Ginger beer

We like ginger in our house. It is possible that we like ginger more than anything else when it comes to both sweet and savoury foods, so it seemed like a natural progression to try to make some ginger beer at home. My mum gave me a kit that she acquired some time over Christmas, and last week we gave it a go.

You mix boiling water with the ginger seasoning, lemon juice and sugar then leave to cool. You then sprinkle the yeast sachet onto the liquid, cover it and leave somewhere warm for 3 days. I used the airing cupboard, and had to be careful not to let any errant socks fall in!

After 3 days you bottle it in a 2 litre fizzy drink bottle and put it back in a warm place for 3 more days. Every day we dutifully released the pressure and returned the bottle to the airing cupboard to brew.

Today was the day of reckoning. We opened the bottle and the ginger beer spurted out everywhere, but mainly into a jug. We added ice to cool it and took our first sip... It was foul. Emma sniffed it and refused to taste it, and I don't blame her! It was like liquid bread dough and I am pretty sure we must have done something wrong (I can't see what, as we followed the instructions to the letter), so I don't imagine we will be using the rest of the kit. This does not bode well for my idea of brewing from our grapes this year.