Ginger Beer Recipe

I've mentioned before that I make Ginger Beer with Ginger Beer Plant.  Thing 1 and Thing 2 seem to like the ginger beer so I end up making a gallon batch about every two weeks.  Since the Bugbear Clan moved to the country I've been unable to locate my recipes and consequently the consistency of flavor from batch to patch has been poor.  Hopefully this post will generate enough hits from people in the fraternity/sorority of ginger beer brewers that some recipes will turn up in the comment section (Hint Hint).

Last night I started a batch and here's the approximate recipe.  I say approximate because I don't measure all that closely.  My rule of thumb is half a cup of sugar to every litre of water and one lemon or three limes to every two litres.

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Bugbear's Lemon Molasses Ginger Beer

Apparatus:

1gallon/4l pickle jar
Jelly bag
clean dish cloth
long wooden spoon
elastic that will fit over the mouth of the pickle jar
enough screw top plastic bottles and screw tops to bottle about 4000ml
Strainer


Ingredients:

1 tbsp Ginger Beer Plant (exact quantity doesn't really matter)
2 cups of white sugar
1/4 of molasses
juice of 2-4 lemons

1 tsp of cream of tartar
5 inches of ginger root

Thoroughly wash all the apparatus in hot soapy water ensure that each item is fully immersed for about 30 seconds or so (excluding the freshly laundered dish cloth and the plastic bottles).  Thoroughly rinse all the soap off the apparatus and dry.  Add two litres/half a gallon of non-chlorinated and non-softened water.  Chlorine will kill your plant and the residual salt in water from a water softener may damage or kill your plant over time.  Stir in the sugar, molasses, cream of tartar and lemon juice.  Peel and grate the ginger, place the ginger and any juice from the grating the jelly bag and squeeze the juice into the gallon jar.  Stir, top up the jar to just above the 'shoulder' and add the ginger beer plant.

Cover with the jar with the dish cloth and use the elastic to seal the cloth over the mouth of the jar.  Place the jar out of the sun on the counter.  Depending on the ambient temperature it may take anywhere from 1 to 5 days for the ginger beer to reach the desired flavor.

Wash the strainer plastic bottles and lids as per the aforementioned procedure. Strain out the ginger beer plant and bottle the ginger beer leaving space for the carbon dioxide to build up pressure.  Leave the bottle at ambient temperature for 24 hours or until the sides of the bottle feel firm.  Refrigerate the ginger beer, generally keep for about two weeks.

Don't forget to feed your plant and refrigerate until the next batch.

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Some Ginger Beer Links 
(I'll Update so Check Back Often)

The Guardian has and Article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/jun/29/how-make-real-ginger-beer

Instructables:
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-REAL-ginger-beer-recipe/

The Perfect Storm

I'm going to start this blog entry with three facts.  The first fact is that I don't drink much. I'm not a teetotaler nor do I sit down and have a beer every night, or even every week.  The second fact is that I unlike most of my close friends I don't really like rum.  That last statement is not entirely accurate, I really only like good Jamaican Rum.  The third and most disparate fact is that I make my own ginger beer. I make ginger beer using authentic ginger beer plant.

Now last night I was struck by a rare alcoholic appetition. A few months ago I had picked up a bottle of NewFoundland Screech, a Jamaican rum.  I'd  drank a couple of rum and cokes in the intervening months and decided to have another when to my chagrin I discovered a scantness of soda in the house.  I did however discover a bottle of Ginger Beer.  I've had a few Dark and Stormy's over the years (Ginger Beer and Black Rum) so I decided that I try a Jamaican Rum with Ginger Beer.  The resultant cocktail I'm Calling the Perfect Storm since
I'm ripping off paying homage to a Dark and Stormy.  If you have access to ginger beer plant and want to sample this sinfully sumptuous libation then I recommend that you brew the ginger beer using lemon, lime and fresh ginger rather than dried ginger.  The mellower version of ginger beer produced using fresh ginger is a better complement to the Jamaican rum.

Alternately, provide me a week's notice of a visit and a bottle of Jamaican rum.