Ginger Beer! (small quantity) by Satyavati Devi Dasi

3-4 oz fresh ginger, peeled 

2-3 cloves 

1 cup sugar 

8 cups water 

1 1/2 tsp yeast (regular bread yeast is fine) 

*You can grate your ginger if you like.  I used a vegetable peeler to get paper-thin strips instead.  Do one or the other. 

1. Into a half-gallon container put the ginger, cloves and sugar.  You may want to bruise the cloves a bit. 

2. Bring the water to boiling and pour it into the container.  Give it a stir so the sugar dissolves in the water. 

3. Let the water come down to a lukewarm temperature (about 100-110 degrees. 

4. Add the yeast. 

5.  Loosely cover the jar with a cloth or paper towel.  It needs to sit  overnight or even a little longer.  You will see bubbles rising in the  beer as the fermentation progresses. 

6. Strain through a cloth or  very fine sieve into another container.  You now have ginger beer  concentrate.  You will need to dilute it to some extent depending on  your taste and will probably also need to add some sweetener of your  choice.  Alternatively, you could use up to 4 cups of sugar to begin  with.  You could also use honey, brown sugar or even molasses if the  spirit possesses you and you're that adventurous.. but do all that at  your own risk.  :) 

This will warm you all the way down.  It looks like whey, but it's ginger all the way through.