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Home Brewed Ginger Ale

A tongue-tingling summer treat!

Ingredients

  • 2 inch piece of fresh ginger root
  • 1 cup water plus more to fill your bottle
  • 9 tbsp sugar
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 5 tbsp lemon juice fresh squeezed is best, or try lime juice
  • 1/8 tsp sparkling wine yeast bakers yeast will work in a pinch

Instructions

  • Peel and grate the ginger; you should end up with about 2 tbsp worth
  • Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan and remove from heat. Add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Add ginger and let stand until cool, then stir in lemon juice.
  • Pour the ginger water into a clear 2 liter pop bottle with a funnel and top off the bottle with water, leaving a little over an inch of headspace. Give it a taste and just sugar and lemon juice as you like.
  • Add the yeast to the bottle, screw on the cap and give it a shake to dissolve the yeast. Then, be patient and let it sit in a warm place out of direct sunlight until it's well-carbonated. You can check the bottle for carbonation by giving it a gentle squeeze; when it feels solid, it's fizzy! (The carbonation can take anywhere from 12 hours to two days... just be patient.)
  • Refrigerate once it's carbonated; it'll last up to two weeks in the fridge but we're sure you'll drink it before then. BE CAREFUL when opening it for the first time... unscrew it slowly over a sink to avoid bubble-ups.
  • When serving pour it through a small fine-mesh strainer to catch the ginger bits.
  • Enjoy!

Notes

Homemade ginger ale packs a punch, but it's so tasty you'll want to keep making more. This recipe makes enough to fill a 2 liter plastic pop bottle.
A common yeast found in many homebrew shops that works great for this.
This basic recipe can be adapted in many different ways: try adding a splash of cranberry juice, or some lemon zest. If you want to make it nearly sugar-free, just use one tbsp of sugar and replace the rest with the sweetener of your choice–but remember: some sugar is necessary for carbonation. Also, if you can’t get to a homebrew shop for proper yeast, you can find it in many places online, or you can use baker’s yeast to carbonate in a pinch–it might just end up with a slightly yeasty flavour, especially if you let it sit for too long.