Very simple ginger beer recipe

Last Updated on February 18, 2023

If your bottle swells like this then release the gas by unscrewing the cap very very slowly!

I’ve been making ginger beer to this recipe very regularly indeed since it was passed to me by Roki from These Are End Times.  There are plenty of complicated ways to make ginger beer but this method is so simple you might find yourself making it as often as I do.  This is the perfect method for anyone who is new to homebrew and fancies trying their hand at homemade beer without investing in any equipment.

Ginger beer ingredients

• 1.5 tablespoons(ish) of grated root ginger
• 1 lemon(ish)
• 1 tablespoon(ish) honey
• 250g(ish) of sugar
• Pinch of yeast
• Tap water
• 1 empty two litre pop bottle

Any old brewing yeast will do, but I quite like the champagne yeast that Brewer’s Barn in Ipswich sells.  They also sell a brilliant all-round good yeast, lookie…  One of those standard yeast pots will contain enough yeast for about 200 brews!

How to make simple ginger beer

1. Get all the ingredients and shove them in a bottle, top up using tap water and leave about 5cm at the top of the bottle. 
2. Put the bottle somewhere reasonably warm (not your airing cupboard)
3. Seven to ten days later drink the ginger beer.

Okay that might be a little simplistic, but it’s quite close to the truth.  I’ve tried making ginger beer to this recipe by just guessing at the measurements for the ingredients and it has still turned out just fine!  You’ll need to make this beer in a gas-capable bottle, but that just means a pop bottle.  If you don’t want to bother buying any homebrew steriliser buy a bottle of supermarket economy range sparkling water, empty it down the sink and use the bottle, as long as your house is reasonably clean you can be fairly sure no nasty bacteria will get in to make your ginger beer taste horrible.

It’s not a bad idea to transfer the ginger beer into a new bottle once it has stopped fermenting (when it stops letting off tons of gas).  But that’s only if you plan to store it, I wouldn’t bother personally.  My belly is custom made for storing ginger beer.

DANGER BEER NOTE

You MUST either poke a tiny vent hole in the lid of your bottle or carefully unscrew the cap to release the gas at least a couple of times a day otherwise your bottle might explode.  I tend to poke a hole in the bottle lid with a skewer then stretch a balloon over the cap.  This lets the gas out and looks funny.

The longer you leave this ginger beer before drinking it the stronger it seems to get, so don’t down a pint before heading out for a drive.  This ginger beer is quite boozy!

Any questions?  Use the comments boxes below and I’ll try and answer them.