Ginger Beer

Another week has zoomed by. Not long till Christmas now, I have plans for Christmas and just need to manage my time better so I can get organised.

I have been making ginger beer the last couple of weeks and I had forgotten how easy it is to do. We used to make quite a few years ago, bottled into glass and had a few explosions and ginger beer going everywhere. Now however, I have plastic bottles and it is so much easier, our number one and only son just loves it, so I am going to have four boxes going around so there is always some there ready to drink.

I don't know where this recipe came from but the ones I have looked at on the internet are much the same.

GINGER BEER

The Plant

In a sealed container place 8 sultanas, juice of two lemons, and teaspoon of lemon pulp, 4 teaspoons sugar, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, and 2 cups cold water. Leave for 2-3 days then feed daily with 2 teaspoons of ginger beer and 4 teaspoons sugar for one week.

The Mix

Pour 4 litres boiling water into 4 cups sugar, stir until dissolved, and add juice of four lemons. Strain the plant/lemon into ginger beer mix with fine muslin and squeeze cloth dry. Add 7 litres of cold water and bottle. Leave for 2 weeks before using

To keep the plant alive halve the sediment and add two cups of cold water. Feed again for one week.

Notes

Three sultanas can be added at the bottling stage, when the sultanas float ginger beer is ready to drink. Use of plastic soft drink bottles will avoid the problem of bottles exploding.

We tried ours after one week and it wasn’t very fizzy, and of course just to test it out had a bottle a day after that to test the readiness. The batch got a little fizzier each day, so I think 2 weeks is a good time to wait before drinking, though being the first batch we couldn’t wait, the flavour was great though.

We actually bought empty plastic bottles because we don’t buy soft drink, we have a soda stream for when we want some soda water or our number one and only son wants a soft drink on the weekend. It was about $15 for a box of 15 750ml bottles which are of course reusable and you can buy replacement lids when needed.

My partner in crime and life is now wondering what else there is we can make ourselves. Of course the list is endless and interesting. We currently brew our own beer, from a kit of course, but it is way cheaper than buying cartons. Say you buy a carton for approx $40, it varies of course, well we pay about $20 for three cartons plus some time and effort but not a lot.

The cost of the ginger beer is not a lot, say 50c per lemon or free if you grow your own, some ginger maybe a couple of dollars, some sugar also a couple of dollars, and some time and effort. I am going to say (because I can’t be bothered to cost it properly) about $5 for 15 bottles of ginger beer. I am not including the cost of the bottles as they are reusable and you could get them for free if you asked friends to save their empty soft drink bottles for you.

So the whole ginger beer thing is a success and so easy, makes me wonder why it took me so long to get back into it, there is barely no time involved and very little cost. So I will be continuing to make it and we will also be looking for more things we can make ourselves, it is very satisfying and nice to just know we can do it.

ON OTHER MATTERS

I read the news on the internet every morning, even when I don’t have a lot of time I have a quick zoom through just to get a gist of what is going on in the world that day. On goes the computer first thing and a quick look at a few sites to see what is happening here in Australia and in the rest of the world (I always think of the ripple effect, what is happening overseas could very well affect us here).

And so, here is one bit of news that caught my eye this morning, regarding chooks not really being free to roam despite claims by producers. Well, we all knew this was happening but hoping is wasn’t, well I was anyway, so here is the link.

Here are some lovely quilts made by Jan at Outside the Lines. This is something I would like to try my hand at one day because I think they are beautiful as well as useful, I just need to get some more focus so I am not distracted and don’t finish. So check out someone who has patience, and obviously skill, and see what can be done, I love them.

I so need a wood pile like this one in the photos on Red Woman blog. I will work on it for next year. In the mean time I am also going to check out some of the interesting looking blogs she follows, listed on the side of her blog.