Friday, October 7, 2011

Homemade Ginger Ale (sugar free)

I've recently tried Reed's Ginger Beer, and fell madly in love.  However, it has a high sugar content, so I went searching for sugar free alternatives.  I found this recipe for homemade ginger ale that is sugar free, and thought it would be a good recipe to start with since it didn't require the use of yeast and sugar.

This is adapted from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

1 cup sliced ginger root
4 cups water
Sparkling mineral water
stevia (to taste)
lime wedges (I only had lemons)

Put the sliced ginger root (I didn't peel mine) into a 4 quart saucepan with water.  Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cover and let steep for 1 to 1 and a half hours.  The longer it steeps, the spicier it gets.  Strain into a 1 quart mason jar, discarding ginger.  Cover and chill.

To serve, combine 1 part ginger syrup to 3 parts sparkling water and serve over ice. Sweeten to taste with stevia (or sweetener of choice) and a squeeze of lime (or lemon!)

Verdict?  I love the spiciness of the ginger.  I let mine steep for at least 1 1/2 hours, and probably closer to 2. I also added half ginger and half water for serving.  It's going to depend on how much you like the ginger flavor.  My only complaint is the only carbonated water I could find was club soda, and my ginger ale ended up tasting a little flat.  I'm going to experiment with different waters, and see if that makes a difference.  Now that I've made this, I really want to tackle making ginger ale with yeast - where it produces it's own carbonation!  Have you ever made your own soda or beer?  I'm feeling a project coming on!!

7 comments:

  1. I LOVE hot Ginger Ale. Blenheims is my favorite. I poo poo the sugar content because it brings the heat!

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  2. Wow!!! How cool that you made your own. I am not a big fan of Ginger ale.. it reminds me of when I was little and had a stomach bug.. my mom would always serve me ginger ale ~
    Have a fantastic weekend

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  3. I will definitely try this! I have so much ginger in my freezer - I bought it off the dollar rack and I probably have 2 pounds of it!

    Thanks for the idea Kim!

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  4. I've never made any type of soda like this before - but it looks delicious!

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  5. I am SUCH a ginger beer lover...and I'm pretty sure I would die of happiness if I had this in front of me.

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  6. Thanks so much for posting this! I absolutely love real ginger ale, but it's never ginger-y enough for me. Now a low sugar version ginger drink with no sugar? This is for sure a recipe I can get behind!

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  7. Ha, oh my gosh! You make your own gingerale!!! I am still in the phase where I just learned to cook and am baking cakes without a box. This is extremely impressive (low sugar and alL!?!) and looks exceptionally delicious! You pretty much blow my blog mind.

    Sorry I haven't commented in so long! I have kind of fallen off the blogosphere this summer but, I still have been following and still love your recipes and will be a more devoted follower starting now!

    Thanks for always posting such awesome pieces :)
    -Meg
    @ http://clutzycooking.blogspot.com

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