Alcoholic Ginger Beer (or wine) recipe using root ginger?

[mattjohns1]

Hi there,

Having over estimated the amount of root ginger I needed for a recipe, I find myself with an abundance of it, and have no desire to waste it!

Being a bit ish, I'd quite like to make some alcoholic ginger beer or wine, but all the recipes that I've found use ground ginger. Does anyone have a recipe that uses root ginger that I can try, please?

I love the green ginger wine that you can buy in the shops, so if anyone knows how to make that as well, I would be VERY happy!

Thanks in advance - hope someone can help!
Matthew

[spitfire]

mj1, you can try this site http://www.homemadewine.com under receipes i found a "ginger wine" that called for ginger root. hope this helps.

[MKG]

Hi Matt

You could try this ...

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques41.asp

... which is usually a good source. As far as I can see, Green Ginger Wine is a sweet fortified wine, so I suspect that if you make the one in the recipe and, when it's definitely finished fermenting, sweeten it up with sugar syrup (trial and error, I'm afraid, but great fun) and then chuck in a hefty slug of cheap vodka, you might be about there.

Mike

[mattjohns1]

Great stuff, thanks Mike and Spitfire! I'll give those recipes a go, but still quite fancy a go at boozy ginger beer! Anyone got any recipes for alcoholic ginger beer made with root ginger?!

Thanks,
Matt

[Calum]

I do :)

I quite often use EZ Caps to make small batches of turbo cider / ginger beer and other goodies. www.e-z-caps.com

Anyway, with these I make a 2 litre bottle of slightly alcoholic ginger beer. I'll double check the exact measurments, but it's basically a tablespoon or more of grated ginger, some lemon juice, water, sugar and a wee bit of wine yeast. Works out at only about 1% alcohol max, although you could easily tweak the recipe :)

Maybe a ginger infused vodka liqueur would be worth a go? Might do so. Got given a bottle of TERRIBLE cheap vodka for christmas and I'd been planning to use it to make more raspberry vodka in the summer, but a ginger one intrigues me :D

[tomhants]

Traditional Scottish Recipes
- Ginger Wine

Ginger wine has been a popular drink for cold winter's nights - or as an addition to whisky to make a "Whisky Mac". This recipe is adapted from the original published in Mrs Beeton's famous work and makes 4.5 litres (8 pints).
Hi,

try this

Ingredients:
4.5 litres (8 pints) water 1.4 kg (3 lb) sugar One lemon - zest and juice 1 tsp fresh yeast 110g (4 oz) raisins, stoned and chopped 40g (1½ oz) ginger, peeled and bruised 75 ml (2½ fl oz) brandy
Method:
Add the water, sugar, lemon zest and bruised ginger to a very clean saucepan. Bring to the boil, simmer for 1 hour. Remove any scum and transfer to a large bowl. When it is luke-warm, add the yeast and leave overnight.
Next day, strain the lemon juice and add to the mix along with the chopped raisins. Place everything in a suitable vessel.
Stir the wine every day for 14 days. Add the brandy. Stop the vessel down by degrees and in a few weeks it will be ready to bottle.

[mattjohns1]

Thanks Tom and Calum, you've certainly given me food (or drink!) for thought! Those E-Z Caps look like a great idea as well - have never seen 'em before, and they would indeed be great for turbo cider, etc.

Will have to give those a try then.

Thanks again