[New York]: The Ginger Beer Factory

Unable to fit livestock into my Manhattan apartment, I continue to manage microbiota. Last week's ginger beer project proved highly successful. I used this recipe.

First, I put a cup of water, a teaspoon of grated ginger (peel and all) and a teaspoon of sugar into a tupperware and covered it with a cheesecloth. Every two days I added another teaspoon of sugar and another of ginger. Over six days, it went from looking like this:



to this:



Okay, maybe you can't really tell the difference. But it's more bubbly in the second picture, which means that the wild yeasts on the surface of the ginger root have come to life and begun eating the sugar. This means you can start bottling: boil up a whole lot of sugar, ginger, and lemons, strain the starter into your big pot once it has cooled, and bottle:



Over the next week and a half, the yeasts gradually eat the sugar and produce carbon dioxide and alcohol. If you open the bottle after 8 days, it's fizzy and sweet. If you open it after about 12 days, it's fizzier, less sweet, and a very little bit alcoholic. Very tasty.