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Caribbean Ginger Beer

Caribbean · 20 min · Easy · 6 glasses

Caribbean Ginger Beer

A fierce, unfermented ginger beer: fresh ginger blended, steeped and strained into a syrup, then topped with soda water. All of the heat, none of the waiting.

~110 cal per serving — Calories are approximate, per serving — a guide only.

gluten-freenut-freesoy-freeoil-freegrain-free
Plan it:

Method

  1. 1

    Blend the ginger

    ⏱ 1 min

    Blend the chopped ginger with the water until it is a coarse pale slurry. It will smell sharp enough to catch the back of your throat — that is the point.

  2. 2

    Steep with the spice

    ⏱ 5 min

    Tip the slurry into a pot with the cinnamon stick, bring just to a simmer, then take it off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes to draw the heat out of the ginger.

  3. 3

    Strain and sweeten

    Strain through muslin into a large glass pitcher, wringing the pulp out hard. Discard the pulp and the cinnamon stick. Stir the sugar and the lime juice into the warm liquid until dissolved. This is your syrup base.

  4. 4

    Top and serve

    Chill the base, then fill glasses a third full and top with cold soda water. It should be a single even amber-brown all the way down, clear and smooth with nothing floating in it — a wheel of lime on the rim if you like. Adjust to taste — some like it half and half, which is genuinely bracing.

Notes

This is deliberately the quick, unfermented version. Traditional ginger beer is a live ferment in sealed bottles: it builds real pressure, can burst the bottle, and produces alcohol. Do not cap this and leave it out — keep the base in the fridge and add the fizz from a bottle of soda water. The syrup keeps two weeks refrigerated.

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