Looks like fun, especially for kids. They love soda, making it from scratch would be a great experience for them. It's worth a try. Certainly doesn't take much in the way of exotic ingredients. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alton Brown's ginger ale

Just a word of caution.....
I remember once when I was a little kid. My mother decided it would be fun to make our own root beer, seems her mother did that and my uncle knew how. so we saved our catsup bottles and Pepsi ( 12 full ounces, that's a lot!) and whatever else, we had a bottle capper, not sure why..and we made root beer....seems it had to sit a while and then finally was bottled and capped.
And then it started exploding! Luckily it was in the basement....but I remember my mother was afraid to go down there....but my uncle came and wrapped himself in a blanket to protect from the flying glass and did whatever was necessary to do.
But....remember....it can explode....and make an awful sticky mess!
Linda C

Linda, Alton recommends using plastic bottles, maybe that's why? It is supposed to sit at room temp for 48 hours and then be refrigerated. The cap is supposed to be opened once daily to let out excess carbonation.
Momj, it does look like fun, even for adult kids. :o)

I'm in!!! I'm all about making off beat things to impress my DGS!

I remember when my DD was in high school. She went by my SIL's house on her way home. She rushed into the kitchen and announced "Aunt Dana made fried chicken for dinner!!" I said yeah! "You don't get it! She cooked if from a real chicken". She thought fried chicken only came from Popeye's or KFC.

You can also use a balloon as a "cap" which will expand as needed and pop when necessary. I think you can even buy food-safe balloons at beer-making stores.... altho' we always just used an everyday balloon when I was a kid.

wow you guys will attempt to make stuff I would never have even thought to make from scratch!! Go for it! let us know how it turns out - I love ginger ale too...

Grrr, I thought I still had some yeast tucked away, but alas, I am out. So the ale making session will have to wait til I can get to the store. :o)
westelle, that balloon idea is pure genius! I would have never thought of that.
mustangs, fried chicken is such a mess to make, no one should blame you for sticking with KFC.

I had a look at the recipe and as I suspected it is for what we call here ginger beer, as opposed to ginger ale. It's nice but not the same so if that's what you're expecting you will be disappointed.

Hmm.. are you sure Colleen? I watched the show and thought he addressed the difference between ginger beer and gingerale. Something about the ginger beer being cloudy.. hmmm.. .. will have to investigate.. Smiles.

Well Petra just last weekend I ordered a hand of ginger when I bought the groceries just so I can make this recipe. My Dear One hates ginger of all types, in all things, but.... I found out she likes gingerale. Yay. So, I'm trying this and will see if I can lure her into other ginger stuff afterward. She's been home sick from work and I haven't had time to make it yet. I'll let ya'll know too how it turns out.

If you notice Alton uses a plastic bottle a bit larger than volume of gingerale calls for, and with his caution to open each day after refridgeration, I think it's pretty safe.

Linda, it seems almost everybody used to have a capper. Guess they all tried to make beer at some point and root beer too. They also used to cap and process juices, which sounds scarier than the rootbeer. Death trumping exploding sugar coated glass. Then again... maybe equal chances at being lethal.

Ginger beer is VERY spicy... almost HOT tasting and is not for the weak of heart. Ginger Ale is mild and more like sodapop.

Used to make some potent, trendy, mixed drink using ginger beer and, I think vodka...
What was it called? Moscow? Or Russian...something??
Was it a Moscow mule??

I make real beer. Easy and no exploding bottles if done correctly. Don't know what Alton was up to. Do a primary fermentation in a carboy/bucket with a fermentation lock. The lock is an "S" shaped plastic tube that holds a bit of water. As the gas from fermentation builds up it bubbles past the water. After the primary fermentation has removed all sugar a measured amount is added to the bottles... usually about 3/4 teaspoon. Then it is capped and fermentation resumes. The limited sugar ferments just enough to make the drink fizzy without exploding the bottles.

Plastic 20oz pop bottles are probably a great way for a beginner to go at it. Wash the bottles and caps real good to prevent contamination... bacteria can turn your ferment into vinegar.

Wine is made the same way! Regular wine has no priming sugar added to the bottle so no fizz. Champagne and Cold Duck have a primer (sugar) added at bottling time to produce fizz. Note champagne bottles are thick to take the pressure and the corks get wired on.

Cloudy beer is caused by a couple things... both harmless and sometimes even desired. Starch does not ferment. If chemicals are not added to break the starches into sugar then they make the beer cloudy when it is cold. The other thing is bottle fermentation has live yeast in the bottle! After eating the sugar most of the yeast dies and forms a thin layer at the bottom of the bottle. Some beers like heffe weisen (sp?), a german wheat beer, are served extra fresh and have the yeast still floating around in the beer. The yeasty flavor is part of that beer's flavor profile. Beer yeast won't hurt you anymore then bread yeast... actually good for you... remember grandma taking brewer's yeast?

Most cities have a beer/wine making shop. Often just a corner in the back of a store where the owner has gotten into the hobby and sells equipment/sugar/yeast. If you are going to try this I recommend getting the right equipment and maybe even a recipe book. I've never made soda pop but the recipes are in my books... looks the same as regular beer just less sugar so very little alcohol. Beer is basically high alcohol content soda pop! In addition to making soda pop the same fermenter can turn out homemade beers and wine. Wine is very easy to make!... juice, sugar, yeast and ferment ferment ferment then drink drink drink. A five gallon container of homemade wine on my kitchen counter right now with about 2 1/2 gallons left in it... apple/blueberry at 12% alcohol. I have four fermenters (5 gallon glass bottles) so I don't bottle my wine... just pour it off the big fermenters as I want it. The only time I bottle is beer or when I give wine as a gift. I've tried the plastic pop bottles and they work fine.

