Sometimes when you make a change to your diet, you have to do things to keep the people in your house happy. I love making special things for Barry….and I knew he was missing an occasional soda since I had quit buying it. After the water kefir fiasco I wasn’t sure Barry would drink anything else I concocted. And let me tell you – I can concoct some pretty weird things y’all.
Barry LOVES ginger ale. I cannot stand the ginger ale from the store because it reminds me of being sick – when I was little, mom would give it to us to settle upset stomachs. I kept seeing various recipes for ginger ale online, so I concocted one of my own from various recipes – to suit our tastes. And you know what? I actually like it. It doesn’t taste like your store versions of ginger ale. Barry says it tastes like the old fashioned Vernor’s ginger ale. Let’s make some ale y’all! Wow – that sounded like a bar maid.
First, you need a fresh piece of ginger about three inches long. I’m not going to lie to ya…..fresh ginger looks weird. It reminds me of old lady fingers. It just looks creepy. I feel weird buying it – like I have to explain myself. I bought mine at Earth Fare…..twice. The first time I bought some, I put it in the fridge and forgot about it. About a month later I found it growing something green in the back of the refrigerator. Uhhh, oops? If you think fresh ginger looks weird, you should see fresh ginger that’s growing green fuzz. Thinly slice the entire piece.
Put your freshly sliced ginger down in a small pot with two cups of water. You can add the peeling from half a lemon if you want. I wasn’t going to do this part, but I remembered I still had some lemon peels in the freezer leftover from the strawberry lemonade fiasco. There are lots of fiascos going on around here.
Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. It’s going to make the entire house smell REALLY good.
After 5 minutes, turn the heat off and remove the pan. Let it steep for 20 minutes. Again, your house is going to smell really good.
When it’s done steeping, you need to strain the mixture to remove the ginger and lemon (I stuck the ginger and lemon in a jar and put it in the fridge. I want to see if I can get two batches from one piece of ginger. See note at the end). I strained directly into the jar that I was going to store it in. It should still be warm, so it’s a good time to stir in your sweetener. I used honey. Since the mixture was warm, it mixed up nicely. Chill this mixture thoroughly.
You will be mixing your ginger concentrate with either sparkling water or club soda. You want something with carbonated water in it. I wish I had a carbonated water machine…..but I’m not sure we can fit another appliance in this house. And yet, there always seems to be room for dust. We used sparkling water that I also found at Earth Fare on, wait for it……………..clearance. Because that’s how I roll.
When you’re ready to make your ginger ale, mix ¼ cup of the ginger solution with 8 ounces of sparkling water/club soda. Stir and drink. Yum! You might want to add more sweetener, but we didn’t. It’s bubbly in the tummy – without all the weirdness of soda from the store. This particular recipe will make 8 servings of ginger ale. This is Stacy The Bar Maid, signing out.
NOTE: Using the same ginger and lemon for a second batch worked…..sorta. You need to use double the amount of ginger concentrate to the same amount of sparkling water. 🙂 It did not work a third time.
Homemade Ginger Ale
- 1 piece of fresh ginger, about 3 inches in length
- 2 cups of water
- ½ lemon, rind only
- 1/3 cup honey
- Sparkling Water or Club Soda
- Thinly slice ginger. Add to a saucepan with 2 cups of water and lemon rind. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let steep for 20 minutes.
- Strain mixture to remove ginger and lemon.
- Stir in honey.
- Refrigerate until completely chilled.
- Mix ¼ cup of ginger solution with 8 ounces of sparkling water. Serve immediately.
Add vanilla – at least 1-2 tsp along with the honey. This is also good made with date syrup instead of the honey; it adds that Carmel color & taste.
If anyone is wondering, the sweetener conversion for Truvia is 8 packets.
I like mine to bite, so I mix it half and half.
Bite is good.
Wondering how this would taste with stevia instead of honey…any experiments to share?
Thx!
I’ve only ever made it with the honey…but I would think it would work. If you try it, let us all know! 🙂
It is good with Stevie! I also use date syrup as a honey substitute, too. So yummy
I cannot wait to try this recipe!! I LOVE ginger ale from the store but feel so guilty about the high fructose corn syrup and the bunch of other stuff that’s in it, so I think this recipe for ginger ale is going to be a keeper! Plus anything we make ourselves is always that much more rewarding! Thanks so much for sharing!
