I’m not ginger’s biggest fan. I like a chewy, rice-paper-covered candy or a cup of ginger tea every now and then, but when I make Indian food, I usually cut the ginger called for by half. I got a big chunk in my CSA share recently, and wasn’t sure how I’d make use of it. Enter: homemade ginger ale.
Now, this isn’t your typical, store-bought ginger ale. To me, that stuff tastes like a slightly zestier version of sprite– cloying and not very gingery. This ginger ale is slightly sweet and has a nice, strong bite of ginger. It does match the store-bought stuff in terms of carbonation, thanks to a very important ingredient:
We’re not total strangers to home brews over here, but it’s been a while since we’ve experimented with yeasted beverages. I was skeptical about how fizzy this ginger ale could be with only a pinch of yeast in it, but I was pleasantly surprised when I unhinged the top and it flew open with a loud pop. It was perfectly bubbly.
You can find the recipe here. I cut it in half to fit my one liter bottle, upped the lemon juice a bit, and used turbinado instead of white sugar, which gave it a slightly golden color. I’ll never have to worry about a piece of ginger languishing in my fridge again, because it’s definitely a repeat recipe.
