We’re having a week off, and it’s wonderful. It’s giving us time to do loads of odd jobs that have been stacking up, like clearing out borders, tidying up the strawberry patch and starting on the Christmas beer, which should be ready for bottling at the weekend.

At the moment, though, we sitting back with a glass of ginger beer each, which we’ve just finished syphoning from the demijohn. We often drink ginger if we don’t fancy anything alcoholic, but we’ve never tried making it ourselves. I don’t know why, as it turns out to be very simple. The ingredients are simple and cheap and only need to be mixed: there’s no cooking involved – just a bit of waiting.

The alcohol level – if there is any – will be very low in this drink, but obviously anyone who objects to drinking the stuff, on religious or other grounds, should bear in mind that as it calls for yeast and sugar and is fermented, a small level of alcoholic content can be expected.

Ingredients 90ml boiling water 110g sugar 30g fresh root ginger 2 lemons 2 teaspoons of yeast 125ml (1/4 pint) of warm water 2 litres of cold water Equipment needed Measuring jug Knife Demijohn and airlock (or a large bowl)

Method
Place your sugar in the measuring jug and pour on the boiling water. Stir until it has completely dissolved and then pour this syrup into your demijohn.

Rinse out the measuring jug and fill with 125ml of warm water made by mixing one part boiling water with two parts cold water. Stir the yeast into this and then put it in a warm place for 10 – 15 minutes until a good head forms on top. Pour the head and yeasty water into the demijohn.

Peel and dice the ginger very finely and add to the juice of your two lemons. Mix well and pour into the demijohn, then top up with two litres of cold water.

Insert a bung and airlock in the demijohn and leave in a warm place to ferment. This will take about three days, during which it should bubble carbon dioxide through the airlock. It will be ready when the bubbling has more or less stopped.

Strain the ginger beer through a muslin gause if you have one, or a fine towel in a sieve if you don’t, and decant into bottles. Store these somewhere cold to stop the fermentation process, but keep a close eye on them and keep releasing the pressure so that they don’t pop if the fermentation process isn’t quite complete.

To serve, dilute the ginger beer with lemonade, at about one part beer to five parts lemonade.

Related posts:

1. Top 5 tips for successful beer and wine-making
2. Ginger cookies recipe
3. The cold and the beer