It’s got a bit more heat from the natural ginger than the types you find in the store. Feel the burn! 🙂
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back later tonight when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the top 3 featured posts! 🙂
And you should try making water kefir and adding ginger to that for even more natural soda 🙂
Thank you so much for the great recipe. I’ve made it twice already. My husband and I both love it. It is so refreshing. I’ve been avoiding soda because of the HFCS and other junk in regular soda. This is a nice treat.
I’m so glad you like it! It is a nice break from water. 🙂
I hope you enjoy it! Barry LOVES it!
I’m going to have to give this a try. I love ginger ale, but have cut out soda recently… this might be a nice alternative.
Enjoy! 🙂 It tastes like old school ginger ale.
I can’t wait to surprise my kids with this on the next movie night! thanks for sharing your recipe with the Hearth and Soul hop.
Thanks for hosting it. 🙂
I’m not a huge fan of ginger ale, probably bc my mom gave it to us growing up when we were sick so I associate it with that, but would still love to try this homemade version!
Whew, I know….my mom too. *Shudder*
I buy a couple of big pieces of ginger, peel them and cut them into 1/8″ round slices.
I put them in a jar and freeze them. Almost every morning I have hot ginger tea with one slice per cup. Just take my spoon and pierce it several times to release the juice. I add a touch of stevia and it is very good. Some days I put it in regular tea like green tea. Another thing I do is put a spoon of goji berries in the cup and by the end of the tea, you have a nice hydrated treat of goji berries. I’ll be making ginger ale now for a cool refreshing drink during the day. Thanks for all the good info on your site. Love it!
Pasty, storing ginger in the freezer is really the way to go. 🙂 It keeps me from having weird, green, fuzzy stuff.
I love ginger ale! I’m totally going to try this. Thanks for sharing!
I hope you enjoy it – the ginger is so good for you!
Found your link at day2day joys. I really never thought about making my own ginger ale–I love the stuff, so I’m definitely pinning this one for later 🙂
Rachel is such a sweetheart. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
This is awesome! I’ve wanted to try my hand at making soda -particularly rootbeer- for a long time but was scared off by all the fermenting and what not. This looks so easy! I’m going to pin it.
I need to try root beer next! 🙂 Secret – I have another soda post coming on Saturday. 😉
This is great! my husband loves gingerale. Def. going to try this!
I hope your husband likes it as much as Barry!
That sounds so interesting. I am going to try this.
I hope you enjoy it. Barry loves it!
I’ve seen ginger ale recipes around and even pinned one or two, but I keep forgetting to try it. I’m going to have to now! I always have ginger in the freezer (I read somewhere you can store it wrapped in foil in the freezer and it keeps for a really long time).
That’s EXACTLY how I store mine. 🙂
I want this! My tummy’s been upset lately, and ginger always makes it feel better. I know I have some fresh ginger in the fridge, but it’s been in there a while. Better go check to see if it has green fuzz growing on it or not 🙂
Mindy, I try to always keep ginger on hand. I buy a big batch and stick it in the freezer in a Ziploc bag. Then I have fresh ginger whenever I want it – I just let it thaw at room temperature a few hours. 🙂
We have a Sodastream machine so this will be extra easy for me, because pop + 4 kid= having to dish out a LOT of pop. LOL
I saw those at Bed, Bath, and Beyond! 🙂
Dutifuly shared with FB friends. Will have to try the ginger beer tomorrow!! Looks so easy.
And it smells GREAT!
Did it work? Could you use it twice? If not, I bet that at least the house would smell great twice, maybe even three times. Thanks for the great idea. I loved Verner’s, too.
Oops! I forgot to add that part! 🙂 Thanks for the reminder. And yes, it worked….but you had to use double the amount of ginger concentrate to the same amount of sparkling water.
OMGosh, this sounds so stinking good. I’m gonna have to buy ginger this week!
I hope you like it – Barry does…..I can take it or leave it most days – but I’m not a ginger fan. 🙂