Real Ginger Beer Plant

[Shirley]

I never did get around to doing this - shame because I LOVE ginger beer (I bought Rocks ginger cordial instead and added fizzy water - cheat's version I guess)

Would love to see the winter chutney recipe :-)

[tonysuffolk]

Hello All Ginger Beer Fans.
I am just posting this for anyone wanting a real ginger beer plant. I have tried making cultures from various types of yeast and now think I have the perfect strain. Some yeasts seem to produce a slightly sulphurous smell so I abandoned using any commercial yeasts and instead tried making a culture from the root of fresh ginger. It worked a treat and I am sure that the active biological ingredient is a yeast/bacterial symbiotic pair. The texture of the "plant" is more granular and certainly the flavour of the finished product is just what I remember from childhood. I could send anyone a culture but it is easier and cheaper to make your own.
Here's how to do it.
Sterilise a glass jar. You need one with a lid. Wash a piece of root ginger about the size of your thumb. Do not peel off the outer skin. Chop it into tiny pieces and put it in the jar. Add cool boiled water and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. Leave in a warm place and after about a week you will see bubbles as the natural yeasts in the ginger root start to ferment the sugar. The mix should have a nice ginger smell. If it smells unpleasant, you have cultured unwanted bugs and you will need to start again. Add a little sugar every day for the next week and when the mix is fermenting vigorously, strain to remove the pieces of ginger. The liquid is now your starter for making the first batch of ginger beer. I did not divide the plant the first time but for each subsequent batch I divided the plant as described in previous recipes.
The above worked for me first try. I think it is important to give the natural yeasts a good head start by trying not to culture unwanted bugs. That is why you need fairly clean conditions at the start.
I have made several batches with my culture and each week the plant seems to improve.
Have fun!
Tony

[Twinsane]

Is anyone still supplying cultures of GBP? I'd love to make some for the kids and hopefully just in time for the festive season.
If not, does anyone know of a supplier? I can find plenty of suppliers of "ginger beer kits" which contain the instructions and ingredients for the yeast based plant but not a culture.

[prawncracker]

you can buy from fermented treasures - or ask the folks at the yahoo group - link on previous page - or you can wait till mine is finished and have half of that

[iyadon]

Just joined self sufficientish. I've been brewing beer, cider and wine for a few years and experimenting with different yeasts. Always wanted to try using ginger beer plant. Mark B do you still have some to give away? How can I contact you?

[Phil F]

These postings are fascinating. I live in the USA (New York). Do you think I might beable to get some of Mark B's extra Ginger Beer Plant?

[Tom Thumb]

I've been after some of this, Does anyone have any of the plant to spare at the moment?

[carolinew]

Y

I've made Elderflower Champagne, Lemonade and Limeade, of course Ginger Beer and Soda water, now considering going out at the weekend to see if the nettle tops have started growing yet Nettle Champagne sounds tasty.

Does anyone have a recipe for any of these (other than the ginger beer, which I make). I'd love to branch out. Or an other GBP recipes, of course

Thanks once again to Prawncracker, who set me off on this route with the gift of a GBP.

thanks!

[Dominic]

Mark, I'd be realy interested in a Ginger Beer Plant but I'm new to the site and I can't find your email. Could you help me out?
Thanks

[tim_n]

I've just ordered a ginger beer plant (GBP) so I can try making real ginger beer.

I've been doing a bit of research on GBP and am fascinated by the different stoneware used to sell and distribute it but surprised by the lack of history on ginger beer on the internet. I did a post on www.waark.com (http://www.waark.com/2009/04/19/ginger-beer-plant-gbp/) on the subject.

Looking forward to making my own brew!

[tim_n]

It arrived today - unfortunately got held up in the post so fingers crossed it's not staved to death. I've popped it straight in the fridge and I'll be making my first batch in a few days when I'm back from hols!

[tim_n]

Wotcha, further updates on http://www.instructables.co.uk/id/The-R ... er-recipe/ - shows my current experiment and I'll also update it with my results.

[Claripup]

Is there really no way to make a ginger beer plant? I would love to make ginger beer but they seem to sell for silly money and I have no idea what I should be looking for to buy...

[tim_n]

As I have been lead to believe no you can't, however I've been told that if you chop ginger root into a bowl of water and leave to ferment with yeast nutrient it can make ginger beer plant, but I've not seen it proven yet. I may have a go myself though.

[Edit] I've just bottled up my first bottle and it's so much more complex than store bought ginger beer or even the stuff I made last year with normal yeast.

I've got some real GBP just off the filter - I've put it in a yeast nutrient bath so I can make more of it and see if I can ship it out!

[tim_n]

Right, finally finished my batch!

The batch started at 1.062 gravity
The first 2ltr bottle was at 1.050 (1.5% alcohol)
The 2nd 2ltr bottle was at 1.034 (4.2% alcohol)

Both had their merits, the first 2ltr bottle was very sweet, not carbinated really at all, a bit like a homemade lemonade.
The 2nd is much drier - I've added some sugar to the mix to get it to carbinate. Hopefully it won't have exploded by the time I get home.

I have been studying the ginger beer plant and have run a quick experiment to see whether I can make more with just the sugar, GBP, water and yeast nutrients. The answer really is no, you can't. There is something in the ginger root which seems to provide nutrients in the bacteria that helps make the ginger beer plant.

Tomorrow I hope to make a really big batch of ginger beer for next weekends plant sale (along with the beer I've made) at my allotments. I've worked out that it needs about two-three days fermentation to make a nice sweet ginger drink, then about three days to build up a bit of fizz.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes down on Saturday next!