Yet another utterly unrelated post to baking. Ginger beer. I grew up on this stuff, not like the ginger ale here in America but this burningly good ginger extravaganza. We made this baby at school, after we tasted some really good stuff the quarter before us had made which didn't taste boozy at all. However, when we tested the stuff we made, it was incredibly beery...not so good in my book. I want the burn of ginger not of alcohol.
The chef in charge said that it was probably because the natural yeast/bacteria in the beer had consumed all the sugar, so there wasn't a heap left. I'm guessing the solution would be to add more sugar.
Hopefully the stuff I'm making at home will work our - I still have nearly a week to go before I can try it out, so fingers are a crossed.
Once again, ginger beer is relying on the natural bacteria that our environment breeds. So a week before I bottled this baby, I simply grated ginger into water, added some sugar for food and let it sit at room temp (covered in cheese cloth) for about a week feeding it (with more ginger and sugar) every couple of days. This is called a ginger bug. Then you simply cook grated ginger in water, add sugar and let it cool. Add the ginger bug and dilute the solution with some water. Clean out some bottles, pop in the ginger and thats it. Sit and wait for a couple of weeks and you should hopefully have something resembling tastiness, but you never know...
Thank you Josh for the picts on this one!
3 comments:
After much thought, I've come to the decision to forgive you for this greivous offence of posting on such an unrelated topic. Heck, its totally enthralling to listen to your latest endeavors. Who gets to make their own kimchi and ginger beer? Rhid, thats who. Have fun!
what an interesting post. just yesterday I was watching a programme on ginger and they mentioned ginger ale and beer and I was really curious about it since I ve never tasted it :) thanks for the info
Hey, I just found your blog--I like it, and you pics are great. One tip on the ginger beer: it should only take a couple days to carbonate. The beery taste you are getting is over-fermentation.
If you use plastic bottles you can just squeeze the bottles once or twice a day till they are totally hard, then put them in the fridge to stop the fermentation. A side benefit of plastic is that you won't ever get any bottle bombs.
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