Ginger Ale

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This is very similar to a recipe that I'm currently using. Haven't gotten to try the finished product yet, but smelled pretty tasty going into the bottle.

To the person about the alcohol: there is about 0.4% alcohol by volume. To put that differently, you would need to drink about a gallon and a half to equal the alcohol of one 12oz. beer.

To the guy with the headaches: leaving this sit at room temperature will be breeding a very large amount of yeasts in the soda. Yeasts naturally contain various chemicals, such as niacin, that can cause headaches in people sensitive to those chemicals. This will be the same no matter what yeasts you use, although, certain less, active yeast varieties might not be as potent. I'd recommend refrigerating for sure.

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This ginger ale recipe is delicious. After making it the first time, I added extra sugar and ginger with a little less water. This made a slightly sweeter soda we devoured in a few days. Thank you Alton.

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Ginger ale is the only soda I like and I LOVE the real stuff you can find in specialty stores compared to the regular grocery store ginger ale, so I was excited to try this recipe. I followed the recipe exactly except I eye-balled the one and a half ounces ginger. I just opened the bottle after letting it sit for 48 hours, poured some over ice and drank it. The bottle was pretty hard, felt like a regular bottle of soda (the carbonation I mean....but it did get increasingly flat as I drank it. As for the flavor, it was light and sweet but not very ginger-y. I don't know if this is because I did not add enough ginger or because I am a fan of the strong stuff but I will definitely try this recipe again and will add probably three times the amount of ginger I originally did. Love you Alton!
p.s. I think this process will produce something like 1% alcohol....

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Does this beverage contain alcohol or does the yeast simply produce the bubbles and not the alcohol that it generally does?

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I think i will try this

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I always add about twice as much ginger since I boil it with the sugar and some water to make a syrup and the ginger taste is fine with me, and I quite enjoy the breadiness of the baker's yeast.

I have been using bread yeast because that?s the way I first learned it and I don?t live near a homebrew shop. I have been adding about a 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast to it and it is usually plenty carbonated by morning. Since I open it a lot I have been leaving it on the counter in the kitchen where there is always a light on.

My problem is that recently I have been getting pounding headaches that correspond with having finished a glass of the ginger beer. This has been happening for a week now and I cannot remember if it started after I started leaving it out instead of putting it in the fridge.

Does anyone know why I would be getting headaches? I know that brewer?s yeast and baker?s yeast are both saccharomyces cerevisiae, but are bred for different characteristics. Are there any harmful by-products as a result of using baker?s yeast for brewing? The ginger beer only lasts for a few days before I drink it and am ready for a new batch, so it isn?t around for that long.

My guesses right now are:
1. baker?s yeasts produces the wrong kinds of alcohols
2. leaving it in the light causes the yeast to produce some by-product that the body interprets as a toxin.
3. The yeast life cycle is short and they are producing new yeasts and the death of the 1st generation produces a toxin.
4. This is an unfortunate coincidence.

There is plenty of sugar in there and I know the yeasts are still alive because the bottle becomes hard again within a few hours and over time the drink becomes more dry.

I would love to hear what people have to say, I would hate to have to give up my new favorite drink.

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I haven't tried the ginger ale per se, but I used the technique to make sparkling apple juice (just added the same amount of yeast to 2L of apple juice and a bit of extra sugar to offset the harshness of the bubbles. Its sooo exciting, I couldn't wait the full 48 hours to check on it! After about 24 hours I tasted it and there was good carbonation but also a slightly undesirable yeasty bread smell. It's been 30 hours so far and the smell has seemed to die down and the carbonation increased. I'm sure it'll be great once the 48 hours have passed.

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Hi Everyone. What Alton has done here is provide a simple set of guidlines to ferment any drink, in this case ginger ale. But this same recipe can be applied to make beer, sake, cider, and many other drinks. Then, with the two leter bottle, he shows you how to create bubbles in the liquid, carbonation.

Yeast eat sugar.

And they create alcohol and CO2

So add more sugar, create more alcohol and CO2, up to a limit of about 13% alcohol where the yeast die.

They are the key to the fermentation process, and there are many flavors and types of yeast. There are also wild yeast that can come in and create off flavors in your drink. So cleanliness is important.

Some of you didn't like the taste, try better sanitation and make sure what you put in there is clean and wholesome.

When you put the cap on the bottle, the CO2 created by the yeast has no where to go. The gas is forced into the liquid, creating carbonation (bubbles under normal pressure as the gas precipitates out of the liquid.

If your drink does not have bubbles, EITHER your bottle is leaky and not holding the pressure OR your yeast was dead before it got in the bottle. Either way, get some more yeast add it again at room temp and transfer the drink to a different clean bottle.

When the yeast dies, it settles to the bottom of the container leaving a layer. Dead yeast do not taste good, but some people eat it up for the nutrition.

You can just pour the drink into a different bottle from the dead yeast to make it more easy to handle. Let it settle, then pour some more.

I am going to make a first attempt with a 5 gallon batch. With increased sugar to add a little more to the drunk factor.

The bottom line is that you create a living, breathing liquid that is great for you and makes you feel great! Nature is awesome.

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I just finished bottling this. The only things I changed are no lemon juice and I used Ale yeast. Everything else was done according to the instructions.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

4 stars for an EASY recipe.

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made it just as directed, with, of course, a few changes... i didn't bother to boil the syrup since that amt of sugar dissolves easily. left the ginger in until i filtered it. the level of fizz was perfect--tiny champagne bubbles. best after a week. kept its fizz for a long time.