5 Steps To Make Ginger Beer With Just 3 Ingredients

Ginger beer is a sweetened carbonated drink produced through natural fermentation. It is known for its myriad of proven health benefits, like lowering cancer risk, relieving nausea, and preventing diabetes.

And the good thing about it is you can brew it in your own home with just three ingredients. If you want to know how to make ginger beer, keep on reading.

Why We Like This Ginger Beer Recipe

• It only requires three ingredients: You only need water, ginger, and sugar to create a ginger beer. It is low cost, and the ingredients are readily available at home. Also, unlike any store-bought ginger beer, this recipe does not contain preservatives or artificial sweeteners.
• It is excellent for your health: According to a study, ginger beer has rich nutritional components, like vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, and minerals. It also has antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic properties. So the next time you experience a cold or stomachache, try a ginger beer.
• It tastes soothingly good: Drink it on its own or pair it with your alcohol of choice; either way, it still tastes good. Ginger beer alone has a sweet-spicy taste with a strong ginger flavor. But if you want to transform it into a fun drink, try mixing it with vodka and lime to create a classic Moscow Mule.

Please check here for more information about ginger beer.

What You Will Need

Ingredients

For the ginger bug:

• 250ml water
• 10g chopped ginger
• 10g sugar

For the ginger beer:

• 1L of water
• 30g ginger
• 100g sugar
• 50g strained ginger bug liquid

Equipment Needed

• Mason jar
• Fermentation lids (or napkin and a rubber band)
• Flip top bottles

How to Make Ginger Beer Recipe

Step 1. Make a ginger bug

Rough chop 10g of ginger with skin. Make sure that it has no pesticide. Transfer it to a clean mason jar. Then, add 10g of sugar (any type will do) and one liter of water. Shake it and give it a good mix. Cover it with a fermentation lid, a napkin tightened with a rubber band will also do.

Step 2. Ferment the ginger bug

Place your ginger bug on a counter at room temperature for one day. Continue feeding the ginger bug with 10g of ginger and 10g of sugar for three to four days until it starts to foam up. Foaming means that the bacteria and yeasts are growing.

Step 3. Prepare the ginger beer

Add one liter of water to a stockpot before turning on the heat. Once almost to a simmer, add 100g of sugar and 30g of chopped ginger with skin. Bring to a simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes to infuse. After cooking, strain the ginger and let it cool down.

Step 4: Combine mixtures

While waiting for the ginger beer to cool down, strain 50g of ginger bug liquid, then set aside. Once the ginger beer is at room temperature, combine the two mixtures. Then, transfer it into a flip-top bottle.

Step 5: Continue to ferment

Leave the ginger beer bottle for three days at room temperature (69°F). After three days, you can transfer it to a fridge to chill. Once chilled, you can now enjoy your homemade ginger beer.

Note: If you want to make more ginger beer, you can continue feeding the ginger bug with 10g of sugar and 10g of ginger. You can also place it in the fridge for long-term storage.

Tips and Tricks

Take note of these tips and tricks if it’s your first time brewing a ginger beer at home.

1. Leave at least two inches of headroom. Do you wonder why ginger beer is fizzy? It’s because of the process of carbonation. Fizz happens when the yeast eats the sugar to convert it into carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide builds up and creates bubbles when bottled, thus the fizz. We don’t want our ginger beer all over the place and messing up our counter, so don’t forget to leave a headroom when transferring in a bottle.
2. Consider your fermentation bottles. Bubbles in a carbonated drink mean there is pressure inside, and too much pressure can cause the bottle to explode. Of course, we want a safe and enjoyable home brewing experience. So, avoid using thin glasses with sharp edges because these are weak points where pressure can accumulate. Use thick glasses instead, with a round shape similar to a wine bottle.
3. Check your ginger beer regularly. Aside from choosing the right bottle, it is also important to release the pressure daily to avoid an explosion. Open the cap off for a few seconds. Then, cap it again, ready for storing at room temperature. But once you place it in the fridge, there is no need to release the pressure.
4. Substitute for the ginger bug. Perhaps the time is not on your side to make one, or maybe the ginger bug does not appeal to you. One of the best substitutes is champagne yeast. It eats up most of the sugar, giving the drink a clean flavor.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ginger beer?

Ginger beer is a naturally flavored and naturally carbonated beverage. It is fermented traditionally with ginger, sugar, cream of tartar, yeast, and water.

Before ginger beer, over 5000 years ago, Indians and Chinese already used ginger to produce tonic root. They used the concoction to treat different ailments such as nausea and stomachache. It was until the 18th century that they produced the first ginger beer as an alcoholic beverage in England. Today, commercial ginger beers available are mostly non-alcoholic.

Ginger Beer vs. Ginger Ale

While both utilize ginger, they still differ in fermentation, taste, and alcohol content. Below are the notable differences between ginger beer and ginger ale.

	Ginger Beer	Ginger Ale
Ingredients	Fermented with sugar, ginger, and water.	Fermented with sugar, ginger, and club soda.
Taste	Has a sweet-spicy taste with a strong ginger flavor.	Has a mild and mellow taste that is sweeter than ginger beer.
Alcohol Content	It has less than one percent.	It is alcohol-free.

Is ginger beer gluten-free?

Yes! Ginger beer does not contain barley or wheat. Aside from its traditional ingredients, some ginger beer might have a lemon, citric acid, and sometimes cinnamon.

Does ginger beer have alcohol?

Original ginger beers can reach up to no more than 11 percent of alcohol content. Today most ginger beers have less than one percent of alcohol content.

In 1920, during the Prohibition era, alcoholic beverages were considered illegal. Manufacturing, transporting, and selling was punishable by law; breweries were left to adapt or die. To save their business, local breweries created a light version of ginger beers with 0.5% alcohol.

What liquor can I mix with ginger beer?

Sometimes we want to spice up our ginger beer with an extra kick. Moscow Mule, also known as vodka buck, is a spicy and tangy beverage made with vodka and ginger beer. Conversely, Dark ‘n’ Stormy has a sweet, mellow, and spicy ginger taste made from rum and ginger beer.

Summary

Ginger beer is unique on its own, in a way that it is soothingly good yet beneficial for your health. Also, you can do it anytime because the ingredients are most likely available at home. If you feel like creating one as a medicinal beverage or as a highball ingredient, whatever you need it for, this recipe can do it all.