How to Make Ginger Beer: Fermented or Non-Alcoholic, 1 to 30 Gallons
How to make ginger beer at home, fermented with a ginger bug or non-alcoholic with CO₂: ratios per gallon, the steep, the alcohol math, carbonation pressures and troubleshooting, from 1 to 30 gallons.
In this post
The short answer: steep grated fresh ginger in hot water, dissolve sugar in it, cool it, add lemon juice, then either ferment it for a day or three with a ginger bug or yeast, or skip the fermenting and carbonate it with CO₂. Chill it and serve it fizzy. Per gallon: about 120 g of ginger, 250 g of sugar and half a cup of lemon juice.
Ginger beer started as a fermented drink, brewed with a culture and bottled until it fizzed. Today most of what you buy is a soft drink: a strong ginger syrup, carbonated, with no alcohol. You can make either at home, and the choice changes everything after the steep. Here is how both work, in a jar or in a stainless fermenter, from 1 to 30 gallons.
Fermented or non-alcoholic: pick one first
| Fermented | Non-alcoholic | |
|---|---|---|
| Culture | Ginger bug or yeast | None |
| Where the fizz comes from | Yeast, then topped up with CO₂ | CO₂ only |
| Alcohol | About 0.5% if stopped early; 2% or more if left to run | None |
| Flavour | Rounder, a little tangy and yeasty | Clean, sharp, ginger-forward |
| Time | 2 to 5 days | Same day to 3 days |
| Best for | Traditional ginger beer at home | Serving everyone, selling, consistency |
Selling it, or serving kids? Make it non-alcoholic. Fermented ginger beer is easy to push past 0.5% ABV without meaning to, and in the US a drink at 0.5% or more is regulated as alcohol.
Ratios per gallon
| Ingredient | Per gallon | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fresh ginger, grated | 100–250 g | 120 g is a classic medium heat; 250 g is fiery |
| White sugar | 200–300 g (1 to 1½ cups) | Gives a starting gravity of about 1.021–1.031 |
| Lemon or lime juice | 120–150 mL (½ to ⅔ cup) | Fresh; it also lowers the pH, which helps keep the batch clean |
| Ginger bug liquid | 1 cup (240 mL) | Fermented version only; or about 2 g of dry yeast per 5 gallons |
| Water | to 1 gallon | Filtered: chlorine and chloramine slow a ginger bug |
Use fresh ginger, not ground. Grate it with the skin on, or blitz it in a food processor: more surface gives more heat from the same root. Every recipe below has a card that scales the amounts from 1 to 30 gallons.
Step by step
1. Steep the ginger
Heat the water to about 190°F (88°C) and steep the grated ginger for 20 to 30 minutes. In a kettle, simmer it in part of the water and strain it. In a stainless fermenter with an element, fill it to the full batch volume, heat it in the tank, and hang the ginger in a stainless basket from the top opening, the same way you would steep tea for kombucha. Lift the basket out and squeeze it.
Taste the steep. It should be hotter than you want the finished drink: sugar, acid and cold all tame ginger.
2. Dissolve the sugar
Stir the sugar into the hot ginger water until it is fully dissolved, and take a gravity reading if you plan to ferment.
3. Cool it
Pump it through a counterflow chiller and back into the tank. For the fermented version, stop below 80°F (27°C); for the non-alcoholic version, go all the way to 34–38°F (1–3°C) with glycol through the jacket or in a fridge. Then stir in the lemon or lime juice: heat dulls fresh citrus.
4a. Fermented: add the culture and stop it early
Add 1 cup of active ginger bug liquid per gallon, or about 2 g of dry ale or champagne yeast per 5 gallons (a fifth of a packet). Seal the tank with a spunding valve at 12 psi and hold 72 to 78°F (22 to 26°C). Check the gravity every 12 hours, and crash it to 34°F as soon as it has dropped 3 or 4 points. That keeps it near 0.5% ABV.
4b. Non-alcoholic: go straight to carbonating
Nothing to add. Once it is cold and soured, it is ready for CO₂.
5. Carbonate
Ginger beer is served fizzier than most beer, at about 3.0 volumes of CO₂.
| Where | Temperature | CO₂ for 3.0 volumes |
|---|---|---|
| Unitank (15 psi relief valve) | 34°F (1°C) | about 14 psi |
| Keg in a kegerator | 38°F (3°C) | about 16 psi |
Set the regulator and give it two or three days, or push CO₂ through a carbonation stone to have it ready the same day. Keep the tank cold while it carbonates: warmer ginger beer needs more pressure than the tank’s relief valve allows.
6. Keg or bottle, and keep it cold
Push it into kegs under CO₂ and serve it cold. Bottling from a keg works with a counter-pressure filler. What doesn’t work is the old way of capping sweet, fermenting ginger beer and leaving it warm: that is how bottles explode, and how the alcohol creeps up.
The alcohol math
Every gravity point the yeast removes adds about 0.13% ABV, so 1.026 down to 1.022 is about 0.5%. Natural carbonation is the catch: making 3 volumes of CO₂ in a sealed bottle takes about 9 g of sugar per litre, which adds roughly another 0.5 to 0.6%. That is why a ginger beer carbonated only by its own fermentation is very hard to keep under 0.5%, and why commercial non-alcoholic ginger beer is carbonated with CO₂.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Not hot enough | Too little ginger, or a short steep | Grate finer, steep longer, or add more ginger; taste the steep before the sugar goes in |
| Fermented version won’t start | Tired ginger bug, or too cold | Feed the bug until it fizzes when stirred; hold 75°F |
| Dry, thin and boozy | Fermented too long | Crash it after a 3 to 4 point drop |
| Flat | Carbonated warm, or not long enough | Chill to 34–38°F first and give it two or three days at pressure |
| Keeps getting drier in the keg | Live yeast and warm storage | Crash it and keep it cold |
Recipes
- Classic ginger beer with a ginger bug: the traditional fermented version, stopped near 0.5% ABV.
- Non-alcoholic ginger beer: steeped, soured and carbonated with CO₂.
- Spicy lime ginger beer: twice the ginger, fresh lime, no alcohol.
Frequently asked questions
Is ginger beer alcoholic?
Most ginger beer sold today is a non-alcoholic soft drink. Traditionally fermented ginger beer has some alcohol: around 0.5% if stopped early, and 2% or more if it ferments for a week. If you make it with CO₂ and no culture, it has none.
What is the difference between ginger beer and ginger ale?
Ginger beer is stronger, spicier and often cloudy, and was traditionally fermented. Ginger ale is lighter, sweeter and clear. Halve the ginger in a ginger beer recipe and you are close to a ginger ale.
What is a ginger bug?
A starter of grated ginger, sugar and water that catches the wild yeast and bacteria on the ginger skin. It takes 3 to 7 days to get going. Here is how to make one.
How long does homemade ginger beer last?
Cold, in a keg or sealed bottles, about three weeks. Fermented ginger beer kept warm keeps fermenting: drier, stronger and more pressurized.
Can I make ginger beer in a fermenter?
Yes, and it makes bigger batches much easier: steep, chill, ferment if you want to, carbonate and keg in one stainless tank, with a valve to sample from and a pressure rating for the CO₂.
The setup
The gear that makes kombucha makes ginger beer. Our Kombucha Brewing System is a jacketed stainless Unitank with a heating element to steep, a stainless basket that holds the ginger in the tank, a pump and counterflow chiller to cool the batch in one pass, and a transfer kit to push it to kegs. Add a carbonation stone to carbonate in the tank, and a glycol chiller to hold it cold. Ask us if you are planning to make ginger beer to sell.