Homemade Ginger Ale

I never knew one could make ginger ale at home, not after I read a post at Ping's Picking. Since I have all ingredients on hand, I set out to make it. Capt'n Hook asked me what am I doing and when I told him, he gave me a cynical smile! To rub in more salt, he mentioned how manufacturer used up millions in research to perfect the recipe and here I am brewing my own ginger ale at home! Hrrrmmpphhh...

Not to be defeated I continued following the recipe and tips diligently. After 2 days of fermentation and another day in the fridge, surprise surprise... I have one of the most delicious ginger ale in my glass! It's not sickly sweet as the commercial kind and the right ginger flavour for me. Capt'n Hook kept his mouth shut by drinking glasses of these :D



I've tweaked Ping's recipe a little and do check her original recipe and also another flavoured with lemongrass!

What I did was boil 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup water (the basic syrup) together with 2.5 tbsp grated young ginger and 1.5 tbsp grated old ginger. You can adjust the ginger amount according to your liking. Once sugar is all dissolved, turn off fire and cool.

Strain the syrup and mix in juice from 1 lemon, 7 cups of cooled boiled water/filtered water and 1/4 tsp yeast. Mix thoroughly and pour mixture into plastic bottle. Those cleaned soda water bottles would be good and do not use glass as when fermentation occurs, gas will form and cause expansion which might cause glass bottle to explode. This mixture yielded one 1.5 litre bottle and another small 300ml bottle. Ping had mentioned she used a 2 litres bottle.

Screw on the cap tighly and let the bottle sit in a cool area at room temperature for 2-3 days. By then the concoction will be carbonated and you can store them in the fridge thereafter. Wooohoo you can start drinking your homemade ginger ale.

The glass shown in the picture is the top layer and looked clear which Capt'n Hook said it's not sweet enough and pretty mild. There is residue sitting at the bottom of the bottle so what I did was shake it a little and the concoction fires up. This one is cloudy looking like ginger beer.

So it doesn't cost millions to make your own ginger ale ;-) after all...