Making Ginger Beer

On a dark and stormy night,

When the moon is full and bright,

There's a doctor in a lab, so dark and drab,

A terrifying creature lying on a slab.

What a vision, a delight, 

On a dark and stormy night!

Ok, so those lyrics from our Grade 8 play 'You Ain't Nothing But a Werewolf', way back when, might not have invoked thoughts of ginger beer to my 13 year old self.  But now, 'Dark and Stormy' makes me dream of the refreshing beverage of that name.  I was first introduced to Dark and Stormies by my supervisor's husband at my master's defence party.  A delicious drink of dark rum (dark) and ginger beer (stormy).  But since ginger beer usually isn't on our shopping list, it isn't a drink I have very often.  However, this Christmas the drink reappeared in my hand (and in the hands of some of my co-workers at the party), reminding me how delicious it really is with that intense ginger flavour.  This past weekend, my husband surprised me with bottles of ginger beer chilling in the fridge.

Since I enjoy the drink, I decided to make some homemade ginger beer.  I followed The History Kitchen's ginger beer instructions.

 All the ingredients ready to go. 

Making the gingerette (ginger syrup).  1 cup sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup water with 2 tbsp grated ginger (over medium heat).  Once dissolved, the concoction was allowed to steep for an hour (off heat).

Now that the gingerette is ready, it is time to time to start it fermenting in order to get the 'fizz'.  Into a 2L plastic bottle, we poured 7 cups of water, 1/8 tsp of yeast, 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice and the gingerette.  We shook it all up and now it sits out of the sunlight at room temperature for 2 - 3 days until the gases build up.  But we'll have to watch it so that it doesn't build up too much and explode (hence using the plastic bottle and not glass).