Ginger Beer Concentrate
Mix this non-alcoholic homemade ginger beer concentrate with club soda for homemade ginger beer. Ginger beer cocktails suggestions included.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
First of all, this ginger beer doesn’t have beer in it. My homemade ginger juice and soda version is non-alcoholic… unless you add liquor, of course.
I’ve been totally obsessed with ginger lately. On its own, ginger is fiercely spicy and fragrant. Used in Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine since forever, it’s a powerful anti-inflammatory that can calm nausea and soothe upset stomachs (source: The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia). There’s not much it can’t do.
Just a hint of fresh ginger lends peppery spice and complexity to savory dishes, and powdered or fresh ginger brightens up baked goods. Ginger has been a predominant flavor in my recipes lately, making its way into ice cream, soup, granola, and pancakes. Ginger beer features the flavor most prominently, which I love. One sip warms me up from the inside.
Ginger beer has traditionally been brewed with a live culture, which creates carbonation as it ferments. These days, most ginger beers available in stores are non-alcoholic. Ginger beer is like ginger ale, but with a lot more kick. It tends to be more cloudy and less sweet than ginger ale, and the ginger flavor is unapologetically in your face. Most recipes for ginger beer and ginger ale have you cook the ginger in sugar water to mellow the flavor, but this recipe uses raw, pungent ginger. Beware: my ginger beer concentrate is for serious ginger lovers only.
To make this ginger beer, you’ll just need a blender or food processor and a good fine mesh strainer. My rusted hand-me-down strainer let too much ginger pulp through, so an upgrade is in order. You’ll also need a big spoon, lots of raw ginger, lime and club soda (because you won’t want to drink the undiluted concentrate).
Ginger beer is delicious on its own, but it also happens to make the best cocktails EVER. Mix ginger beer with a healthy splash of any basic liquor, squeeze in some lime, and you have yourself a simple and refreshing highball. You could buy ginger beer at the store, but most (like Reed’s) are too sweet for my taste.
Here’s a basic list of ginger beer cocktails (let me know if you have any to add):
- Dark ‘n Stormy: ginger beer + Gosling’s spiced rum + lime
- Moscow Mule: ginger beer + vodka + lime
- Gin-Gin Mule: ginger beer + gin + lime
- Pimm’s Cup: ginger beer + Pimm’s No. 1 (add gin for more kick) + lime
- Horsefeather: ginger beer + whiskey/bourbon
Ginger Beer Concentrate
Mix this fiery ginger beer concentrate with club soda to make homemade ginger beer. Adjust the amounts of sweetener, club soda and lime to suit your tastes. Preserve leftover concentrate by freezing it in ice cube trays.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ pounds fresh ginger, roughly peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
- 2 cups filtered water, divided
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from 4 to 5 limes), plus more as garnish
- 1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups of agave nectar, honey or pure cane sugar (to taste, see note)
- club soda
Instructions
- In a blender or food processor, liquefy the ginger and 1 cup of water for 3 minutes. Strain the juice into a large bowl or pitcher. Transfer the ginger pulp back to to the blender or food processor, add another ½ cup of water, and liquefy again. Strain again, adding the liquid to the first batch. Again transfer the pulp along with another ½ cup water, liquefy again, and add to the liquid. Press on the solids with the back of a big spoon to squeeze out as much of the juice as you can.
- Discard the mashed solids and rinse out your blender/food processor. Pour the liquid into the blender/food processor. Pour in the lime juice and 1 ¼ cups sweetener. Blend for 30 seconds. To taste for sweetness, pour about 2 ounces ginger concentrate into a glass along with about 8 ounces of club soda. If it’s not sweet enough, blend in more sweetener until it reaches your preferred sweetness.
- Refrigerate up to 3 weeks. Shake before serving. Add a squeeze of fresh lime to your ginger beer before serving. Fresh mint and/or candied ginger make nice garnishes as well.
Notes
- Adapted from Lottie and Doof, originally from Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It by Karen Solomon.
- Yields about 36 ounces ginger beer concentrate. If you are using 2 ounces ginger beer concentrate per ginger beer, that means you can make 18 ginger beers. Feel free to double the recipe if you’re throwing a party.
