When life hands you lemons... err ginger!

Make ginger beer!

Happy New Year! was the way I started most of my communications today - everything from emails to my greeting to my coworkers and building mates.  However, the day got away from me, as Mondays do.  It was 1,073 little things like: the Monday morning sardine packed bus, the 1.5 hours I spent on the phone with the internet company.  (How does this happen?! How can they do that?) The email I didn't sent.  I became crabby.

And though working out always helps (it really, really does) I decided I would go home and make ginger beer!

There are a gazillion recipes and I just picked the one that seemed like a good starting point. The Roasted Root talks about different types of fermentation, the importance of temperature and letting things sit for a bit before bottling.  It's a long process for sure, but I think it's going to be worth it!  

Two tips 

• Organic ginger is the BEST.  It is so much spicier than non organic ginger. It is absolutely worth it!
• You can peel ginger by scraping it with a spoon (thanks Martha Steward for that tip!)  We have the perfect soon that had been eaten a few times in the garbage disposal.  It still measures and it's rough end makes it perfect for this task.

Ginger Beer recipe from The Roasted Root:

Ingredients

9 cups spring or well water (or Britta filtered water in my case)
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ cup fresh ginger, peeled and grated
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup cane sugar
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
You Also Need:
1 2-liter plastic bottle with screw top (soda water bottle that has been carefully cleaned work great).
A medium to large sized pot for heating water

Instructions

• Add the cream of tartar, lemon juice and fresh ginger to a large pot along with 4 cups of the water. Bring it to a full boil.
• Turn the heat down to medium, add the sugar and lemon juice and stir until all of the sugar is dissolved.
• Add the rest of the (cold) water to the pot and allow it to cool to around 75 degrees.
• Add the yeast, stir and cover the pot with a kitchen towel.
• Place pot in a dark place for 3 hours.
• Using a fine strainer, strain the liquid into a pitcher to remove all the bits of ginger.
• Pour the brew into one clean 2-liter plastic bottle ( or 2 1-liter bottles) but do not fill up the bottle all the way because the fermentation will yield carbon dioxide, causing gases to build in the bottle.
• Place the bottles in a dark, warm room for 2 to 3 days (two days if you want a sweeter ginger beer, and 3 days if you prefer a drier ginger beer).
• One to three times a day, carefully loosen the caps to relieve some of the pressure (without opening the bottles all the way). Be very careful in this process and do not point the bottles at anyone’s (or your own face).
• Once the ginger beer has finished brewing, store it in the refrigerator to chill. This will also slow the fermentation process.