Real Ginger Beer Plant

[Jobi1canobi]

Received my GBP over the weekend - very efficient - thanks!

Will have a crack at some brewing as soon as I can get to it.

Will also report back on progress.

Regards,

[Jared]

First attempts have been moderately unsuccessful but I'm going to take the blame for that, left it fermenting too long and it ended up rather tart, have bottled up another batch this morning and will try another as soon as I get some more ginger. I was just wondering how the unused GBP should be stored? Does it need to be kept moist?

[Mark B]

I found when I left the brew for too long I needed to add more sugar to sweeten it up again making it palatable, this was needed to get the secondary ferment going which develops the fizz.

I prefer the brews that are strictly completed over one and a half weeks.

Storage is not a problem, use a sieve to clean the plant under cold running water, drain off excess water and keep either in a jar or a plastic bottle, it will keep like this for six months or more.

Good luck, practice makes perfect

[noahshouse]

Hi Mark

Looks like i may have missed the boat but if you have any gdp left I would really love some, ive been looking for some authenic gdp for a while - my email address is rlloyd@heathfarm.org

many thanks

[Mark B]

At present I don't have any surplus because of my big giveaway and because I've not brewed for a while.

I will readvertise on the forum if and when I get some more.

Unfortunately our local post office has closed down meaning its out of the way to post the plant now as well.

Sorry about that Mark

[Les P]

I'm trying to source a ginger beer plant. Can anyone help?

[Jared]

I am brewing as fast as I can, hopefully going to have some surplus in a few weeks, I will let you all know when I have enough to start sharing.

[ickleg22]

Can anyone tell me when you have made your plant and you have seperated it, how do you get it back into action again? Do i need to add more yeast and water?
And what is the best yeast to use?
thanks
genene

[tonysuffolk]

Hello everyone. I'm new to all this so don't really know if I'm doing this right or if this message will be seen by all you ginger beer brewers.
I used to brew gallons of the stuff years ago until a disaster with exploding bottles. My wife made it clear it was either give up home brewing or she would take the kids and leave me. I still get the occasional Christmas card.
Anyway, I have been trying to track down a culture of Lactobacillus hilgardii and Saccharomyces florentinus which I belive is the symbiotic pair that form the basis of a real GBP. Can anyone help me please? I live in Somerset and my email address is af.suffolk@btinternet.com
I have been making ginger beer again with the brewers yeast recipe and I don't think it tastes as good as that which I made from my original "real" ginger beer plant.
I will of course pay for postage etc.

[planterman]

Hi all, I am a newbie and am looking for a ginger beer plant and or a Bees Wine culture. Can anyone help? I live in Chester and could travel a reasonable distance or pay postage etc. Thanks Paul.

[Green Aura]

Hi planterman and welcome.

No need to travel anywhere. Start your own! I'm sure there are other recipes on this thread, but here's mine. I got it on Google and have used it for several months. It's lovely.

Old-fashioned Ginger Beer

Ingredients:

-----For The Starter-----
1/2 Ounce Yeast
2 Teaspoons Sugar

-----To Feed The "Plant"-----
7 Teaspoons Ground Ginger
7 Teaspoons Sugar

-----To Flavour-----
1 1/2 Pounds Sugar
Juice Of 2 Lemons


Directions:
Mix starter ingredients with 3/4 pint of warm water in a glass jar. Stir, cover and leave in a warm place for 24 hours.
This is your starter "plant".

Feed the "plant" with 1 teaspoon each of ground ginger and sugar each day.

After 7 days strain through a fine sieve. Dissolve the sugar in 2 pints of water. Add the lemon juice and the liquid from the "plant". Dilute with 5 pints of water, mix well and store in corked bottles for at least 7 days.

Use strong bottles as pressure may build up which will cause thin bottles to explode. For the same reason use corked bottles rather than those with a more secure closure that will not 'give' under pressure.

This is a recipe that I have often used and it produces a really old-fashioned drink. It is quite a long process but well worth the effort. The amount of sugar in the final stage can be varied according to taste.

[planterman]

Thank you Green Aura, my only question is What type of yeast do you use? I have natural fresh bread making yeast and various dried wine yeasts, what do you recomend?

[Green Aura]

We just used bread yeast. It only needs to produce 1-2% alcohol so there's no need for wine yeast.

[Nick P]

I wonder if Mark B has any Ginger Beer Plants available, I saw the information about the £1 stamp and the bubble wrap, but where would I send it to?

I was so pleased I found the site; my mother used to make Ginger Beer with a Ginger Beer Plant & I have often thought of trying to make ordinary Ginger Beer as something for the kids to do on a rainy weekend.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

If anyone is interested I have a brilliant Winter Chutney recepie, just let me know.

[prawncracker]

I've just revived mine from the fridge recently, so once it has grown and my next bottle is on the go you can have half of mine if you want to pm me your address

Or you can contact the people in the yahoo ginger beer plant group, I'm pretty sure Mark is a contributor to this group anyway, he's the one that sent me mine via this group in that case :

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GingerBeerPlant/

it is delicious - though a bottle every week was too much sugar for me but you can make wine with it too. the next oen i want ot try at Mark's recommendation is Elderflower champagne. Local shop has dried flowers