Here I will quote Claymore's recipe verbatim. I did make only a very slight alteration which I will note below.
Claymore Highfield's Old Time Ginger Ale
Gotta tell ya, I find commercial ginger ales pretty tame. Even the ones that provide that snappy ginger taste have undesirable flavour components or an overall synthetic/processed taste that just doesn't work for me. What to do? Well, take matters into my own hooves, of course!
The process is simple, the ingredients are inexpensive and readily available, the results are refreshing and intensely gingery. If you like a robust soda pop that you simply can't get by mixing chemically syrup with bubbly water, give this one a try!
You'll need:
½ cup ginger, freshly grated
1 cup granulated white (table) sugar
⅓ cup lemon juice. (I used bottled lemon and lime juices out of laziness.)
⅛ cup lime juice
¼ teaspoon bread yeast
1½ quarts water
You will also need a saucepan, a pitcher, whisk, and an empty, CLEAN, 2-liter soda bottle.
Place the water in a saucepan on the stove and bring it to a slow boil while you grate and juice the ginger and citrus, then add everything but the yeast to the water. Allow the mix to slow boil for about 5 minutes, and TASTE the mixture periodically. Does it seem strong? Good! It's supposed to, but your palate is your guide -- you may prefer more or less sugar, so add water or sugar to adjust. More lemon or lime juice? Be my guest!
Once the taste is balanced, take the pan off the heat and allow it to cool, covered, to 80 degrees on your thermometer. No thermometer? No problem. The liquid should be cool enough to drizzle onto your wrist with a feeling of warmth but NO discomfort. Now, strain the liquid into a CLEAN pitcher or other suitable container with a pouring spout, then whisk in the yeast until it's thoroughly dispersed. (I used an ordinary wire strainer.) Pour the liquid into the soda bottle, which will not be completely filled, then TIGHTLY cap the bottle. Set the bottle out of direct light in a warm (70F-78F is ideal) area for 24 hours.
At the end of this time, your soda bottle will now feel as though it's tightly filled -- just like the ones that come from the store, only your soda is NATURALLY carbonated! Put the bottle in the refrigerator for another 24 hours, and then ENJOY! :D
The only changes I made were these: I chopped the ginger root, rather than grating it, because I found that the fibrous nature of the ginger root clogged my box grater rapidly so it was easier to use a chef's knife rather; I used bottled lemon and lime juice even though Claymore says not to; and I added a pinch of salt to the formula. It's well known that a small amount of salt tends to emphasize flavors. Otherwise I followed the directions just as shown.
The resulting beverage had a lovely ginger taste but, as you can see, had a lot of suspended matter in it. Party this is because the chopped-up ginger upon boiling is going to break down a bit and produce particles too small to be stoppe by a coarse wire-mesh strainer. Also the yeast itself produces a sediment of dead cells as the fermentation progresses. Possibly one can produce a clear ginger ale by adding a coagulating agent such as gelatine, as is often done in brewing beer.
Another thing I noticed was that, even in the refrigerator, fermentation still continued at a slow place. Even after three or four days there was a noticeable buildup of gas pressure in the bottle. Also I suspect the drink came to have a small amount of alcohol in it after a few days of storage in this way. I don't consider this to be a bad thing.
Anyway, this is definitely a keeper. I'm trying this again, soon, though I think I'll be looking for a glass bottle to conduct the fermentation in rather than using a pop bottle.
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