How to Make Ginger Beer at Home

There are multiple ways to make ginger beer: fermentation with beer or champagne yeast, a simple syrup mixed with ginger, or the old-fashioned way. This recipe skips any soda-carb mechanism — we're going old-fashioned. We ferment.

Ginger Beer History

Ginger is one of the world's oldest spices, dating as far back as 500 BC. The plant is native to China and India, where it was used for medicinal, food, and flavoring purposes. As it spread west, the Western hemisphere began using ginger to spice up drinks, and by the Victorian era, beer was the beverage of choice in England — especially an herbal, spicy, low-alcohol version known as ginger beer.

In 1866, James Vernor, a pharmacist, introduced ginger ale to America in Detroit, Michigan. The zingy, fizzy soda pop was originally used to help settle upset stomachs, and he shared his creation by installing soda fountains in drugstores. By 1870, James had begun developing different ginger extracts and eventually perfected his recipe, which included aging the syrup in wooden casks for four years.

If you're wondering, ginger ale and ginger beer are basically the same thing. Making your own at home is easy and inexpensive, and you'll likely end up with a stronger ginger flavor than what you'd find commercially, since you control every ingredient. If you choose to ferment your batch, you'll also end up with a slightly alcoholic ginger beer — some brewers ferment longer and adjust the recipe to push the alcohol content higher. For the recipe below, the fermentation is short, so the finished ginger beer will closely resemble ginger ale.

The Recipe

Tools

**Sanitize every item below — they'll all be in contact with the ginger syrup once it's cooled.

• 1-gallon carboy
• Rubber stopper with airlock
• Strainer
• Metal spoon

Brewing Steps

Step 1: Peel and Grate the Ginger

Peel your ginger with the tip of a spoon or tablespoon — turn the spoon over and use the tip in a scraping motion toward the handle; the skin will scrape off, so don't be afraid to use some pressure. Grate it over a small glass bowl using a grater or micro-planer.

Step 2: Make the Ginger Syrup

Add your water, sugar, and grated ginger to a saucepan over medium heat. Heat the mixture, stirring as needed, until the sugar fully dissolves. Once dissolved — you now have ginger syrup — pull it off the heat and let it sit for 60 minutes to cool.

Step 3: Sanitize Your Equipment

While the syrup cools, sanitize your carboy, rubber stopper, airlock, strainer, and metal spoon — anything that will come in contact with the cooled mixture.

Step 4: Strain the Syrup Into the Carboy

Once the syrup has cooled, strain it into the carboy, pressing the ginger against the strainer with your metal spoon to release all the juices.

Step 5: Add the Lemon Juice, Water & Yeast

Add your lemon juice, filtered water, and yeast to the carboy.

Step 6: Mix It All Together

Shake the carboy to mix everything together thoroughly.

Step 7: Seal the Carboy

Fit the lid onto the carboy along with the rubber stopper and airlock.

***Make sure to fill your airlock with sanitizing solution.

Step 8: Let It Ferment

Place the carboy in a pantry or on a shelf, out of direct sunlight, for the next 2–3 days (or longer). The mixture will begin to ferment and release CO₂ through the airlock.

Step 9: Cold Crash & Bottle

Check the carboy after 2–3 days (or longer), then move it into the refrigerator. You can pour the ginger beer into a different container at this point, but make sure it can still breathe, since it will keep releasing gas — just at a slower rate.

****Placing it in the refrigerator "cold crashes" the ginger beer — the cold temperature brings the yeast out of suspension so it settles to the bottom of the carboy, separating from the beer above it.

****You can either siphon the ginger beer off the yeast into another container, or pour it out directly. If pouring, do it as soon as you take the carboy from the fridge, and try to keep the yeast cake intact on the bottom.

Serving Ideas & Variations

This is a great base for cocktails, mixed with seltzer water, or served over ice with a lemon wheel — it's super refreshing and perfect for a hot afternoon or evening. Feel free to make it your own: add more ginger, tone down the sugar in the syrup, or increase the yeast to push the fermentation further.