- I’ve tried this recipe with agave nectar and honey. I prefer the neutral taste of agave nectar. Pure cane sugar is traditionally used in Jamaican ginger beer recipes and may produce the best flavor of all.
- If you want a ginger ale syrup recipe, check out Joy the Baker’s recipe.
- If you’re not sure what to do with all that ginger beer concentrate, freeze it in ice cube trays! The cubes will last for several months in the freezer (store them in an airtight freezer bag). See photo below.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I need to make this. Ginger tea has been my go-to during these past 6 months. This could be really great, too. Thanks for the recipe! Hope you are doing well, lady!
Ginger beer and spiced rum. Try it, you will love it!
I see that nice spoon technique for peeling ginger. I wonder now if it is the way to peel Jerusalem artichokes/sunchokes, which is quite tedious. Thank you!
Hey Jim, I’m sorry for my delayed response and I’m sorry I don’t know how to peel Jerusalem artichokes! I’ve been too intimidated by the peeling process to attempt cooking those. The spoon trick just might work, though.
I made this today and I LOVE it. I cut the sweetener because I love the zing! I was wondering about how much ginger “juice” you ended up with. Also, I didn’t work ahead so the ginger had to sit while I juiced the limes and a lot of the tiny bits that did get through the strainer ended up settling nicely to the bottom. Maybe that will get rid of some of your extra bits? So glad I found you, keep up the good work!
Thanks, Amy! So glad you love the ginger beer. I ended up with about 4.5 cups of the concentrate.
can you juice the ginger in a juicer?
Yes, I believe so! That would be super easy. Just add water (maybe a little less than instructed here) and sweetener to the ginger juice.
I made this last night, and holy crap! You weren’t kidding- it is INTENSE! I might have over or under done something in the process, or maybe I’m just a ginger wuss. I think I might add another juice to tone it down for my wimpy taste buds. Strawberry? Carrot?
Hey Claire, the concentrate is intensely gingery! You are mixing it with club soda, right? The concentrate is way too strong on its own. I bet a splash of strawberry, carrot or orange juice would be good with it, too.
yup, mixing! I diluted it way beyond the recommendation and that was a little more up my alley. Even still, it’s still a tad too much for me. I blended it with an apple last night, orange juice the day before. I really like it as a quick ice cube added to other juices with bubbly mineral water. (I even used it when making some curry because I didn’t want to run to the store for more ginger) I hope the health benefits of ginger are preserved with the freezing! I’m going to experiment with strawberry pineapple or pears later! Thanks for the recipe!
Everything looks amazing!
Thanks for the really nice recipe! I really love ginger, and ginger beer and ginger mead. I´ve broken three strainers in two years, so I bought my last one and also some kitchen cloths (those thin, usually blue and white which have tiny holes in. Including that the fact is you can´t find those nice strainers at this corner of the world). I´ve mainly used those cloths though they are usually not reusable because they tend to break, so I recommend to use strainer so the pulp doesn´t fall to the juice if the cloth breaks. But using the cloth gives you more of that lovely liquid you are squeesing. And if the cloth doesn´t break, it´s washable, of course.
Stumbled on your recipe via Google…just finished making the concentrate and it is fabulous. Perfect for our Memorial Day BBQ….Pim’s Cups and Dark & Stormy’s, here we come!
Thanks, Jason! Glad you enjoyed the ginger beer!
Wow! I am so glad I decided to google Ginger Beer because I found your wonderful website for super good food!
Thank you for making me a fan!
Tried this recipe after trying a couple different ones that required fermenting to carbonate. I followed the recipe exactly, but it just tastes like slightly flavored spicy water. The ginger flavor isn’t very strong compared to others I’ve tried.
Hey Isaac, sorry for the delayed response. Did you try diluting the concentrate with less club soda? Either you didn’t press out enough of the juice or you diluted it too much.
Perfect taste! I used cheese cloth with the strainer and was able to get every last drop. I cut the agave nectar to 2/3 c. (that’s all I had). I dilute my concentrate with a diet ginger ale using your 2oz:8oz ratio and I see a wonderful summer ahead, sitting on my porch and sipping this ginger delight. Thanks for posting it!
