How to make Ginger Beer

Newsgroups: soc.culture.new-zealand
From: szsclark@hamlet.ucdavis.edu (Sonya Clark)
Subject: Re: Ginger beer (was The Great Twinkie Experiment)
Organization: University of California, Davis
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 22:29:41 GMT

Here's a rather awesome ginger beer recipe that i've been making for some time now and does away with keeping a 'bug' as we used to do, which actually means maintaining a yeast culture. This is a very simple recipe. [This recipe's great; it's authentic and its easy -mjw]

Lemon-based Ginger beer

Put first measure of sugar in warm water to dissolve, add yeast and stir. Place in warm place to start working.

Finely grate or slice rind from 2 lemons and place in a heatproof container with the 1 cup of sugar and the dried ginger. Pour over 1 cup of boiling water and leave to steep for 10 minutes. Strain into 1.5 L plastic bottle in which the ginger beer will be made. Top up bottle with cool water to near top so that final temp is approx. body temp. Add yeast to bottle as soon as it shows signs of working, ie. it foams. Cap bottle tightly. Mix thoroughly and put in a warm place. Leave until bottle becomes undentable. Depending on the yeast this can take anything from 12 hours to 3 days, but best to check regularly, as I guess there is a risk of explosion with this! Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and OPEN WITH GREAT CARE!

This recipe came from the ChCh Press a couple of years back and makes excellent ginger beer. You can also add more sugar afterwards if you like it sweeter. Yum.

Sonya Clark.

finlayson@auckland.Eng.Sun.COM wrote:
: In article MhWQKcG00hsBF4zoZT@cs.cmu.edu, Michael Witbrock  () writes:
: > I'd suggest, once you move to NZ, acquiring a taste for ginger beer instead.

: Waaaahh!!!

: Ginger beer is something that I have never seen here in the U.S.  I think I
: may just have to start making my own.  Does anyone out there have a recipe?
: (I recall that the process is quite complicated; there's some sort of stock
: (called a "plant"?) that you have to keep feeding.  I forget the details...)

: 	Ross.

Non-alcoholic Ginger Beer

Received: via nntpserv with nntp; Sat, 26 Mar 1994 18:49:11 -0500 (EST)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.new-zealand,rec.food.cooking
From: phys218@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
Subject: Ginger not-beer
Message-ID: <1994Mar27.112712.1@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Nntp-Posting-Host: cantva.canterbury.ac.nz
Organization: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 23:27:12 GMT

A-propos the recent thread on ginger beer in soc.culture.new-zealand, here is a recipe for a non-alcoholic ginger thirst-quencher that my mother used to make to take out to my father when he was hay-making on a hot day.

Ingredients:
8 cups   water
1 cup    white sugar
1 tsp    ground ginger
1/2 tsp  citric or tartaric acid
         juice of 1 lemon.

It's dead simple - just dissolve the sugar and acid in the cold water, stir the ginger and lemon juice in, and drink!

I personally prefer a little less sugar and more lemon juice (if you use more, cut down on the citric or tartaric acid). You can keep on fiddling the proportions until you like the taste or run out of containers, whichever comes first.

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Lyndon Watson                              L.Watson@csc.canterbury.ac.nz
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