Ginger beer economical summer drink

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 12

Ginger beer economical summer drink

Alison Holst’s

Food Facts

At this time of year I always start thinking about ginger beer. It is easy to make, ready to drink about a week after it is brewed, and is considerably cheaper than commercially made . fizzy drinks. ’ ' I tasted commerciallymade ginger . beer for the first time last year. I had looked for it, unsuccessfully, in England. I found it, unexpectedly. in Corfu. It seemed peculiar to sit on a Greek island, beside an Englishstyle cricket ground, drinking English-style ginger beer. I suppose that both the cricket and the ginger beer had been introduced by holidaying English many years ago. The Corfu brew was good ginger beer with just the right amount of “fizz” and with a little yeasty sediment at the bottom of the bottle. It is easy to make a home brew of ginger beer these days because it can be bottled successfully in screwtopped soft drink bottles. If you are worried about bottles exploding, use the plastic soft drink bottles with screw tops. I must say I have never seen or heard of a bottle of ginger beer breaking because of the build-up of pressure in it, but I can remember corks popping, and ginger beer bubbling over our washhouse floor when I was a child, and we had no refrigerator to store the bottles in. I don’t bother with a ginger beer “bug” which has to be fed regularly so that the yeast multiplies. Dried yeast granules are reliable and cheap, and make excellent ginger beer. This recipe makes about eight bottles of ginger beer — work out how many bottles you will need, depending on their volume. You should make what you think you will drink in a week. (Use level standard cup and spoon measures in this recipe.) 4 cups sugar 2 tablespoons ground ginger 2 teaspoons lemon essence 2 teaspoons tartaric acid 12 cups hot water 20 cups cold water

2 teaspoons dried yeast granules Measure the sugar, ginger, essence and tartaric acid into a thoroughly cleaned plastic bucket. Stand the bucket in the sink so that you do not finish up with sticky syrup on the bench or floor. Add hot tap water, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Next add the cold water. Your aim is to finish up with a mixture which is lukewarm. If you feel that the liquid is getting too cold, replace a few of the cups of cold water with more hot tap water. Mix the yeast with a few tablespoons of lukewarm water until smooth. If you feel that there is any reason that the yeast may not “work” add a teaspoon of sugar to the yeasty brew and leave it to stand until the surface is bubbly, before you stir the yeast into the rest of the liquid. Stir well. Clean enough empty softdrink glass or plastic bottles to hold eight litres of ginger beer. If necessary you can dilute this mixture with a few cups of extra water, so that your chosen bottles are filled. Pour ginger beer into the bottles, leaving an airspace of 4 or scm (lVz-2 inches). Drop three or four sultanas or raisins into each bottle to speed up fermentation if desired. Screw tops on very tightly. Stand bottles in a warm place for four to seven days, until it has the right amount of “fizz.” If you are worried that the bottle might fizz too much when it is opened, chill it first. As soon as the first bottle is ready, refrigerate the rest, to stop further fermentation: As a guide, in warmish spring conditions in Wellington, we usually open the first bottle' after seven or eight days, refrigerate the rest at this time, and drink the remaining bottles within the next 10 days. When you brew, you should plan to make asmuch ginger beer each time as you. can drink in seven to 10 days.