Here is a recipe for Red Ginger Beer that I like to make around Samhain or Fall. 1 gallon apple juice 1 sliced Orange 1 Sliced Lemon 1 1/2 oz cream of tartar a handful of hibiscus flowers 2 OZ Ginger I use powdered and fresh 1/2 a package of active brewers yeast 2 cups sugar and about 4 tablespoons of Molasses Boil all the ingredients EXCEPT the YEASt until soft. Let cool to room temperature and then add yeast that has been mixed in lukwarm water. Let it sit covered with a towel for 24 hours. After the first 24 hours strain all the veg matter and put aside. Keep the liquid covered for another 24 hours before straining and bottling in a screwtop glass jar. You will have to release the pressure (opening the screwtop) every so often. This has a shelflife of about a month. I am making some more of this today and I have had it before and it is really good and gets you tipsy, sodrink responsably!
I spent some time making ginger beer this past spring and early summer, using kefir grains to ferment it, and just using chopped strips of ginger, simmered about 45 minutes in water, for the ginger flavor. I stopped when my bottles started exploding on me (I was making so much we couldn't drink it all ... bottles were sitting around!) ... a "side effect" of all those ginger strips was, after boiling a few times to make ginger beer, they can be boiled in sugar syrup to make candied ginger. I've still got a nice big box of candied ginger in the freezer ... I eat a few strips now and then. Another interesting link about making ginger beer is a webpage called "Fermented Treasures," the only place I know of where you can buy something called Ginger Beer Plant!!!!!!! which is the ferment method used around 1900 or so when they were making a lot of ginger beer ... a/k/a GBP ... I never went ahead and bought it, just thinking about it now and then ... here is link: http://www.fermentedtreasures.com/gingerbp.html