Thanks for commenting, Polly! I’m so glad you are enjoying the ginger beer.
Hi!
I’ve been browsing for different ginger beer recipes, and yours looks very convenient! I’ve been fermenting a few batches for carbonation, but the yeast precipitate is a bit off putting to me. And filtering it just loses the bubbles. :-/
Anyhow; your recipe in totalt equals about 325 grammes of ginger pr liter of finished drink. The one I’ve been fermenting equals about 94 grammes of ginger pr liter of finished drink. I find the one I’ve brewed quite spicy — but yours would be about 3½ times as spicy! Is this for real? The ratio of ginger to lime is also way different than other recipes I’ve seen..
Any input? Thanks. :)
Hey Lasse, I’m not sure how my concentrate would compare to your finished ginger beers. Keep in mind that mine is a concentrate, basically just sweetened ginger juice with lime, that you dilute with club soda. If it’s too spicy for you, you could always just dilute it with more club soda to reach your desired level of spice.
Hello
This looks amazing! Has anyone tried putting the ginger in a juicer and making it that way? Just curious…I’ll give it a try and post results
thanks!
Hey Rachel! I don’t have a juicer, so I haven’t tried, but I believe that other commenters have had good luck with theirs. You might need to adjust the amount of sweetener or club soda to taste.
Hi Kate,
I LOVE ginger, and I really want to try your recipe. Unfortunately I have diabetes. Do you think the recipe would work with an artificial sweetener like Splenda?
Thanks!
I’ve had good luck with adding truvia to each individual drink after the ginger beer is done. I also sweeten mine far less than is called for though.
Hi Kathy, I wish I could say with certainty, but I’ve never used Splenda. I heard from another commenter that she sweetens hers with Truvia. As long as the sweetener dissolves in water, I think it will work.
I just finished my first batch and oh my goodness, it is amazing! My husband and I absolutely adore strong ginger flavors and most ginger beer recipes just don’t have the kick we like and across the board are FAR too sweet. The concentrate let me play with both elements and it turned out fantastic! Lowered the amount of sweetener (about a 1/2 cup), had to lower the lime (4 limes only yielded about a 1/2 cup but I’ll add more next time) and significantly lowered the concentrate to club soda ratio. More about 2 ounces concentrate to 4 ounces club soda…fantastic! Add to all that, I’m a wine drinker and have been looking for something for an after dinner drink for when I can’t have alcohol. This absolutely fits the bill.
Thanks, Shawna! So glad you appreciate the strong ginger flavor and made the recipe work for you. Enjoy!
I made this today and am delighted with it. I enjoy Old Jamaica ginger beer, but the price has recently gone up a lot and I needed to find a substitute. This is IT! It has real punch and flavour (I needed to increase the sugar content a little) and is a whole lot cheaper and healthier than a canned drink. Thanks so very much for the recipe.
Thanks, Elisabeth! I’m so glad you are enjoying the ginger beer. Thank you for commenting to let me know.
Loved your blog, and I can’t wait to try this recipe!.. But, one question, (sorry if I’m being really stupid) am I supposed wait three weeks before I can serve it or can it just be stored for three weeks?
Thanks! X
Hey Thahera, you can drink it right away. It will keep in the fridge for a few weeks, or you can freeze it in an ice cube tray to preserve it longer.
I am beyond thrilled having found this recipe! I’m currently living in Chile and they do not have ginger beer here. It’s summer and that means I’ve been craving my fave Dark n’ Stormy. You are a lifesaver!
Marissa, I hope you loved the ginger beer!
We have a Sodastream that carbonates water for us and we love ginger beer so I’m excited to try out this recipe. Our favorite cocktail is the Montana Mule, whiskey and ginger beer + lime, but we’re going to infuse some moonshine with ginger for an extra zing!
Hope you love the ginger beer! Sodastreams are so cool. We call our Montana Mules “Horse Feathers” in Kansas City. I bet ginger moonshine is awesome.
