Ginger beer is one of the only beers I can drink since I’m allergic to alcohol. And it’s oh so delicious. Spicy and refreshing without the overt sweetness of ginger ale.

The easiest way we’ve found to integrate homemade ginger beer at the bar is with a rich ginger syrup. Thanks to @kyleepuu and @codyonizuka for supplying several pounds of local hawaiian ginger from the farmer’s market. Look at the GARGANTUAN ginger modeling with @kyleepuu!

We’ll start with making the rich ginger syrup with a recipe courtesy of @dr_joey, Hawaii’s legendary mixologist:

For the ginger syrup reduction:

• 1 lb of fresh local hawaiian ginger
• 32 oz sugar
• 64 oz water

Wash the ginger with the skin on, and then pound the ginger with a textured meat mallet to open up the ginger. Place the ginger under a broiler until golden brown and then flip to get both sides the same way. This caramelizes the sugars in the ginger for extraction during the reduction process.

Once the ginger is nicely toasted, bring the 64 oz of water to a boil, and add the sugar and ginger. Keep it boiling until the mixture reduces to 32 oz. Strain out the ginger and let cool, place the cooled ginger syrup into a clean bottle and keep refrigerated.

The added depth of caramelized ginger makes this rich ginger syrup AMAZING!

To make the ginger beer, we add 1 oz of rich ginger syrup to 3 oz of soda water.

And one of the perfect drinks to showcase ginger beer is the Dark ‘N Stormy.

Dark ‘N Stormy

• 2 oz Gosling’s Black Seal Rum
• Top with ginger beer
• Top with a dash of Angostura Bitters
• Served over ice with a lime wedge