Ginger beer has a hell of a bite to it. Take a piece of ginger root and stick it on your tongue for a second for an approximation. Add to that the fact it smells like back liniment, and there you go.
Incidentally, a ginger beer bottle was at the heart of a famous legal case Donoghue v Stevenson.
Since this thread has resurrected and no-one has made the obligatory…
What does Ginger Beer Taste like?
Braaainssss, with ginger.
I made Ginger Beer for Christmas and it was pretty good. We had some crystallized ginger from our Chocolate Fountain business that was getting a bit old (it does not really go off, but for safety reasons we can’t keep it too long), so I used that for the ginger (blitzed in the food processor). I used 4 Tbsp for a double batch, and could have done with a just bit more, but there was a good bite and aftertaste, not too sweet, and suitably fizzy.
None of this lot hit the ceiling, though.
[QUOTE=Alison Holst Quick Ginger Beer Recipe]
For 4 x 1.25L bottles
1 tsp dried yeast granules
2 tsp sugar
½ cup warm water
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp lemon essence
1 tsp tartaric acid
2 litres hot water
2 litres cold water
Stir the first three ingredients together in a glass and leave to stand in a warm place.
Measure the remaining sugar, ginger, lemon essence and tartaric acid into a clean bucket. Pour on the hot water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the cold water to cool the liquid down.
When you are sure the lemon syrup is no hotter than lukewarm, add the bubbling yeast. Leave in the lightly covered bucket for 24-36 hours, then strain into four thoroughly clean 1.25 litre plastic soft-drink bottles. Fill each bottle up to within 3 cm of the top. Leave in a warm place till bottles are quite firm, then store somewhere cool and use within a week or two.
[/QUOTE]
Easy, and no mucking about with a bug. I had to use a warming bag with hot water bottles to keep things warm (including the in-bottle stage) as it was freezing before christmas in the UK, but it was all done and ready to drink in four days.
Si
Stoneyis our local brand, and I much prefer it to the Schweppes ale we also get. Although I prefer my SoCo with the latter.