I’ve been tinkering with a ginger ale recipe on Jack Schmidling’s site. It’s nice having something other than water or beer to drink at home; here’s my current version for 2.25 gallons:
- 5oz ginger root (2.2oz per gal)
- 4.25 cups unrefined cane sugar (1.9c per gal)
- 2.25T vanilla extract (1T per gal)
- 1/4t champagne yeast, rehydrated
The cane sugar was a nice improvement over plain table sugar as it has a good caramel flavor. My process is:
- Get water & sugar boiling
- Peel & chop ginger, boil in a saucepan for 20 minutes to extract gingery goodness
- Puree ginger stew & add to pot
- Perhaps I should puree first and then boil for better extraction?
- Cool to 70F and strain through cheesecloth and pitch yeast