Great recipe! Definitely recalls the flavor of Caribbean and Australian ginger beers. I added 1/2 tsp. of vanilla and about 1 tsp. of turmeric powder (another rhizome!) I also left out the sweetener so that folks could add however much or little they prefer. I used agave syrup because it dissolves in cold water.
Thanks for commenting, Cerrucho! I’m glad you enjoyed the ginger beer. Your version sounds excellent!
Love this recipe! I add a glug or two to boiling water (my 1.2 litre bottle that I take to work) and have something delicious to drink all day.
Oh, that sounds delicious! Thanks, Mary!
I tried this and it tastes great but my concentrate turns pink when I add the lime juice (also tried lemon juice with same result). Any idea what’s going on?
Hmm! That’s strange! I googled the matter out of curiosity. Apparently young ginger turns pink when pickled. Sounds like you used some super fresh ginger!
This will be the third time I’ve made this concentrate. It’s just my husband and I but this never lasts long in our house. We are ginger beer addicts and this is perfect for our taste, as we love ginger beer, but not the sweet that comes with the commercial versions. And once we get through “sober October” (our yearly no-cocktails cleansing month) we’ll get to enjoy it again in our favorite drinks! Cheers!
Thanks, Anita! I’m so glad you both enjoy it. Sober October sounds like a good detox method! Cheers to ginger beer.
Hi Kate,
Quick question – I plan on making this tonight (as I am obsessed with Moscow Mules but generally find the canned stuff too sweet), and want to know if I can refrigerate the syrup/soda combination for up to three weeks? Or should the syrup be stored separately and just mixed with the soda on an as needed basis? Thanks again!
Hey Jenny! You’ll definitely want to store them separately because the soda water loses carbonation over time.
I recently made this wonderful concentrate and have absolutely enjoyed it. I don’t know if anyone else commented on this, but I found another great concoction to make with the frozen cubes. Hot tea!
Boil enough water for a small pot of tea and then pour it over the concentrated cube. It makes for a delicious spicy ginger tea that is just slightly sweet enough. Give it a shot!!
Thanks, Colin! Your ginger tea sounds awesome!
I discovered a few things when making this recipe:
* Pineapple juice is a nice addition.
* You don’t need much, if any sugar. Stevia works well for sweetening this if you’d like a sweeter flavor.
* I didn’t bother peeling the ginger and it came out just fine. I just washed it carefully.
* I have a high-quality blender but was unable to get 1 cup of liquid to blend even half a pound of ginger. Perhaps easier with a food processor but I don’t have one. Regardless, I just added more water, resulting in more concentrate. Maybe it’s more diluted but it works just fine for my needs.
* Blending in a stalk of lemongrass was an interesting touch.
Thank you for sharing your recipe notes, Chris!
Your recipe for ginger-beer looks great!!! However I would not discard the ginger solids after straining, you can freeze them in ice cube trays and then use them later in a stir fry, or soup, they work wonderfully! The less waste the better.
That is a great idea! Thanks, Amber!
Love it! Did not realize how sickly sweet the canned ginger beer was until we tried them side by side. Yours is so much better. I did squeeze the ginger residue through cheesecloth before I thfew it out and I ended up with a couple more ounces of product. Thanks for posting, I appreciate it!
Thank you, Greta! Glad you’re enjoying it!
Dude, ginger beer with any kind of coconut liquor is the bomb’s knees! Try it!
Yum!
Made this morning as I’ve just not been myself – it’s got a lovely burn but still not as fiery as I like it Does anyone have an idea for what Blenheim puts into their #3 Hot Ginger Beer? It will clear the sinus but makes the best cocktails on earth and to be honest is the holy grail of diy for me.
Hey Sara! Hope you are feeling better. Have you tried just diluting the concentrate less? I don’t think you can get much hotter than pure ginger concentrate. I looked up Blenheim’s #3. Here are the ingredients: Carbonated Water, Sucrose, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Natural Flavoring & Caramel Color.
I’ve tried a lot of different variations of ginger beer recipes, from the fermentation methods with no addins to those that require full boils and cream of tartar!
