Try This! Easy Homemade Ginger Ale
We have had an epiphany. And it’s called homemade ginger ale. You have to try this.
We’ve made a version of this before using homemade ginger syrup, but this is a whole different ball game. This recipe from Crumpets and Cakes has you combine grated ginger, sugar, lemon juice, water, and a pinch of baker’s yeast in a 2-liter bottle. That little bit of yeast is all that’s needed to get this concoction nicely fizzy. After a few days, it’s ready to be sipped.
And oh what a sip it is! The flavors of the ginger and citrus are bright and refreshing, but also pleasantly soft. We’ve had some ginger beers that are so spicy they make our eyes water, but this soda just has a nice prickle of gingery heat toward the end. The carbonation also gives the beverage just the right touch of sparkle. So good.
One word of caution: open your bottle over the sink in case of carbonation explosion! Ours bubbled and sputtered for several minutes before finally calming down (see image above). Next time, we’ll try a touch less yeast and see if that helps.
Next time, we’ll also try this with less sugar. It wasn’t overly sugary, but we personally prefer a less-sweet beverage. We might also try a sugar substitute like stevia, but since the yeast needs some kind of sugar to do it’s carbonation job, we’re not sure how a substitute would work.
This method also has a lot of potential for other soda flavors. We really had no idea it was this easy to make sodas at home. What if we juiced some summer fruit and used that in place of the ginger? Or skipped the ginger and made sparkling lemonade or limeade? We’re so excited to try!
In the meantime, definitely head over to Crumpets and Cakes and give this ginger ale a try:
• Homemade Ginger Ale – Two Ways from Crumpets and Cakes
Do you make soda at home? Any advice?
(Images: Emma Christensen)