How to Make Your Own (Non-Boozy!) Ginger Ale - Part 2

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Alright, so are you ready to get into the actual ginger ale recipe?  I know I am!  If you haven’t already read through the first part of this post, please check it out first so that you’ll know how to develop your ginger bug, a necessary step to brewing ginger ale.

The typical recipe for homemade ginger ale goes something like this (adapted and summarized from a variety of Internet and print sources):

Ingredients:

• Ginger bug

• Organic ginger

• Non-chlorinated water

• Cane sugar

• Freshly-squeezed lemon juice*

* Note: The lemon juice must be freshly squeezed.  You can’t use bottled lemon juice from the store, as that will contain preservatives and other additives that will hinder the fermentation process.

Fill a gallon or half gallon jar ⅔ to ¾ full.  Add ½ to 1 cup of packed, grated ginger.  Add ½ to 1½ cups white sugar.  Add ¼ to ½ cup lemon juice.  Stir to mix all ingredients, then cover with a paper towel and set aside.  Stir every 12-24 hours, checking for bubbles (they may look like clumps of mold, but you’ll hear them break when you stir).  Once bubbles start forming, strain the mixture and pour into swing-top glass bottles.  Leave for several days, checking daily for additional bubble formation (usually 2-3 days, maximum).*  Open a bottle to test the carbonation, and if it opens with a satisfying POP, you’re good to go!  Place the bottles in the fridge to halt (really, to slow) the fermentation process.

* Note: Some sources recommend that you “burp” the soda bottles at least once daily to avoid building up too much carbon dioxide, as the internal pressure can cause the bottles to explode.  However, in doing so, you release the gases that build up the carbonation in your soda.  I’ve found that keeping the bottles sealed for two to three days while the soda carbonates isn’t a problem, but play it by ear and be safe!

That’s all well and good—simple, manageable steps.  When I started my ginger bug experiment, I followed Wardeh Harmon’s recipe exactly (she has a great book, by the way!  If you’re interested in my reading list, check out my homesteader library post here).  The only problem for me, though, was that on at least one occasion, the two ferments left me with ginger beer, not ginger ale soda.

My first-ever batch of ginger ale turned out delicious, if a bit too sweet.  When I first opened the swing-top bottles, they released carbonation with a mild scent of alcohol.  However, as I sipped on them, no taste of alcohol was detectable—only a mild, warming ginger flavor with a whole lot of sweetness. 

I decided to try again, following the same recipe exactly.  This time, however, the bottles formed bubbles much, much more quickly, so I moved them to the fridge early.  When I opened one of these bottles, I was disappointed to see that there was little fizz, but rather than set it out on the counter and wait for it to re-carbonate, I decided to enjoy it flat… only to get a hefty buzz.  That’s when I realized—my ginger ale soda had become ginger beer.

As I began experimenting with soda-making, I did my research.  All fermentation will produce trace amounts of alcohol—that’s included in the definition of fermentation.  However, most Internet sources agree that ginger ale shouldn’t achieve an alcohol content of more than 1.5%, with around 0.5% being the norm.  According to these sources, the wild yeasts captured in the ginger bug can’t produce the high levels of alcohol typical of commercial yeasts.

That being said… there is definitely variety in the wild yeasts one may capture (the regional differences in sourdough flavors are anecdotal proof of this).  And considering the unintentional buzz I received from sipping on a ginger-ale-turned-ginger-beer… I’m guessing that my ginger bug captured a pretty active wild yeast.  I can’t prove the alcohol content without recreating the ginger beer and running some experiments, but I’m assuming it was significantly higher than 1.5%. 

(A personal note for context: My husband and I choose not to drink alcohol.  We don’t have anything against alcohol in and of itself—and if you’re good with brewing your own ginger beer, more power to you!  But we recognize our own limitations [as well as our family history of alcoholism—both in his family and mine] and have no interest in consuming alcohol to the point of drunkenness.  Therefore, we choose to abstain from it altogether.)

