It's really hot in London this week and the summer is very enjoyable. For your pleasure I recommend making some ginger ale.
Some time ago I posted a short info about it. I'm quite surprised that the degasing video is still up. I've heard that DTube is not super when it comes to keeping videos available.
First things first - time for a small coming-out. I suspect it will be a shock to some of you, but I need to confess: I like baking bread. One of the aspects that I find interesting is fermentation - I started with sourdoughs, then I made fermented soup starters for zurek and white borscht, kvass, yeast water. Ginger ale is a next step to me.
We don't buy carbonated drinks apart from beer or cyder, we avoid sweet drinks. Making my own carbonated drink sounded too intriguing to not try. I would like to thank @amy-goodrich for her recipe. This is my interpretation of it. Have a look at the original post about ginger ale and make sure you follow Amy for her high quality posts.
I did make a fermented drink before - it was Kvass (here's the recipe on breadcentric.com). This time we're going wild - starting with a ginger bug and ending with a soda itself. The author used a turmeric root which I don't have good memories with. Also, while I added lemon juice to my drink, I will not do it in the future as after yeast eating through the sugar the ale was just too sour.
WARNING while I am a man with a measuring stick, I didn't follow measurements too thoroughly in this case. Sometimes one just has to.
Ginger bug after three days
Planning
You'll need about five days to make the bug, then about three days for a complete drink. It's worth having a room which can get a bit dirty as the bottles can explode. As an alternative, you can use a box with a lid to store the bottles in. Have I mentioned you'll need bottles? I used plastic ones from a juice, with the whole of about 3 cm in diameter. They coped well although the bottom was getting bloated from the pressure. I was afraid to use glass bottles after seing a couple jars exploding from yeast water.
Ingredients
Ginger bug
- ginger root (two large ones should be enough)
- sugar (about 250 g)
- water (about half a litre)
The soda
- 500 ml ginger bug
- About two litres water
- orange juice (I pressed it from four oranges and it was enough for three litres of soda)
- one cup (250 ml) sugar
Preparation
Ginger bug
- I added about 100 ml water, 30-50 g grated ginger and about 50 g sugar to a jar. I mixed it well and left it to ferment with a cloth in place of a lid. DO NOT SEAL THE JAR, ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE IS NO JOKE
- On days 2-5 I kept adding same amounts of ingredients and mixed it. I also mixed it throughout the day if there was too much gas and I was afraid the bug would escape the jar
After three days the bug was pretty much ready. I fed it till day five, but because I had to leave for a week, I put it in a fridge. After returning I fed it once more and since it was very active, I used it.
Ginger bug after five days
The activity can be measured by quantity of the gas build-up. The gas is carbon dioxide. I tasted the bug and it was tasty, but very gingery. It's good that it requires diluting.
The soda
- Melt the sugar in water and leave it to cool down
- Add the juice and strained bug
- Pour into the bottles and close them tightly
- Keep them in a room temperature for three days and degas regularly - I did it 3-4 times a day so that I don't end up having to paint the walls. Even though the bottles were stored in a plastic container, I didn't want to take risks
- Store the bottles in a fridge
Because of the water condensing on a glass I couldn't make any sharper pictures. I will accept advice from photographers with humility and gratitude.
That's it, it's a home made carbonated drink, probably very mildly alcoholic, although I have no way of measuring (I didn't give it to the kids, just in case). It's tasty and refreshing.
The longer the soda is kept, the less sweet it becomes, so don't worry about the amount of sugar in the recipe - the yeast can deal with it. At the same time they don't produce a lot of alcohol.
I've drank three litres of the ginger ale within a week. I'm sure I'll be making it again.