Homemade Ginger Ale
Mix up some spicy homemade ginger ale to add to cocktails or sip on its own!
Servings 8 servings
Calories 69kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup diced ginger root
- 4 cups water
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract optional
- ½ cup simple syrup or honey, to taste
- club soda or seltzer
Instructions
- Add ginger and water to a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer until the water reduces by half, about 30 minutes. This creates a concentrate, where the liquid has a strong ginger flavor.
- You can add the sweetener at this point or you can add a little bit to each glass, to taste. (If sweetening with regular sugar or honey, you’ll want to stir it in while the mixture is hot.)
- Let cool to continue infusing ginger flavor, then strain out the ginger root with a fine-mesh strainer. Stir in the extracts.
- Once completely cooled, store the concentrate in the fridge in an airtight, food-safe container like a bottle or mason jar.
- To make a glass of ginger ale: Fill the glass with ice then pour in the ginger concentrate about ¼ full. Add simple syrup, if desired. Top with club soda or flavored seltzer. The ideal ratio is 1 part ginger ale concentrate to 3 parts bubbles, but play around to find your perfect ratio. Stir gently and enjoy!
Notes
Feel free to double or triple this recipe to make even more ginger concentrate.
For extra flavor, you can use more ginger with the same amount of water. You could also add in other whole spices like a cinnamon stick or a piece of star anise to spice things up more.
If carbonation bothers you, you can use distilled water to make a ginger water that still tastes super fresh.
My favorite sweetener for this ginger ale is honey syrup, which is just a runny honey made by warming honey and water together. Honey can seize when it meets something cold, so the process of making honey syrup helps it mix in a little easier.
For sugar-free ginger ale, use sugar-free syrup. Or you can skip the sweetener completely if you prefer.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.5cup | Calories: 69kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 0.2g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.02g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Sodium: 20mg | Potassium: 65mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg
