Ginger Beer

I’ve never been a big consumer of soft drinks. I think this may be related to the fact that they were rarely drunk by my family growing up. We used to get Sprite as a treat at Christmastime and for our Independence Day cookout. Homemade root beer cropped up at church parties and fairs during the summer. And, whenever I had something like tonsillitis, my dad would bring me home a bottle of soft drink to calm my stomach. Other than that, I mostly just drank water.

Australia, however, has proven to be something of a garden of temptations in this area. I reckon I’ve drunk more soft drink here than I did in my entire previous life—something I’ll blame on the diverse range we have available. Who can resist such alluring flavours as passionfruit, blood orange, lemon-lime & bitters, sarsaparilla, or lemon crush? Better yet, most of these beverages come in a sugar-free variety, removing the major nutritional argument against consuming them.

My all-time favourite Aussie beverage, however, may be ginger beer. This is not an exclusively Australian soft drink, of course. I actually drank it for the first time whilst living in the Caribbean, where we never celebrated a baptism at church without a huge jug or two of Sister Winifred Carty’s spicy (and sometimes quite chunky) home-brewed ginger beer. In Australia, though, ginger beer is ubiquitous—so much so that a standard supermarket probably stocks a good half dozen different brands of it. These range all the way from the ordinary (virtually just store-brand ginger ale dressed up in a brown bottle) to the sublime (the version produced by Bundaberg, a rum distiller, which, like Sis Winnie’s home brew, is spicy, not very sweet, and borderline chunky).

Recently, I decided to try brewing my own. I was motivated in part by having chanced upon a web site maintained by an American professor of chemistry who also happens to be an avid brewer of ginger beer. His recipe seemed ridiculously simple—simple enough for a busy PhD student to try—so I took ten minutes Monday (that’s really all it took) and threw the whole thing together, using an empty two-litre Coke bottle that my housemate had saved for me.

I had to wait 48 hours before I could try it—24 for the actual brewing and then another 24 for the chilling—bringing me up to today. I have to admit that I was a little nervous when I first opened the bottle and poured out a taste of what looked not unlike dirty dish water. Sis Winnie, however, would be proud. It was almost perfect—spicy, not too sweet, and with an intriguing citrus undertone. It even had chunks in it. I think I may up the amount of gingerroot slightly in the next batch, but all in all I’m pleased with the results. I reckon I’ll be doing some more brewing in future.