Homemade sodas pack a lot more flavor than their mass produced, super sweet counterparts. When I was growing up, we made root beer with Hires extract. You had to drink it fast because the bottles would blow up from the baking yeast and sugar that was used to carbonate it. Being a homebrewer, I now have kegs and CO2 to force carbonate homemade sodas. I still make root beer from time to time, but ginger ale is really popular both in our home and with guests.
I like to have it on hand for parties as a delicious, non-alcoholic option. Ginger ale needs to have some bite to it. Fresh ginger ale is an eye opener.
I found a way to infuse a lot of ginger flavor by steeping it in the sugar syrup, as well as coarsely chopping more fresh ginger and putting it directly in the keg in a muslin bag or tea infuser ball.
If you like it extra spicy, you may add a sliced habanero pepper to the keg, too. Habaneros give a bright tropical flavor.
Few will identify the flavor as a hot pepper because it will integrate so well with the fresh ginger flavor. If you like other flavors, you may add them as well. Lemon, lemon zest, lime, tamarind, cranberries…whatever you like. When you make soda from a purchased concentrate, the directions typically call for five pounds of sugar for five gallons of soda. That is way too sweet for my taste. I use two pounds of cane sugar and one pound of our own honey for five gallons.
