Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Ginger Root - Homemade Ginger Beer


A few weeks ago we brought home some ginger root. It's been sitting on the counter for so long - that I finally decided that yesterday was the day to do something with it b/c I was tired of seeing it.

We first peeled off a bit of the peel and each had a micro-taste of the pure ginger. I was surprised at how potent it was! Just that little nibble caused a burning sensation in my throat.

I cut up the ginger root and then shredded it up in the food processor. I then dumped it all into the blender with some water and 1 cup of sugar. Well 1 cup plus a bit, since the boy volunteered to add the sugar and he added "a bit more" for the sake of his sister, he said.

It really isn't as dark, and yellowish as the picture shows.

Then I blended it for about 30 seconds to a minute and then let it sit for a few hours.

Into a glass filled with ice, I added about 1/3 cup of club soda and about 1/3 cup of the ginger solution (strained). It smelled just like the Jamaican Ginger Beer that the boy loves to buy. He LOVED the homemade ginger beer. I thought it was pretty strong in the ginger department - not something you could slug down rapidly. But it was tasty in small doses. The girl liked it but not as much as she likes the store bought variety.

I think I should have used less water and made it into more of a ginger syrup, before adding it to the club soda.

The boy drank the most and probably would have drank as much as I would have let him have. As mentioned, one of the reasons it was the best day of his life, was due to us making the ginger beer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you keep the ginger in your freezer it will last "forever". Does it taste like root beer ?

Edi said...

Thanks for the freezer tip.

Does it taste like root beer??? Not even close! It's not even really like ginger ale...there is fizziness (primarily in the store bought variety) if you add club soda - but the overwhelming taste is ginger...and when you eat pure ginger there is burning.

It just tastes like ginger and sugar. And there is throat burning.