So, what could I do?  If you’re anything like me, the thought of throwing out a boozy batch goes against the grain as wasteful, and giving up without additional research and experimentation just isn’t an option. 

As I returned to the Internet for answers (because, you know, the Internet can always be trusted), I found at least one ginger ale recipe that boiled ginger into a strong tea before using brewer’s yeast—in lieu of a ginger bug—to develop carbonation. 

Now, that I could do. 

I’ve made ginger tea for years, particularly whenever I’m sick or suffering from seasonal allergies; the strong flavor opens my sinuses and soothes my throat.  So, surely I could adapt this recipe into a strong, non-boozy ginger ale.

Rather than purchase brewer’s yeast (which also defeats the purpose of capturing beneficial wild yeast), I decided to continue using my ginger bug.  But instead of steeping raw ginger over the span of several days for a bulk ferment, I boiled my ginger into a strong tea (which takes about 10 minutes) and strained it, just as I would do if I wanted to drink it plain.  I made about a half-gallon of tea, to which I added only ⅓ cup of sugar, ¼ cup of freshly-squeezed lemon juice, and ¼ cup of ginger bug.

The end result?  Batch 3 tasted mildly gingery and not too sweet… but it didn’t ferment well. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think I let the tea cool enough before I bottled it, and it may have killed some of the ginger bug.  And I don’t think I added enough sugar to the soda—I didn’t want it to be as overpoweringly sweet as my first batch, nor did I want the sugar to feed as much alcohol as in the second batch; but in trying to avoid these problems, I didn’t use enough sugar to support the fermentation process. 

I ended up adding more ginger bug and sugar to the few bottles I’d made, and they fizzed up nicely after that.  So… lesson learned.  The next time I made ginger ale, I waited for the ginger tea to cool COMPLETELY before I added the bug.  And I upped my sugar to ½ or ¾ cup per half-gallon, which also helped.

With all that trial and error in mind, here’s the recipe I’ve settled on:

Non-Boozy Ginger Ale

Recipe

Materials needed:

• Large soup pot

• Sieve

• Cheesecloth (optional)

• Gallon-sized pitcher

• Grosch-style swing-top bottles (I purchased these from Amazon and love them!)

• Funnel

Ingredients:

• ½ gallon non-chlorinated water*

• ½ to ¾ fresh organic ginger, grated (it can be frozen after being purchased fresh)*

• ½ to ¾ cup cane sugar

• freshly squeezed juice from 1 lemon* (about ¼ cup)

• ¼ cup mature ginger bug

* Note: Recall from my previous post the considerations that must be taken for your ingredients.  Remember, you want to avoid anything that could kill the microorganisms in your soda, so make sure your water is chlorine-free, your ginger is organic, and your lemon juice is freshly-squeezed.

Directions:

1. Bring a half-gallon of water to a boil. 

2. Add ½ to ¾ cup ginger (roughly 1 to 1½ tablespoon per cup of water).  The amount of ginger doesn’t need to be exact—add more or less to preference.

3. Simmer for about 10 minutes (or until desired strength), then remove from heat.  Allow it to cool COMPLETELY.

4. While the tea is still slightly warm, add sugar and stir to dissolve (use the laws of thermodynamics to your advantage!).

5. Once the tea has cooled, place the sieve (and cheesecloth, if using, to remove the finer particulates) over the pitcher.  Strain the tea, the ginger bug, and the lemon juice into the pitcher.  Stir to combine.

6. Using the funnel, carefully pour the mixture into bottles, leaving at least an inch of headspace (consider filling up each bottle a little at a time, as the most active ginger culture tends to sink to the bottom of the pitcher!).

7. Cap the bottles and set aside for several days, checking every 12 hours or so for bubble formation.

8. Once bubbles form, move to the fridge to halt (really, to slow) the fermentation process. 

Have you tried it out?  What do you think? Let me know what you think in the comments!