Thoughts on ginger ale

So... I love ginger ale and ginger beer, in fact, I love it so much I am making it for my wedding next month (~125 people). I want to make it partially because the good stuff is typically so expensive (Bruce Cost's), but also it's something food-related that I can contribute to my wedding that isn't too too difficult to make. I've have made ginger ale before.

My previous methods involved cutting up loads of ginger (with the skin on so it's darker and more like a ginger beer), adding sugar and water and boiling the heck out of it, letting it cool, straining, adding some lemon and bottling with some yeast.

I want to improve on my previous recipes however. Does anyone have a really excellent recipe or tips? In particular, I'm trying to replicate the almost milky mouthfeel of Bruce Cost's ginger ale while maintaining a pretty strong spicy-ness. I'm not exactly sure, but I'm guessing that Bruce blends his ginger with an industrial blender (which I unfortunately do not own). Do you think blending in a household blender might do the trick? Or perhaps (and this might be crazy), juicing the ginger prior to boiling? Also, we will most likely be making a syrup that will be added to carbonated water.

Any thoughts would be awesome. Ginger ale trials begin this Sunday. I have my beer brewing friend who will also be helping me out.

A good friend of mine makes really good ginger beer (its very low on alcohol so Im not sure if beer would be the right term). She managed to find a ginger beer plant which she has been growing for a few months. The yeast in the plant gives it its carbonation while the bacteria strain a really nice and distinctive taste. I can PM you her contact info if you would like to use the plant.

Here is my friends website on her ginger beer and ginger beer plant!

the ginger beer plant

©David B. Fankhauser, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology and Chemistry
U.C. Clermont College
Batavia OH 45103


http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Ch ... le_Ag0.htm

This is an illustrated website that will give you a step-by-step process to producing homemade ginger ale.

He also has a root beer recipe as well as a variety of other food items.

i thought ginger beer was made from ginger which is a root like thing. How is this different from the ginger beer plant?

toria wrote:i thought ginger beer was made from ginger which is a root like thing. How is this different from the ginger beer plant?

It is made from ginger and yes ginger is a root (or maybe a stem, not 100% sure about this), however you need to have a microorganism in there to do tall that delicious work. In the UK,a long time ago, housewives would use what they called a ginger beer plant to carbonate their ginger beer. I guess they called it a plant because you have to feed it and take care of it. The ginger beer plant is not a plant, it is more like a starter. It is composed of mostly two organisms, a yeast and a bacteria that chose to live together rather than alone. The yeast in the ginger beer plant is responsible for the carbonation, while the bacteria gives it a really nice tang and very distinctive taste.
Most gingerale and ginger beer available commercially or homemade is made using bakers yeast and a lot of them use ginger flavoring as opposed to real ginger. Ginger beer made from real ginger beer plant has a very unique and wonderful taste. I was on a quest to find some as it is not easy to find it anymore, however decided against it as it would interfere with all the other bacteria and molds present in my kitchen due to cheese-making. My friend who does a lot of brewing, found some and is growing it (we often have alcohol and cheese exchanges and it works out very well). Because a lager tastes different than any other type of beer, and sourdough different from any other type of bread, so does ginger beer made from real ginger beer plant as opposed to bakers yeast. It is delicious and something worth looking for in my opinion.

Ok, so ginger is a stem not a root!!!

Thanks. Very interesting.