Ginger Beer Recipe

Here is the recipe I use for ginger beer.
500 ml of water in a wide mouth glass jar.
Add 3 tsp of sugar, 3 tsp of powdered ginger and 2 tsp of yeast.  I have used bread yeast and beer yeast, but find that champagne yeast gives a crisper finish.
Cover with a clean cloth, held tightly with an elastic band, to keep bugs out.
Each day for the next 7 days, add 3 tsp of sugar and powdered ginger.
On the eighth day, strain through cloth into a clean bucket.
Add 7.5 l of warm water.
Add 1.5kg of sugar (or 2 kg of honey) and stir until dissolved.
Add 2 tsp of yeast.
Cover with a cloth and place in a warm place for one or two days.

After a couple of days, pour into a demijohn or small kive, with an airlock, and leave in a warm place for another 7 or 8 days.
Decant into clean PET soft drink bottles.  I prefer these to glass bottles as it is easy to tell if pressure is building too strongly.  A squeeze of the bottle will indicate if the bottles are building pressure.  If the base of the bottles bulges, you need to release some pressure: carefully!  Glass bottles can easily explode under these sorts of pressures, so should be avoided.
The fermentation process can be stopped at any stage after bottling  by simply putting the bottles in the refrigerator.  This is an effective way of controlling the alcohol level.
Open very slowly in order to avoid needing to wash the ceiling.
I usually ease the lid off a half turn but keep my hand on the lid and re-tighten it as the fizz begins to rise.  If a lot of fermentation has gone on, it can take several minutes to open a bottle.

Variations:  Play around with this if you want.  You can add a few dozen sultanas to aid fermentation, but it's not really necessary.  I accidentally added 3 tsp of cinnamon one day when feeding the whort and the result was surprisingly pleasant.
Chilli is a great additive!  Just don't overdo it.  Some dried chilli added to the demijohn stage really gives the brew a kick.
Enjoy!