Paleo Fiery Ginger Beer

Who doesn’t love a good bit of fizzy pop?! Well, me actually, at least not in the conventional sense – I have never really thought much to coke and all of those sorts of sodas but I have always had a fond love of root beer and ginger beer. The fiery the ginger beer the better!

I have been wanting to recreate this for such a long time and in fact I made my first batch of my Paleo Fiery Ginger Beer over Christmas and then I made my second a few weeks ago. This one has definitely got the flavour that I was looking for. I wanted to keep the method simple, I didn’t want to be faffing around trying to become some sort of brewing expert, I literally just wanted to make some ginger beer as fast as was humanly possible.

The great thing about this recipe is that you don’t have to do any brewing at all if you don’t want to – you can literally just create a ‘gingerette’ which simply put is a ginger syrup, this can be spooned into a cup and some fizzy water can be added to create a cheats ginger beer, you can also use the syrup as a simple cordial or drizzle it over ice cream!

This recipe will require you to have a funnel – you can pick one up at most supermarkets for around £1 and you will also need a 2 litre plastic bottle and a fine mesh sieve/strainer. It must be plastic because if you try and brew this in a glass bottle it will likely explode due to the gaseous build up! Sounds lovely hey?!

So enough of my waffling here is the recipe for my Paleo Fiery Ginger Beer!!!

(Psssst don’t drink too much of this as it is still full of sugar!!!)

Yields: Roughly 2 L

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Preparation Time: 10 minutes (plus 1 hour cooling time & 1-2 days brewing time)

Ingredients:

For the ‘gingerette’:

1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup water
100g root ginger (finely grated)
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp juniper berries (crushed)
1/4 tsp vanilla powder

For the soda:

1.75 L filtered water
Juice 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/10 tsp quick yeast or 1/8 tsp active dried yeast

Method:

1. Start by combining all of the ingredients for the gingerette into a small pan. Place the pan onto a low heat and stir frequently until the sugar has dissolved. Cook until the syrup comes to a light boil then remove from the heat and leave to cool completely. This will take around 1 hour.
2. Once cooled pour the gingerette through a fine mesh sieve/strainer (over an adequate sized container) and using the back of a spoon work push the mixture through the sieve until you cannot work out anymore moisture. Discard the pulp and put your gingerette to one side.
3. Using your funnel pour your 1.75 L of filtered water, your gingerette, and lemon juice into your 2 litre plastic bottle. Place the lid onto the bottle and give a good shake.
4. Add your cream of tartar and your yeast and give another good shake until everything has thoroughly mixed in. It is usual to find sediment at the bottom of the bottle so as long as your have shook it like a Polaroid picture then you’ll be all good in the hood!
5. Leave the bottle out somewhere safe where you will not forget about it, and do not place it in any areas of direct sunlight or heat or you will have a huge ginger beer explosion! Check on your ginger beer every few hours by unscrewing the lid to let out any gas build up. Repeat periodically. Your ginger beer will be ready to go into the fridge once it tastes about right to you – I would say about 24 hours after making it, it will usually be ready after you hear that super fizzy hiss when you unscrew the lid. Once ready place into the fridge and consume within a few days as otherwise you will end up with some pretty alcoholic fizzy ginger beer! Refridgerating only slows down the fermenting process it does not stop it altogether!