Homebrew Ginger Beer!

As most of you know by now brewing beer is one of our passions and last night we brewed one of our specials, Ginger Beer, the alcoholic kind as apposed to the non-alcoholic mixer variety. We also used this opportunity to film a special episode of "Don't Be Afraid!" for an up and coming YouTube channel we're working on. And as usual I was able to snap away when I wasn't using the camera for filming so I decided to take a few shots of +Linda Dean butchering a Ginger or two as she prepared them for cooking.

Ginger has a very medicinal quality to it, almost like a mild sedative when brewed into beer. It can be very relaxing and a fantastic stress reliever as well as making sure you get a great nights sleep when needed most.

It is also very spicy, very, very spicy but not in an overpowering chili or curry way. After you've taken a sip of the beer you can feel a wave of heat rise up through your palette, through your nostrils and sinuses and out through the top of your head. It is a very pleasurable and relaxing experience.

Ginger beer is definitely one of those beers that you sip slowly over an evening, you definitely won't be downing bottles of it like you can with other beers. It is perfectly suited to those dark, cold and wet winters nights. A good book or movie and a bottle of your home brewed beer is guaranteed to relieve any stress you might have.

The little bit of effort that is needed to make five gallons or even just one gallon is well worth it. We will be posting a YouTube video showing you in detail how to make your first batch but for now these teaser images will have to suffice.

I'm not sure why I was so surprised to find out that ginger beer would be so spicy. I guess my only real experience with ginger before we brewed our first batch were what we used to call back home, dunking biscuits, they are very hard, crunchy ginger biscuits that we used to dunk in our cups of hot tea as kids. This would soften them enough so that we wouldn't crack our teeth eating them.

We had a really great time filming and shooting this one and I can't wait to see the video on YouTube when the editing is done. Brewing beer really is very rewarding, there is something very nostalgic about it, it connects us not just with our past but also gives us a sense of what a D&D tavern might be like or what the Prancing Pony might be like in Bree. At least that is how I feel about it and it always makes me feel happy.