Homemade Ginger Beer: Part 1

Real Ginger Beer is made with a ‘bug’, which is actually a live bacteria culture made with sugar with ginger. On the first day, add 1 ½ cups of water to a glass jar and then add 2 teaspoons refined sugar and 2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger. Put a tight lid on the jar and shake well. Let sit for 24 hours. Each day for the next 7 days, add two more teaspoons each of refined sugar and fresh grated ginger. Each time you add more sugar and ginger, shake well.

By the 3rd or fourth day, the mixture should begin to bubble and give off a bit of gas. This is the beginning of the bacteria colony, which was living on the ginger and is now eating the sugar and multiplying in the ginger, water, sugar solution.



After 7 days, add 2 cups of molasses or dehydrated raw cane sugar to 8 quarts of water and heat until dissolved. Add the juice of a few limes and then when cooled, but still warm (like bath temperature) add just the water from your Bug (name for the ginger, water, sugar solution and the residing bacteria. Put all this in an open-mouthed container and cover with a cloth and rubber band.

After 7 days, transfer to bottles with wire-held stoppers or corks and let sit for at lest 14 days. After that, it is ready to enjoy.

We note that this beverage, which is slightly sweet and a bit alcoholic, is enormously better for you than any soda or beer you can buy on the market. This actually contains a living bacteria culture that is beneficial to your whole body. Live culture foods are a valuable piece of total nutrition. They help keep beneficial intestinal flora, which aids digestion and they help in the assimilation of nutrients and the expulsion of bad bacteria and unwanted chemicals.

Here you can see our jar. This week, we will post pictures of the next steps.