Ginger Beer
My ginger beer has proved quite popular over the years on Tokyo, particularly during the hot, steamy summers. I've just started the process of making some here in Portugal -- in the expectation of some very warm days later this summer!
There's actually not much to it. I start the process in early summer by generating a ginger beer "plant" (as they were called when I was at school; they were often handed around among friends, much to the delight of mothers I'm sure...). Grate some fresh ginger -- about a couple of teaspoons. Add a similar amount of sugar and water. Then throw in any type of yeast you have handy -- I've used a few grains of dried yeast in the past, but more usually just take a speck of my sourdough bread yeast. Within a few hours, the mix should be fizzing away as the yeast does its work. Now, every day feed the mix with another small amount of grated ginger, sugar, and water (a teaspoon of sugar, a couple of teaspoons of ginger, and a similar amouont of water is enough). After a week or so, you should have a fair amount of fizzing liquid. Half to one litre is about the right amount.
When you are ready, boil up a couple of litres of water. Turn off the heat and add anywhere from 500g to 1kg of sugar to taste; I like to use brown cane sugar for its flavour. You could also add some lemon juice if you like. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then wait for the mix to cool a bit. You now need a container that will hold about five litres -- in the past I used a glass bottle usually used in Japan to make ume-shu. Add a litre or so of cold water (I do this to protect the glass in case the sugar water is still quite warm). Pour in the sugar water, then strain the yeast mixture into the container. (A piece of muslin is useful for this.) Squeeze as much juice out as you can, leaving only the ginger fibres behind. Now make the mix up to five litres of so using lukewarm water. Out a lid on the container, and wait until fermentation begins!
The remaining ginger fibres, which still contain some yeast, are the ginger beer "plant". Take half of it, add the usual amounts of ginger, sugar, and water, then continue as before adding on a daily basis. Give the remainder to a friend (with his/her mother's approval!) along with these instructions!
After some time, depending on the temperature, your container of ginger beer will begin to form bubbles as it ferments. I can usually see some evidence of fermentation within 12 hours or so. You now need to leave the fermentation to proceed until a suitable point. What point is that? Well it depends on how much alcohol you want in the result! If this is for kids, 12 hours is probably enough. I tend to leave it for 3-5 days depending on ambient temperature. By that time, the mix is noticably less sweet.
When the time is right, I simply decant the liquid into used PET bottles that have contained fizzy drinks. We don't drink Coke or similar teeth-rotters, so we generally use sparkling water bottles. I find they can be used a number of times before the caps wear out. The ginger beer will continue to ferment in the bottles -- unless fermentation was complete before bottling. This means you need to watch the bottles carefully -- fermentation generates carbon dioxide that can cause the bottles to burst if it builds up too much! The ginger beer will be ready to drink from the second day onwards -- and again, the longer the fermentation continues, the more alcohol there will be. If you leave the bottles more than a couple of days check occasionally for excess pressure by picking up the bottles and listening to their "ring" as you tap them. If pressure seems extreme, you can just crack the seal slightly to let out some gas.
The result should be a refreshing summer drink. If it is too sweet/alcoholic to drink straight, try adding soda water or tonic water and ice. Enjoy!