What am I brewing? Mule Juice
It's been quite a while since I posted. I haven't brewed much beer lately. Maybe one batch in the last year. I did make some home made blueberry wine from berries we picked locally. It was really good, much more dry than I would have expected and quite drinkable. The wine process was easier to do than the hard cider seeing that there was no "rhino fart" stage in the fermenting. When making cider apparently there's a common stage you hit where the smell is incredibly strong, something I didn't read about before starting the batch. We came home thinking there was a dead animal or something in the house. It stunk up both floors and was not pleasant. Luckily it goes away at the end of fermentation. The wine - no such odors.
Most recently I have been "brewing" something, so to speak. We have been on a Moscow Mule kick and the ginger beer portion is rather expensive seeing that most come in 4 packs. I kiddingly said "I should brew ginger beer." A few internet searches later pulled up an easy recipe that you make in 2 liter bottles. Is it as good as the commercial stuff? It's not bad, and we've been tweaking the recipe to get it closer.
So far it's this easy:
Peel the skin off the ginger, then use a microplane grater and grate over a bowl. (about 1 or 2 pieces like you would find in the grocery store)
Place all the pulp in a fine mesh strainer. Use the bottom of a cup or ladle and squeeze the juice from the pulp. You will need several tablespoons. Refrigerate what you don't use. (You can use the pulp with lemon to make a natural tea. Ginger is very healthy for you)
Put 3.5 to 7 tablespoons of ginger juice in the bottle. (start low, move up if you want more bite)
1.5 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is best. concentrate is ok)
1 cup of sugar (cane sugar is best)
1/4 tsp active dry yeast (I will be trying a good brewing or champagne yeast, but the recipe I found uses this, so try it first)
fill half way with room temp water - shake ingredients together about 30 seconds.
Fill with about 1.5 inches "headroom" at the top
I put mine in a laundry sink for at least 24 hrs. The bottle gets tight as it builds up pressure. I haven't let them go for up to 36 hrs like the recipe says, but you should be safe. (that's why I have it in the sink - just in case)
Refrigerate
Enjoy (1.5 oz vodka over ice, top with Ginger beer, splash of lime)
There are also references to making a Ginger simple syrup and using that, I may do that tonight so stay tuned.
Most recently I have been "brewing" something, so to speak. We have been on a Moscow Mule kick and the ginger beer portion is rather expensive seeing that most come in 4 packs. I kiddingly said "I should brew ginger beer." A few internet searches later pulled up an easy recipe that you make in 2 liter bottles. Is it as good as the commercial stuff? It's not bad, and we've been tweaking the recipe to get it closer.
So far it's this easy:
Peel the skin off the ginger, then use a microplane grater and grate over a bowl. (about 1 or 2 pieces like you would find in the grocery store)
Place all the pulp in a fine mesh strainer. Use the bottom of a cup or ladle and squeeze the juice from the pulp. You will need several tablespoons. Refrigerate what you don't use. (You can use the pulp with lemon to make a natural tea. Ginger is very healthy for you)
Put 3.5 to 7 tablespoons of ginger juice in the bottle. (start low, move up if you want more bite)
1.5 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh is best. concentrate is ok)
1 cup of sugar (cane sugar is best)
1/4 tsp active dry yeast (I will be trying a good brewing or champagne yeast, but the recipe I found uses this, so try it first)
fill half way with room temp water - shake ingredients together about 30 seconds.
Fill with about 1.5 inches "headroom" at the top
I put mine in a laundry sink for at least 24 hrs. The bottle gets tight as it builds up pressure. I haven't let them go for up to 36 hrs like the recipe says, but you should be safe. (that's why I have it in the sink - just in case)
Refrigerate
Enjoy (1.5 oz vodka over ice, top with Ginger beer, splash of lime)
There are also references to making a Ginger simple syrup and using that, I may do that tonight so stay tuned.
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