In short, this is by far the best recipe I’ve followed – it has now become the staple recipe and the only one I’ve used.
As anyone tried making fruit blends?
Woohoo! Glad to hear that, Mike! I haven’t tried fruit blends, but please let me know if you do!
Hi Kate.I made this and ended up with a lot of white “slurry” at the bottom of the jar. Is this normal? Can I just drink it or should I strain the mixture a little more?
Thank you!
Hi Mike! I’m guessing that slurry is just some larger particles of ginger. I think mine settled a bit with time, too. As long as it doesn’t smell funky, I think it will be fine to drink that way.
I have been making this recipe at least every other week for over a year. My husband and I have it in iced tea and juice or just plain water – daily. I use my blender to shred it.
I found several things:
*I buy organic ginger and don’t peel it, just cut off any bad spots and check for growing medium in between roots.Rinse well.
*I could put the lime juice in the first blending along with the water.
*My blender struggled with the amount of water so I practically doubled it. Just makes a weaker concentrate but I use more accordingly.
*I sometimes do a 4th blending if the ginger seems stronger.
*I put the last blending in a clean terry cloth and squeeze as much liquid out as possible by hand.
*At first I used less sweetener, but now I use none. You can always add juice to sweeten, if desired. I now like it in just water and nothing else. Tart and strong, the way I like it.
*The cornstarch-like sediment that settles out can be used as a tasty thickener in soups, stew, chili, fruit pie filling, cranberry relish, etc.
*The mash leftover can be used in banana bread, pancakes or other recipes like you would use fiber from a juicer. It is strong and not for everyone’s taste.
This is great! Thank you for sharing, Cam.
I like your suggestions. Thanks.
Forgot to rate this recipe.
This is the third time I have made your Ginger Beer. Love it and can drink it with water only. Made a ginger bug and mixed up a 1/2 gal., of your ginger beer in a container and put 1/2 of a cup of the ginger bug and let it sit on the counter for 2 to 3 days. Then put the beer in bottles with caps and let them sit for another 12 -24 hours (not sure about the hours).
Put the bottles into the fridge and forgot about them. A month later tried one bottle, and it was great. Just as good as any you could buy!
Where to get the ginger bug.
Hi! Im from Bermuda and I’m enthused to find our “”dark n stormy” made ur list! I share your love of ginger as well. I’ve been in Florida for 20 or so years and ginger beer brings back all those lovely childhood memories being raised on the island! Thank you so much for your recipes. I’m 7 weeks pregnant with my first child and have been craving all things Bermudian lol. I plan on making traditional Bermuda glass candy with one of your ginger extract recipes! You have made my day! Thank you!
Love this recipe, making it sugar free with NuStevia syrup. I squeeze the ginger down to a solid (mostly dry) pulp using a nut milk bag, have not reblended since first batch because it would not blend without adding a lot more water. Just made batch 3, thank you very much!! =)
While on the Candida diet, I am not allowed to have alcohol or sugar or sugar substitute, except for stevia (nasty) or xylitol (natural and yummm), but if I decide I am going to cheat with some alcohol, I have read that vodka is the best choice. With that being said, I absolutely love moscow mules. So I made a superquick and slightly different version of your recipe by grating fresh ginger directly into a mug filled with club soda. I then added lots of lime juice and some sugar syrup made with a tiny bit of hot water (to help dissolve) and xylitol . Then I added an ounce of vodka and lots of ice. Yum!
Thanks, Jennifer! Smart thinking!
Finally, I can quench my thirst for ginger beer with no calories! I’ve tried every US brand available, including diet brands, but there’s always a problem (too sweet, too spicy, not spicy enough, etc). I made your recipe with 3/4 cup baking type Splenda and it’s perfect. I prefer to leave the lime out of the mix and use a fresh squeeze when I add the soda water. PS, have you tried using the remaining ginger sludge in cooking recipes calling for ginger?
Hi Kate! I love all of your recipes and am so excited to make this ginger beer! What is the benefit of blending the ginger and water multiple times? Would you be able to reach the same level of flavor and spice by blending the ginger and all of the water at once and then straining?
