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This homemade ginger ale is easy to make at home with natural ingredients, and no artificial flavors or excess sugar. A simple recipe that can be made in under 30 minutes with only 5 ingredients.
A Quick Look: Homemade Ginger Ale
- Cooking time: 20 minutes to fully infuse the ginger and 5 minutes to mix everything together.
- Servings – This makes about 4 drinks or one full tray of ice.
- Main ingredients: Fresh ginger, honey, cardamom, and sparkling water.
- When to serve: As a mixer or fresh drink that’s lower in sugar. Leave this ginger ale base on hand for high nausea days or migraine attacks.
- Dietary information: This recipe fits a Heal Your Headache diet and Mediterranean diet, as well as gluten free and dairy free.
- Why you’ll love it: This easy homemade ginger ale recipe has an extra strong ginger flavor and is lightly sweetened with honey. It’s also amazing as ice cubes so you can make it ahead and freeze. Use it as a mixer for this ginger drink or pomegranate mocktails.
Enjoy this as a standalone drink, a mixer for an adrenal cocktail recipe, or a great sip for when you don’t feel well. If you love this recipe, you can’t miss this homemade electrolyte drink!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Here are a few details about why these ingredients are used. For full amounts, see the recipe card below.
- Fresh ginger – This recipe will only work with fresh ginger and not ginger powder. The most accurate way to know how much to use is to weigh it with a food scale, however more is not always a bad thing! The more ginger you have the stronger the flavor.
- Honey – Used for sweetness, I find you need to add this when the mixture is warm. Maple syrup and agave tend to mix better, but I prefer the flavor of honey.
- Water – Still tap water or filtered water will work for this recipe, but you also need sparkling water or unsweetened soda water as well. I love to use Topo Chico because it is the most carbonated and holds up well in mocktails without being watered down.
- Cardamom – Just a touch of this spice gives more depth to the homemade ginger ale. Many higher end non alcoholic ginger beers use this in their recipes.
- Lime – This is optional, and not recommended for those doing the HYH diet. But I find that added lime not only helps with nausea but also makes this taste more like the original ginger ale.
Substitutions
Changing any ingredient in this recipe will lead it farther away from the classic ginger ale flavor, but it can still be a delicious ginger drink.
- Ginger juice – You can use this homemade ginger juice as a base and just add the honey and cardamom to it. The ginger flavor will be very strong!
- Honey – Can be subbed with maple syrup or agave syrup.
- Cardamom – Omit if you don’t have on hand, but this will decrease the depth of flavor making it more ginger focused.
- Lime – Simply leave out or this can also be substituted with lemon. Again, this will change the flavor, but lemon, honey and ginger are still a great combo.
How to Make Ginger Ale
- Step 1: Grate the ginger on a cheese grater – it can be larger slices and doesn’t have to be minced. This helps to release the juices more than chopping. Ginger does not have to be peeled.
- Step 2: Place the ginger into a small pot with still water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and then reduce the heat to low, to where there are small bubbles around the edge of the pot.
- Step 3: Simmer for 20 minutes, checking the water to make sure it does not reduce too much. If it looks low, add more water. This can happen if the heat is too high. Take the reduced ginger water off the heat and allow it to cool. Then strain out the ginger pieces with a fine mesh strainer.
- Step 4: While the mixture is still a little warm, whisk in the honey and cardamom till well combined. Taste and adjust the sweetness here – it will be a very strong ginger flavor.
- Step 5: To a glass, add the ginger base, lime (if using), and top with sparkling water. Stir with a spoon. Add more lime if needed.
Do You Need To Peel Fresh Ginger?
You do not need to peel the ginger for this recipe as it will be strained out. Just make sure to wash the ginger knob really well before grating, using a scrub brush.
If you’d like to limit waste, I recommend peeling the ginger with a peeler or the back of a knife before grating. You can save the strained, grated ginger for other recipes like soy free stir fry or an anti-inflammatory smoothie.
Pairing Suggestions
This homemade ginger ale works great as a mixer for many different types of drinks. Here are a few mocktails that it would be great in.
Make Ahead Ginger Ale Ice Cubes
The ginger ale base will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week. It can also be frozen into cubes for up to 4 months.
Defrost and use as needed, or use as ginger ice cubes with the sparkling water poured over it. I used this ice cube tray to make these little ginger ale ice balls. Then just add to sparkling water.
Ginger Ale vs. Ginger Beer
In the past I’ve ranked the best ginger beers for nausea, but there is a difference between these and ginger ale.
Ginger ale is a non-alcoholic beverage which is carbonated without fermentation. It’s got a more mild flavor with a touch of ginger and is much less spicy. It’s most often used for an upset stomach because of it’s mild flavor.
Ginger beer was traditionally fermented and had alcohol in it, but many versions now are non-alcoholic. It generally has a stronger, more spicy flavor that’s intended as a drink mixer.
More Recipes with Fresh Ginger
Smoothies
Ginger Smoothie
Juices
Ginger Turmeric Shots with a Blender
Drinks
Homemade Electrolyte Drink with Coconut Water
Easy Homemade Ginger Ale
Ingredients
Ginger ale base (makes 4 drinks)
- 3 ounces fresh ginger, peeled (about 83 grams or 6 inch pieces)
- 2 1/2 cups filtered water
- 1/8 teaspoon cardamom
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon honey
For one drink
- 1/2 cup sparkling water or club soda
- 1/2 lime (optional)
Instructions
- Use a cheese grater to grate the ginger into small pieces. You should have about 2/3 cup at the end of this. Add it to a small pot with the filtered water. Bring to a low simmer and cook for about 20 minutes. Let the mixture cool on the stove.
- Strain out the ginger pieces through a fine mesh strainer – you should have about 1 to 1 1/4 cups of ginger juice after simmering. Whisk in honey or maple syrup and cardamom. If you want to use this base for ice cubes, freeze it in an ice mold here.
- Fill a glass with ice. Combine about 1/4-1/3 cup of the ginger ale base with about 1/2 cup of sparkling water or club soda. Squeeze 1/2 lime into it, if using, and stir together.
Notes
- If you end up with less than 1 cup of concentrated ginger juice after simmering, you either need to turn down the heat (too high/boiling) or it has simmered too long. You can add a little more water if you need to!
- Extra strong ginger ale – use this homemade ginger juice as a base instead of boiling.
- Maple syrup can be substituted for honey.
- Leftover ginger can be frozen into small cubes and used for cooking/ice cubes.
- Lime is not an allowed food on a migraine elimination diet, so omit if you are in the elimination phase or sensitive to citrus.
- Ginger ale ice cubes – Make the ginger ale base through step 2 and freeze in an ice cube mold for 6-12 hours (or overnight). Then add to sparkling water or your favorite sparkling beverage.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I have severe GERD and fizzy anything causes me a lot of issues. Can plain water be substituted, or is that too flat?
Oh, hmmm, yeah you could. What I might do is add coconut water for a little more flavor.
Can you mix the soda water and lime with the ginger juice and keep in the refrigerator or does it need to be separate until ready to drink?
Hey CC, you can but the soda water will lose it’s fizz after a bit so I’d wait till you want to drink it for that unless you just don’t care.
I make this, but I don’t greet my ginger. I slice it up and smaller pieces, and then proceed with the recipe, it saves a lot of time
Alicia,
thanks so much for all the great recipes! The ones I have tried have been great, and the others still give me encouragement, some how. Thanks for not charging for your recipes or your advice. You have taught me so much.
Anne
I appreciate you! Thank you!
Made this on a sick day and it hit the spot. It’s got a stronger ginger flavor and less sweet overall which I prefer. Thank you!