You win some; you lose some.  Our ginger beer recipe resulted in vat of very delicious-smelling but decidedly not delicious-looking ginger beer:

Yes, that’s mold.  So this was a good $5 worth of ginger and sugar, down the drain (well, into the compost pile, anyway).  I am not going to give up though; if I can get this recipe right it would provide us with a really yummy beverage that costs considerably less to make than to buy.  The ginger brews we’ve bought at the CO-OP in the past (the long past, before we had kids) were $6-$7 for a 6-pack of bottles.  This would have given us 2 gallons, for around $5 worth of supplies.

Fortunately my friend Tracey is taking a fermented foods class around the end of June where she will be learning more about ginger beer; I’m hoping she gets a better recipe than the one that we used (we used the one featured in Nourishing Traditions).  Tracey, I hope you’ll share that recipe along with any tips and tricks you find out in your class.