Ginger Beer

It took four attempts for me to find a ginger beer recipe that I thought worked well.

1) First of all I tried a very simple, non-brewed version by Jamie Oliver. Its advantage is that you can whip it up in about 20 minutes. Its disadvantage is that it is quite frighteningly spicy – not fiery, spicy. Everyone tried to be polite but it was clearly too challenging for the palate for my family. I can’t imagine the child who could drink this stuff. Here's my sister attempting to take the smallest possible sip.

 2) Next I went for a Nigel Slater recipe, one that involves letting the mixture sit around in a bowl overnight. The problem with this one was that it had a pretty lacklustre fizz – I think too much gas was lost during the first hours (although I did leave mine in the bowl for 24 hours instead of 12). In addition, when I bottled it, I ended up with one virtually clear ginger beer, and one incredibly cloudy, milky one because all the yeast and cream of tartar was sitting on the bottom of the bowl. Perhaps I should have swirled it around, or avoided the bottom. Either way, Nigel neglected to advise.

 3) Next I turned to Hugh F-W. I foolishly attempted to use bread yeast so the whole thing smelt like thrush. Sorry.

4) I tried Hugh once more and succeeding in creating a really delicious ginger beer. Not particularly fiery mind but quite winey, refined, fizzy and very drinkable. In the recipe below I suggest adding more ginger to give it more kick. And as long as you strain through muslin there’s no need to peel it.

Equipment

1 plastic 2 ltr bottle (buy some cheap water for the bottle)

Muslin

Funnel

Ingredients

¼ tsp brewer’s yeast

225g caster sugar

4tbsp grated fresh root ginger

Juice of a lemon

1 tsp honey

1)      Put the yeast into the bottle, then the sugar, then the rest of the ingredients.

2)      Add cold water to ¾ full and shake till everything is dissolved.

3)      Top up leaving a 2.5cm airspace in the top of the bottle.

4)      Leave in a warm place for 48 hours.

5)      Strain and put into the fridge to stop the yeast working. Once chilled, it’s ready to drink.