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Kitchen Science: Homemade Ginger Beer
By Stephanie Pulford | February 27th 2009 02:25 PM | 11 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
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About Stephanie Pulford

As engineering grad student at UCDavis, I am interested in the common ground between biology and machinery. Incidentally, my column's title refers to the way bacteria navigate-- first they "run"... Full Bio

My grandfather had a special room in his cellar for the various presses and casks he used to make his notoriously mouth-wrenching red wine.  I have friends whose microbrew apparatus takes up the entire spare bedroom of their house, like a permanently boozy-smelling houseguest.  Accordingly, I thought that fermenting was best left to the hardcore hobbyists-- too complicated a pursuit for the average partly-stocked kitchen.  Turns out, it's pretty simple. I recently made ginger ale with only items I had laying around my kitchen. 

I used this recipe, invented by Dr. David Fankhauser.  Here's a simplified version to cut and paste into your recipe file,  though I strongly recommend that you visit http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Ginger_Ale_Ag0.htm for a detailed, step-by-step treatment.  (His site also contains also awesome cheese recipes.  I'm dying to make yogurt at home now.)

You'll need:  1.5-2tbs ginger, 1c sugar, 1 lemon (optional!), 1/2 tsp regular ol' bread yeast.
  1. Put sugar and yeast in an empty 2L bottle (using a funnel, if you have the luxury).  Add the ginger, then lemon juice, then fill to the neck with water. Cap it.
  2. Leave in a warm place until the bottle feels pretty hard from the pressure-- should take 24-48 hours (or less!) but don't leave it out too long.  It'll explode.
  3. Refrigerate to slow/stop the fermentation, and enjoy!


Comic about making ginger beer/ ginger ale to illustrate fermentation.

Comments

I found Dr. Frankhauser's site in January, when I decided I wanted to start making yogurt at home. I would call homemade yogurt even easier to do than the ginger beer, and I've been making it once or twice a week since I started. After my first trial in the oven, my mom directed me to my parents' yogurt maker, a wedding gift not used since ca. 1983. It allows for incubation of several small cups of yogurt at once, which can be consumed individually, and I assume it uses a lot less energy than keeping the oven on for multiple hours. Now that I know what a yogurt maker looks like, I've seen them at thrift stores a few times. They're totally worth it if you think you'll be making a lot.

Unfortunately, I turned all my co-workers off to yogurt when I announced that yogurt was like having millions of microscopic pets that you eat, and whose waste you also eat.

Oh-- your ginger beer comic is cute!

Lasserine (not verified) | 03/02/09 | 11:31 AM
Hank's picture
Those bottles may not be hobo urine but did they taste like hobo urine?

Hank Campbell | 03/02/09 | 12:20 PM
Stephanie Pulford's picture
Thank you, Lasserine!  I'll have to look into this mysterious "yogurt incubator". 

Hank-- couldn't tell you.  I don't know what hobo urine tastes like.  Do you?

Stephanie Pulford | 03/02/09 | 15:05 PM
I have purchased the required ingredients! Well, I forgot to buy a lemon. But it's an OPTIONAL lemon, right? Right.

Being in my Middle Eastern ghetto kitchen, I ALSO am lacking a funnel. Thankfully, your secret plastic bag technique in the comic is now mine!

Brandon Hardin (not verified) | 03/24/09 | 08:59 AM
Stephanie Pulford's picture
Hah.  You live in a ghetto with... weren't you getting marble floors or something? Nice ghetto, UAE.  Better luck next time.
Why don't you just go out and get a marble funnel?  or perhaps the marble plastic bag you had laying around in your kitchen was more convenient?  ^__^

Stephanie Pulford | 03/24/09 | 16:32 PM
This place is insane! I have granite countertops! But cheap, cheap plastic cabinetry! There are NO ELECTRICAL OUTLETS in the bathroom! I HAVE NO CLOSETS!

Also, my floors are crappy tile that's got more chips than a Super Bowl party. Booya!

Brandon Hardin (not verified) | 03/24/09 | 17:32 PM
logicman's picture
cheap, cheap plastic cabinetry! There are NO ELECTRICAL OUTLETS in the bathroom! I HAVE NO CLOSETS!

Middle East?  Sounds more like a bloomin' London council flat if you ask me, guv'nor!

Patrick Lockerby | 03/24/09 | 17:59 PM
logicman's picture
I like the comic strip.

I think that it is inadvisible to use the wait-and-see bottle-pressure test, especially if, like me,  you are inclined to be absent-minded.

For safety's sake, I recommend use of a bubbler.

The bubbler has two major advantages:
1  you can use a yeast with a very high alcohol tolerance, for greater yield/hangover.
2  you can show friends the little bubbles of CO2 and pretent that your demijohn of whiskey-strength hooch is a scientific experiment to do with greenhouse gases.

Hank-- couldn't tell you.  I don't know what hobo urine tastes like.  Do you?

Stephanie: so you've never been in a British pub, then?

Patrick Lockerby | 03/24/09 | 10:06 AM
Hank's picture
Hank-- couldn't tell you. I don't know what hobo urine tastes like. Do you?

Stephanie: so you've never been in a British pub, then?


I am glad you were able to respond to her.  Some retorts are just so surgically devastating they are paralyzing to the recipient.    Thus I was effectively silenced ... until now.

Hank Campbell | 03/24/09 | 10:44 AM
Stephanie Pulford's picture
Seriously.  I hereby tip my hat to you, Mr. Lockerby.  And should I ever find myself in Great Britain again I'm going to be on the lookout for the picturesque hobo farms. 

Stephanie Pulford | 03/24/09 | 16:38 PM
logicman's picture
Please, it's Patrick.
should I ever find myself in Great Britain again I'm going to be on the lookout for the picturesque hobo farms.

Sadly the hobo farms are long gone.  Not needed anymore. 
D'you see, we Brits were into recycling long before anyone else.  
Our breweries are world famous for their  micturial reprocessing capacities,
which is why home-brewing is our largest economic sector.

Patrick Lockerby | 03/24/09 | 16:45 PM

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