This is based on Jeff Renner's recipe that I found on either rec.crafts.brewing or in the Home Brew Digest. It is fairly dry for a soda, with an obvious ginger flavor that is not as burning hot as some.

Kegged Ginger Ale

• 200g fresh ginger, frozen
• juice of 3 lemons
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1tsp cardomom. Fresh ground is best.
• 3# cane sugar
• 1/4 tsp ascorbic acid
• 5 gallons R.O. or deionized water

 Peel and slice thinly (or julienne) ginger. Puree in food processor with a little water.

Add ginger puree, lemon parts, cardomom to 1 qt water on stove. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a while. Could be as short as 30 min, or as long as hours. I suppose overnight wouldn't even hurt.

Strain through fine mesh colander into 2L glass pitcher. Let stand undisturbed for 30 min or so while heating the rest of the water.

Heat 5 gallons of water to a boil. A brew kettle with a spigot placed a couple of feet off the ground works great for this.

Dissolve 3# sugar with hot water from the kettle in another 2L pitcher. You can also do this step in the bottom of the keg, but make <em>sure</em> that you get all the sugar dissolved. Failure to do so will probably clog your dip tube. Ask me how I know! One the sugar is dissolved, add it to the keg with the ascorbic acid.

Carefully decant the ginger mixture, leaving only a couple of tsp of sludge behind.

Fill keg with boiling water. Cap, purge with CO2. Leave CO2 attached and let sit overnight (fan blowing will help speed the process). Next morning, move to fridge at 40F and 20psi. Ready to drink in 2 weeks, or shake carb for faster results.