This drink has a spicy little pop

I love making my own stuff from scratch...anything from bread to salsas, but I hadn't tried soda before.
"Oy," Steve said when I announced I was going to make Ginger Ale. "We don't even own one of those water carbonators." (Of course not...the low price machine is about $80 and I'm trying to get rid of gadgets, not get more of them!)
"Besides, there's a factory that specializes in making that," he argued - as always when I take on a new from-scratch project.
Undeterred, I set off to make my own Ginger Ale. I'll work on some other sodas later, though I think I'll leave the cola flavors to the pros for now. When we're out at sea one day, he'll be pleased with my soda making prowess, I promise.
This was a science experiment with a tasty result (you wouldn't taste something you put together in the chem lab, but this would make a good lesson in chemistry for a homeschooler with a result with which you could celebrate at the end).
Our little ginger ale just takes a few minutes to put together, but you'll have to wait a few days to taste the results. Check on it as often as you like, but even with it sitting outside in the Florida summer, it took two and a half days to be ready to open.
Ginger Ale
1 good sized piece of ginger, peeled
1 cup, plus a little more of sugar
Water
1/2 teaspoon of yeast
  • Cut the ginger up and put it in the blender. Grind it up as small as possible.
  • Mix the ginger pulp with an equal amount of sugar and put aside. It will keep indefinitely in the fridge.
  • For each 2-liter bottle of ginger ale, mix two tablespoons of the sugared ginger pulp with a cup of water in a pan.
  • Bring to a boil and then shut it off and cool.
  • Press as much as you can out of the pulp and pour the juice into a clean 2-liter bottle.
  • Add a scant cup of sugar to the bottle.
  • Fill the bottle most of the way full with warm water and put in the yeast.
  • Top the bottle off to about an inch of the top.
  • Leave the bottle in a warm place for about three days...the bottle will become hard.
  • Chill it for a few hours before opening...and open it carefully because it could be really carbonated.
  • For a little different flavor, add a couple of tablespoons of lemon or lime juice to the mix.

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