September 2015

I found a post on Pinterest for making your own Alcoholic Ginger Beer

and I have decided to give it a try. The process should take 3 weeks starting from today so I will be updating on the progress.

Here is the first phase:

Added in ingredients: 1 tbsp grated ginger, chopped jalapeño, 1 tbsp granulated sugar, hand squeezed juice from 1 lemon and 2 limes (this is what I had at the time), 1 packet of champagne yeast and a cup and a half of warm filtered water. (See the instructions in the link above).
This will be stored at room temperature and each day for a week I will mix in more sugar and more ginger.

As this is the first time I am attempting this I wanted to try out a couple of methods to see what works better and also to make sure that at least one batch works out. So I made a second one using my juicer to extract juice from 3 limes and some ginger. I put this juice into the water, yeast, sugar and also added a bit of the lime (zest) and ginger fibres to ensure flavour. This one also does not contain jalapeño.

One week in and I have four bottles of this:

Two weeks to go to ferment…

Ginger beer turned out stronger than I thought it would be. It is dry and is nicely carbonated, sparkling and very gingery tasting. I will try to measure the alcohol content on the next batch but my guess is that this is between 6 to 8%.

As this first batch was successful and our friends started asking for more so I decided to make a new batch. I made 4 plants this time so I should get about 8 x 2 litre bottles worth of ginger beer. This time I juiced a large piece of ginger and 6 lemons. I mixed the ginger and lemon juice into the warm water/champagne yeast then stirred in 2 x tablespoons of sugar for each plant and the fibrous leftovers of ginger and lemon from the juicing process. I will be feeding my plants for a week then proceed with the process.

Camping beer can eggs

While camping beer in cans is the way to go as they are light weight and easy to collect to recycle/ dispose of afterwards. They are easy to stack in the eski and there is no risk of breakage.

In addition you can use them for other purposes… If you do not have pots or pans you can cook eggs in beer cans. Just cut an opening in the can and coat the inside with some cooking spray, crack the eggs inside and put on the barbeque or near the campfire. You can scramble the eggs in the can or leave whole. Sprinkle some spices on top and eat for breakfast.