That Famous Ginger Beer Recipe in Full

 

Could this be the world’s greatest ginger beer recipe?

 

This recipe has a fine heritage: passed on from Spiro to Sam and Rob and, then, to me and Canadian Dave. It is only right and proper I should pass it on to you. In fact it only seems like yesterday (as a fresh faced new volunteer) I read Jack Rushton’s guide to wine making in the VSO Bilum. Hopefully this will be more coherent.

 

You will need, my friends…

  • One 20 litre bucket with lid. I like traditional red buckets but I don’t think the colour matters awfully
  • 5-7 big fat pink ginger roots (there is, I feel, a gag in there somewhere) – the 40 toya ones
  • 2 kg of fine Ramu sugar
  • One packet of bread yeast

 

  1. Begin with the ceremonial chopping of the washed ginger into girt big chunks. Small pieces will mean sieving the ginger through your teeth when you come to drink it.
  2. Boil the ginger in a pan of water for 15 minutes or so. I reckon this kills the nasty bugs and draws out the flavour
  3. Whilst the aroma of boiling ginger fills your house put ¾ of a bucket of water in the, um, bucket and stir in the sugar. Rain water is best.
  4. After the boiling, pour the ginger and gingery boiling water into the bucket with the cold water and the sugar. Stir mightily.
  5. Sprinkle the yeast onto the top and slap the lid on sharpish to stop the inevitable ant apocalypse
  6. Wait 3-5 days (coastals). Not sure about the Highlands. I would reckon 2 weeks but apart from Jane and John’s mighty strawberry wine every other Highland brew has been shocking. Yes, Fedor, especially yours.
  7. Use a sieve to remove as many of the ginger lumps as possible.
  8. Wait another day.
  9. Bottle the brew! Although it pains me to praise a global corporate monster Coke bottles are best because you want a bit of fizz and not a ginger beer explosion. If you cheekily pop a spoonful of sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice in the bottles as you bottle it, the beer will be truly fine.
  10. Pop the bottles in the fridge to chill. It matures perfectly after a week in the fridge, clearing to a clear pinkish zesty fizziness, at which point we drink it in the sunshine on the boat. It is mightily fine with strawberries and sunshine and chocolates.

 

Enjoy!