Drink This Weekend Edition: A house-made ginger ale that serves designated drivers and dedicated imbibers

Designated drivers always get the short stick. While their friends are busing quaffing cocktails or pints of beer, the DDs settle for a boring glass of tonic water, a Coke or whatever else can be shot from a soda gun. Not so at Tavern of Fine Arts in DeBaliviere Place, where co-owner Mathew Daniels can quench an abstainer’s thirst with a glass of house-made ginger ale. To make the zingy drink, Daniels starts by grating two ounces of fresh ginger for a ginger simple syrup. Once the syrup comes to room temperature, he adds champagne yeast, lemon juice and water, pours the contents into a 2-liter plastic bottle and lets it sit for a few days to carbonate. Finally, he garnishes the drink with lemon and fresh mint, evening slapping the leaves to release the oils and aroma. The fizzy result is “very different from commercial brands that probably don’t have any ginger in them,” said Daniels. “It’s good and it’s not just Schweppes or Vess.” When Daniels decided to try his hand at making ginger ale, he was also of a mind to use the mixer to please the boozer crowd, whether with a simple highball of mouth-tingling ginger ale and a splash of gin, or a variation on a Moscow Mule (the latter is traditionally made with vodka, lime juice and ginger beer). In the coming months, look for Daniels to experiment with other flavors of house-made soda (a new DIY trend gaining momentum around town), including strawberry, lemongrass and pomegranate.