So I tried making home-made ginger ale the other day. It seemed like an easy enough recipe for a novice cook like me, but as usual I failed miserably

Here's the recipe I used:

I followed the recipe to the letter (I even bought a ginger grater) but the final product was rather flat and tasted more like yeast than ginger! What could I have done wrong?

sounds interesting!

things that may have gone wrong (I'm bumping into walls in the dark here, not tried it myself . . .)

the ginger - not all ginger is created - or 'stored' - equal. I've bought fresh ginger in the supermarket that more resembled compacted sawdust than ginger. did it have a good flavor / aroma when you grated it?

>>"flat"
did you proof any of the yeast to ensure it was still "good" / "alive"?
(in a small bowl with luke-warm water - temp which you can easily keep you finger in with no discomfort - sprinkle a little yeast into the water. after a couple minutes you should see "foam" . . )

temperature - adding 7 cups of cool water to half-cup of sugar syrup should have knocked them temp down - even if the syrup had not been chilled - that said,,, temps over 112 +/- F will kill yeast.

theory holds the yeast should eat the sugar producing CO2 and a bit of alcohol. the recipe appears quite simple - it is a bit difficult to imagine too many things going wrong.

how's your tap water? whacked out pH or ultra high chlorination could have inhibited the fermentation.

try cutting the sugar to 1/2 cup and the yeast to 1/4 teaspoon and add the juice from a lemon -

grab a 2 liter bottle and place a cup of sugar in it - add yeast - shake the bottle to mix the sugar and the yeast

grate 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger - place in 1 cup measure - juice the lemon and add to the cup - stirring to form a slurry - pour into bottle - use the 1 cup measure to add fresh cool water to the bottle - cap and shake - then fill with cool water to within an inch of the top - cap the bottle and keep inverting to dissolve the sugar

set in a warm place for 24 to 48 hours

you will know if the fermentation is done by squeezing the bottle - if the bottle dents when pressed with your thoumb - it is not ready

when hard and forceful to squeeze - refrigerate

to open - do it very very slowly so it doesn't shoot all over the place

you may want to strain before drinking because the grated gnger does not dissolve

you cn substitute grapefruit juice for the lemon juice - you can omit the lemon juice and you can increase the ginger

for color you can simmer some ginger root in 2 iters of water for about an hour


note - my friend simmers the ginger in water and then refrigerates it while the yeast is femeting for 24 to 48 hours and uses that as her cool water

she makes this all the time - its her recipe

BTW - everything has to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized

I did not "proof" the yeast first, although I was fairly certain it was good (I had just bought it that day for this recipe).

The ginger was fresh I think. It was an older variety (I had to peel off the skin) but it was very fragrant when I grated it. Maybe I should use a micro-grater instead of a ginger grater this time?

I'll try it again and see if these things make a difference. I'll even post some pictures to see if there's something I'm doing wrong procedurally.

>>just bought yeast
should be good . . .

>>[ginger] was very fragrant when I grated it.
the nose knows. smelled good, is good.
(ps: you have to "peel" them all...)

>>different grater
nope. that's unlikely an issue.

follow Mama M's ideas - hopefully it'll make itself clearer as you experiment.
(keep in mind, just because a recipe is on the "internet" does not actually mean "it's good / it works" . . .)