Ingredients

• 1 gallon water
• 3 thumb-sized pieces organic ginger
• 2 cups sugar (preferably brown)
• 1/2 tbsp citric acid (or wine maker’s acid blend or lime or lemon juice)
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient (optional but recommended)
• 1/8 tsp yeast
• 1/3 of a cup of authentic maple syrup

Steps

1. Start boiling water.
2. While water heats up, peel and slice the ginger into 1/8-inch thick pieces. Push down on the pieces with your knife to soften the ginger. Place into a cheesecloth/hop bag.
3. When water starts boiling, stir in sugar, then add ginger. Swirl the bag to help steep the ginger.
4. Let simmer for 30 minutes.
5. Cool for about 90 minutes
6. Add cooled ginger water to jug (ideally a jug with an airlock but in a pinch you can use a balloon with a tiny hole in it as a cap), add acid blend, yeast nutrient and yeast.
7. Let jug sit at room temperature for about 2-3 days (if you’re not sure, try 3) (you don’t want the fermentation to finish completely).
8. Mix a sample of the ginger beer and 4 tablespoons of authentic maple syrup in a small bowl, then pour it equally into about 4 1L swing top bottles (like you would use for kombucha) with a funnel.
9. Pour the ginger beer from the jug into swing top bottles with a funnel. Don’t shake!
10. Let the ginger beer sit for about 4 hours, “burping” the bottles every so often if needed, to allow the fermentation to continue a little.
11. Store in refrigerator for up to a week (maybe longer? I have no clue). This will slow down the fermentation process which is what we want!
12. Drink up! Ginger beer brewed like this is as alcoholic as bread (so not very). Enjoy!

Notes

Note to self: I need to figure out how to transfer the ginger beer from the jug to the bottles in a way that reduces the amount of carbonation I’m losing by doing that.