Daves Ginger Beer

I got this recipe from a Google search and the author is right - it IS alcoholic and is IS a killer with gin on a hot day.

Ingredients

20 litres of water including as much as will fit in your largest pot
300 -450 grams ginger root, coarsely chopped
17 cups of sugar
4 lemons squeezed, including any pulp
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 packet champagne yeast

Boil as much water as will fit in your largest pot. Add the lemon juice and pulp, ginger root and cream of tartar. Add in as much sugar as you can, stiring gently to dissolve. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Add any remaining sugar to a homebrew chamber and pour over the hot water. Add the remaining cold water and cool until lukewarm.

Taste the liquid and adjust to taste with either whole ginger root, bruiced or powdered ginger.

Disolve yeast in 1 cup of the liquid and return to homebrew chamber. Allow to fermet for 7 days at 20 deg C. Siphon into bottles and age 1 week upright in a warm dark place. Then store in a cool dark place.

Be careful opening bottles as they can explode. Alcoholic content should be 5 - 7%.

Variation.

Try adding whole cinnamon quills or substituting some of the white sugar with dark molasses or muscavado or even ordinary brown sugar for a more caramelly effect. Can also add things like dried chilis, juniper berries, all spice, cardamon and so on.