: )
lyra

Well, the ginger beer here is NOT vey spicy. It is mild enough for small children to drink. It is made just as the recipe posted, though some recipes here use wild yeast which involves an extra step. It comes out looking just like the picture. And it is slightly cloudy, due to the yeast residue, as Lyra says.

Here it definitely is. I have a bottle of Stewart's in the fridge (it's been there for years, waiting for me restock Goslings Black Rum to make Dark and Stormys) and the bottle even says "spicy ginger taste". Yeast is not an ingredient on that bottle.

I went to Bermuda one time and ordered ginger beer (you know, eat like the locals). It was so spicy that I couldn't drink it. Now mix it with rum, and I can sip it all night. I make them at home now and I had to laugh when the cashier at the grocery store proofed me for ginger beer.
Jo

So, to get ginger ale, we should add less ginger?

I'm looking at the label on a bottle of Goya Ginger beer right now. One of the ingredients is capsicum.

--Doug

Lyra, I was hoping that you would chime in. Thanks.

"Traditionally, ginger was not always used in the brewing process itself but was added later." (source: Homemade Root Beer Soda & Pop)

Alton's recipe is similar to the one in the book I use, HOMEMADE ROOT BEER SODA & POP, by Stephen Cresswell. You can adjust the ginger to taste. You can make Lemon-Lime Soda with fresh lemons/limes. We also make root beer in recycled 2-litre pop/soda bottles. You can find instructions on-line.

I use low-glycemic agave nectar for the sweetener, instead of sugar, and I also prefer Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast, instead of Bakers' Yeast, but Bakers' Yeast will work fine.

I've never experienced a bottle explosion, but I did go from plastic bottles with screw-caps (you can get new caps for them) to glass bottles with a bail-top as a solution to curb the threat of exploding bottles. I found my supply on eBay.

If you squeeze your plastic bottles during fermentation, you'll notice there's a lot of "give" when it's first bottled. When they get hard, it's time to stick them in the refrigerator to stop fermentation. The warmer the temperature, the quicker they ferment.

I bottle up a couple small 6-7-oz. bottles to use as "test" bottles. I test the first one after 36-48-hours and the next one after 72-hours.

You can also get soft drink Bottling Kits that are fun. See the link below for more information, as well as the book I mentioned above.

-Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Leener's Brew Works

Probably no one remembers, but lpinkmountain and I made homemade gingerale while she was at my house making jam. I even posted pictures, LOL.

It was interesting, and she liked it well enough to take home, but it does NOT taste anything like commercially produced ginger ale. Here I can get Vernor's, which is really "ginger-y" and Canada Dry, which is much milder.

Our homemade gingerale wasn't anything close to either of them, but it was not bad. If you're expecting it to taste like the commercial stuff, you'll be disappointed. If you make it for what it is and don't have pre-conceived expectations, it's pretty darned good.

Annie

Some commercial ginger ales are way too sweet, Alton's 6 ounces of sugar for 2 liters looks a little more reasonable. I wonder if it could be cut back to 3 or 4 ounces?

Thanks Annie, that's exactly what I was trying to say. Here we call the drink made to that recipe "ginger beer" (which like "root beer" is not alcoholic, and is not spicy, and does not contain capsicum) to differentiate it from "ginger ale", so you know exactly what you're getting. If you're expecting a drink like Canada Dry, you will be disappointed. But, it is good in it's own way.

Hmm, I may try making the syrup part minus the yeast. We just got a Soda Club carbonator for making seltzer, today in fact. I can add syrups for making soda. Might be an interesting experiment!

I make homemade root beer once in a blue moon. The kids always loved it.

I use old Coke bottles which were the kind that you used to recycle so they are super thick. I've got a capper which also is a corker though I've never "corked"!

The yeast is added in order to give a homemade version of the carbonation which is achieved some other way in mass production. You do have to be careful that you stop the aging at some point by refrigerating or you can wind up with explosions. I keep mine in the pantry in a box with a doubled over towel over the top. That way if I ever did have one go off, it would hopefully be contained.

Grace

Annie, I tried the Vernors while in Michigan. I love ginger and had heard about this brand. I did not find it very gingerly but too metallic tasting from the can. Is it better from a bottle?

My Mom made wine and always used balloons. Common birthday balloons, the round ones. When the balloons shrank (deflated) that meant the wine was safe to bottle. We never had bottles exploding. We used corks, not sure if that make a difference, and recycled any kind of bottle we could find.

I used to make beer for dh. It was said to be very good and very consistent. Our various wines were not so good. The ginger ale was okay once but the next time we were feeling very earthy. We made both ginger ale and root beer. We had made special shelves on each side of the basement stairs; one bottle wide. A few nights later while we were sitting in the living Âhe fifty gun salute began. It was a little scary and very funny. Fortunately the children had already gone to bed.We used Guiness(sp?)Ale bottles.It was really fun to make but I never worked up the nerve to do it again.

Linnea, the Vernor's is only "ginger-y" compared to Canada Dry, which doesn't taste at all like ginger to me. I get it in bottles, so it doesn't taste metallic but it does have kind of a bite. Both kinds are really sweet, and the homemade stuff isn't as sweet and you can taste the ginger more.

However, don't think the homemade stuff is going to taste like commercial Ginger Ale, because it's not at all alike.

Of course, the only time I ever drink ginger ale is when I have an upset stomach, a throw back to my childhood.

Annie