweet lemon and tart ginger.  It's slightly fermented, so it has some kick.  It definitely quenches your thirst.  A little vodka turns it into a great evening in the back yard.