Server: Apache/1.3.23 (Unix) PHP/4.1.1
Connection: close
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html
Ginger Beer
Ginger Beer
This recipe makes three 1.25 litre bottles of ginger beer, which is
ready to drink in about 4 days from first making - depending on the
temperature. As live yeast is used for the brewing, the temperature
needs to be at least 20C for the yeast to work.
In a large plastic container, mix together:
- 5 pints of cold water
- 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of active dry yeast
- 1 large heaped teaspoon of powdered ginger
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon of tartaric acid
- Grated rind and juice of one lemon
Leave stand for at least 12 hours. (I have discovered it can be left for
longer as there are times when 12 hours later simply isn't convenient!)
Strain through muslin, and bottle in well sealed, strong bottles. The
PET softdrink bottles are quite good, as they are easy to gauge the
readiness of the beer in. The plastic bottle will be soft and easy to
deform when first filled, but after a day or two of warm weather, the
bottle will feel extremely tight. Then it is time to put the beer in
the fridge! (Make sure you leave an air gap of at least 2cm below the
bottle neck when filling the bottles).
Be sure to open the bottles with care when ready to drink the beer, as
it can fizz up to the extent that you get ginger beer everywhere but
in your glass. With really fizzy bottles, it is not difficult to undo
the screw top just enough to relieve the pressure in the bottle
without the fiz rising, and leave it like that for some minutes. The
secret to success is patience. After a while you get a feel for
whether the fiz is going to be faster than you can pour the beer!
The science behind this recipe
The science is simple. Yeast cells use the sugar as their energy
source, in the process converting the sugar to alcohol and carbon
dioxide. (The yeast cells multiply at an ernormous rate during this
process, as they reproduce via cell division). When the beer is
sealed in the bottles, the carbon dioxide builds up in the air gap
above the liquid, and remains dissolved in the liquid. The greater
the pressure in the bottle due to gas build up, the more carbon
dioxide remains dissolved in the beer. When the bottle is opened and
the pressure relieved, the dissolved carbon dioxide starts to come out
of solution, hence causing the bubbles and the fizzing of the beer.
Happy drinking