A well tried and extensively tested traditional Ginger beer recipe.
Rate this recipe:- 10 mins
- 1 hour
- 1 gallon (2 2l pop bottles)
- Well Bruised root ginger - 1.25oz - 25g
- Sugar - 1lb - 500g
- Lemons - 2
- Cream of Tartare - Qtr Tsp
- Water - 1 gallon - 4.5 ltr
- Yeast and Nutrient
Firstly remember to sterilise all of your equipment as much as possible. Put the sugar, lemon rinds, thinly pared from fruit with veg peeler, juice of both lemons and the well-bruised ginger into a large bowl or polythene brewing bucket.Begin to boil the water and as it comes to the boil put in the squeezed halves of the lemons. When it reaches boiling point, pour it over the ingredients in the bucket. remove the lemon halves, stir well to dissolve all of the sugar and cover. Leave to cool to about 21C then add dried yeast and nutrient. Lastly stir in cream of Tartare. Cover and leave for 24 hours in a warm spot. Strain the liquor and bottle using plastic lemonade bottles. NEVER use glass screw top ones as they will explode and even swing top stopper bottles have a tendency to do this. The beauty of plastic bottles is that you can feel and see the pressure building and if necessary gently release some by opening them a fraction until you just hear the gas escaping then re-tighten as needed.
As I said in my blog the first brew was not to our taste so we added further sugar and put it in swing top bottles, of course this did cause a further period of fermentation but as we were drinking it over a short period, eg a garden party, it was ok. Just don't do this and leave it too long or they will explode.
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i'm in italy and can't get cream of tartare. can you tell me a good substitute for cream of tartare as i'm hoping to make this recipe on friday. i was thinking backing soda would maybe do the trick if it's just to stabilise the ph of the beer
Nutrient - is for the yeast. It can be bought at any homebrewing store :-) Simply ask for yeast nutrient :)
Word of warning chaps... I've made this before and even the plastic bottles can explode... I'd suggest perhaps letting a little of the gas out every day or two, just in case. Mine was in the garage and exploded all over the car... Niiiice!
Maybe a silly question - but I´m a dane so... When it says nutient, what is actually meant? what kind of nutrient is needed
Ditte
I made this as per the link bellow on xmas eve and am drinking it boxing day and it has turned out fine, tastes is just right, not too fiery. Got a nice little kick to it tho. It does lose its fizz rather quickly, but who cares, i dont suppose a 2 litre bottle is going to last all that long between me and my 2 son in laws. Good job i made 10 litres.
Word of warning. Some of the screw on lids are thinner than others and it was one of these that exploded in my spare room, (nice and warm in there) and made a bit of a mess.
I was looking for the recipe that was on the telly the other week as well, but could only find this one on this site. However i found it on the chanel 4 web site. Here is the link, hope it helps.
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/ginger-beer-recipe
Hello,
I'd like to try this too. Sorry to sound a bit of a dunce, but what is Nutrient ? And, where would I get it and how much do you have to put in. How much yeast too. I've done loads of beer kits in the past, and just use the small supplied sachet, for 5 Gallons of beer.
Also, roughly how strong does this beer turn out.
Lastly, the ginger, do you just lob it in or should it be chopped up or grated or anything ?
Thanks in advance for any help,
Hi,
Having seen your recipe I am tempted to try to make this again. I tried a similar recipe in the spring but was very disappointed with the soapy taste. Any suggestions as to what may have caused that?. There was no soap residue in any of the equipment. Also, I though by adding loads and loads of ginger I would get a really fiery result but it didnt seem to increase the hotness at all. Im keen to get this sorted as I am currently buying bottles and bottles from the supermarket. I have to buy the sugar free ones as I can easily drink a bottle a day and the normal one has about a thousand calories in each bottle! Maybe I should just stick to wine! :-)
What happened to Hughs ginger beer recipe? I can only get this one now!