Hey Paige! The idea behind that is to extract as much ginger flavor as possible. I really think it helps, but you can try it your way if you’d like!
I have been making this a couple times a month for over a year now. I have found I had to add more water so my blender could handle the first blend. So my concentrate is still plenty strong but not as strong as the exact recipe. I also stopped adding sweetener all together. Some 100% juices make a good sweetener if you need one later but I put a TBS or so in 2 cups of water and nothing else and it makes for a great electrolyte hydrating refreshing drink. I crave it daily now!
Thanks, Cam! I’m so glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the ginger concentrate.
Since eliminating alcohol at the beginning of the year, Ginger Beer has come into my life (along with a lot of coffee) to fill the void. But it’s pricey, and I can easily go through a lot of it.
We’ve been toying with getting a Sodastream and finding a good recipe for Ginger Beer for a go at making out own. Any experience with using this recipe with that product, and how much concentrate you’d use for a typical batch?
Personally, I DO like the sweetness of some of the storeboughts (like Fever Tree and Reeds) so if I wanted to tweak this to add more sweetness than it sound like you might have, would it just be a simple case of adding more sugar?
Just made a batch this afternoon. It had a bitter taste and I wonder whether my use of a lime juicer (squeeze type) might have brought out more of the peel and hence the bitterness. Thoughts?
Does ginger contain starch? I noticed a pasty residue that settled to the bottom of my stainless steel mixing bowl. It looks exactly like the non-newtonian putty we made in grade school science class. Maybe the metal has a reaction with the ginger juice?
Thanks for the syrup recipe! The rinsing technique is great for getting the most essence out of my ginger. I’m using this technique for my 4th batch of ginger beer; will be carbonating with champagne yeast and adding turmeric as my prior batches have been.
Cheers!
Hmmm, it’s either starch or fiber! I’m not sure. Your ginger beer sounds awesome!
I got that, too! Stainless should be non-reactive, but I was making a large batch, so maybe it was just the extra time the ginger extract was sitting there that allowed it to settle out? It was much closer to white than the yellowish extract. Didn’t taste bad; didn’t taste like much.
Hello Kate,
So glad to have found your recipe. I live in small island and we cannot always find everything especially Ginger beer cordial so your recipe is a blessing. And it is delicious. It has a real zing to it. I managed to get so much juice I was amazed. I might halve proportions next time and make it more often.
Anyway thanks again
HELP! I love your ginger concentrate recipe. I’ve made it many times in a food processor but I just got a vitamix! How would you adjust the times to liquify the chopped ginger and water? 3 mins, repeated 3 times, works for food processor but I assume the time would be shorter for high performance blender. Thanks in advance for advising!
Don’t forget the Kentucky Mule! Ginger Beer, bourbon and lime!
How could I forget the Moscow Mule’s Southern cousin?! Thanks, Amy!
I came upon this recipe as I love Cock N Bull Ginger Beer and Fever Tree Ginger Beer (I also like Bundaberg, but it is a bit sweet for my taste unless it’s in a mixed drink, not straight from the bottle). I was hoping that it would be the more natural, homemade tasting ginger beer that was similar to Cock N Bull or Fever Tree, but with my batch (made 100% to the recipe posted here) while making a tasty gingery drink, it is not he substitute I was looking for. I tried mixing it with club soda, ginger ale, etc… and none of those ways turned out to taste anything close to what I was looking for, but that said, is it a gingery drink, and I think I would try to mix it with other things instead, so we will see, but it is a tasty gingery recipe! I’ll keep experimenting a bit more with mixes/additions, but if you are looking for a Cock N Bull or Fever Tree similar drink this may not be the recipe you are looking for. Thank you for posting it, it gives me many ideas of things I can try in my quest to create a cheaper, homemade alternative, that is less expensive to my favorite ginger beer brands.
Thanks, Patti. I’m sorry this wasn’t exactly what you were looking for, but I’m glad it was inspirational!
I used prepared organic ginger juice since I had it on hand, and sweetened with stevia extract. I love the spicy, fresh ginger taste. Great recipe!
Yum! Sounds so good, Julie.