mike's blog

Here's my Ginger Ale recipe by popular request--

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of regular sugar
• .5 to 2 tablespoons of fresh grated ginger
• 1 lemon
• Any active brewing yeast you have around
• 2 liters of water - I used tap
• You will also need an empty 2 liter PLASTIC soda bottle, a funnel, a grater.

Directions:

1. Grate the ginger if you haven't yet.

2. If you have a smack pack of yeast, get that going well ahead of time.

2. Grate ginger. I do this with a cheese grater or a veggie peeler or even a pairing knife. Finer is better of couse.

3. Put cup of suger into the bottom of soda bottle.

4. Add yeast to soda bottle.

5. Squeeze lemon juice into a bowl or measuring cup.

6. Add ginger to lemon juice in bowl.

7. Pour mixture into bottle. 

8. Add warm water leaving two inches at the top. Cap it. Shake to mix every thing. (Warm water will help sugar mix and yeast ferment.)

9.  Put in the closet or whereever you brew. Someplace with brewing temps.

10. In 24 to 48 hours the plastic bottle will be rock hard. Put it in the fridge. Cool it. (This will stop the fermentation and prevent explosions).

11. Drink it. (May want to strain into you glass to keep ginger chunks out.)

I thought this was something funny to share. A while back Brian and I used to be regulars at Dr. Granville Moores on H Street. One time a photographer from the Washington Post came to take pics for an upcoming review and he took a bunch of photos of us at the bar. Those pics never made it into the article, so we didn't become famous beer snobs. However, I noticed today that one of the photos did get on the Post's interactive map of the H Street bar scene. Haha.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/features/2006/street-life/gallery.html 

Click the target icon for Granville Moores to see it... Sadly not the most flattering of facial expressions, haha.

I made a video showcasing my homebrew closet/kit...

On somewhat of a whim, and partly because of the three day weekend, I decided to brew a beer. It was a somewhat solo event, sorry I didn't invite people over this time, but I wanted to make sure I could still do everything without screwing up. It seems to have gone alright--we will have to see what the fermentation gods have to say about it tonight.