Real Ginger Beer Plant
-
- margo - newbie
- Posts: 6
- Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 8:59 am
- Location: Retford, Nottinghamshire, UK
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Thanks Lisa
I have joined the yahoo group as you suggested and I would of course be more than happy to pay for postage + seeds! I don't mind paying for GBP from a commercial site at all, it's just that it seems to be a minefield in terms of what people are actually selling. I'd really like advice on who is selling the real thing. And, as I said, £16 is a bit pricey I think.
I see you are from the other side of the pond. I would say that most people here in the UK under 35 wouldn't know what GBP was either, although it was quite popular in the UK in the 50s-70s so I guess a lot of us over 40 still remember it.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping someone will point me in the right direction eventually.
Thanks for your help and best wishes
Teresa
I have joined the yahoo group as you suggested and I would of course be more than happy to pay for postage + seeds! I don't mind paying for GBP from a commercial site at all, it's just that it seems to be a minefield in terms of what people are actually selling. I'd really like advice on who is selling the real thing. And, as I said, £16 is a bit pricey I think.
I see you are from the other side of the pond. I would say that most people here in the UK under 35 wouldn't know what GBP was either, although it was quite popular in the UK in the 50s-70s so I guess a lot of us over 40 still remember it.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping someone will point me in the right direction eventually.
Thanks for your help and best wishes
Teresa
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
I know what a GBP is (and would love one!!!) and I'm under 40. :-p
Than again my mum says I was born old
Than again my mum says I was born old

Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Hi all - trying to get back into winemaking after 30 yrs away (love, kids, all the usual excuses) - have tried ginger beer with the standard yeast, but would love to give the genuine GBP a try - please pm me if you can help, and let me know what it will cost for your trouble - many thanks.
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Greetings,
My wife and I have been raising Kombucha for a number of years and just this season have been trying to start our own ginger "bugs". We've had mild success, but are interested in trying out a real GBP. Would anyone be able to connect with us and share/sell some of their own culture?
much appreciated,
Cornelius
My wife and I have been raising Kombucha for a number of years and just this season have been trying to start our own ginger "bugs". We've had mild success, but are interested in trying out a real GBP. Would anyone be able to connect with us and share/sell some of their own culture?
much appreciated,
Cornelius
-
- A selfsufficientish Regular
- Posts: 1237
- Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 3:31 pm
- latitude: 44.564
- longitude: 0.959
- Location: Lot et Garonne France
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Go to http://www.kefirshop.co.uk and they sell both the original and the ingredients to make your own starter
Eddy
Eddy
I can't do great things, so I do little things with love.
-
- margo - newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:45 pm
- latitude: 51.5475
- longitude: 0.0071
- Location: Stratford, London
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Hi everybody,
Does anybody still have any of the traditional Ginger Beer Plant knocking around that they'd be willing to post me for a small 'donation'? I know there are online shops that sell it (or similar), but I'm quite reluctant to pay the amount they're asking...
I'd be really, really grateful!
Thanks.
Does anybody still have any of the traditional Ginger Beer Plant knocking around that they'd be willing to post me for a small 'donation'? I know there are online shops that sell it (or similar), but I'm quite reluctant to pay the amount they're asking...
I'd be really, really grateful!
Thanks.
-
- margo - newbie
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Tue Oct 05, 2010 6:39 pm
- Location: Ashford Kent
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Hi, Why not start your own its quite easy and probably quicker than royal mail
-
- margo - newbie
- Posts: 11
- Joined: Sat Nov 13, 2010 8:45 pm
- latitude: 51.5475
- longitude: 0.0071
- Location: Stratford, London
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Hmmm. I was under the impression that you couldn't make the REAL Ginger Beer Plant, as it's a specific sybiotic fungal-bacterial pair? Have I got the wrong end of the stick somewhere?
*is confused*
*is confused*
- Davie Crockett
- Living the good life
- Posts: 230
- Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:48 pm
- latitude: 52.12292
- longitude: 2.30910
- Location: Malvern, UK.
- Contact:
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Hi RJT,
Go to page 4 of this thread and look at tonysuffolks post. He seems to have cracked it. I'm following his method and will post how it transpires.
Davie
Go to page 4 of this thread and look at tonysuffolks post. He seems to have cracked it. I'm following his method and will post how it transpires.
Davie
Time flies like an arrow; vinegar flies like an uncovered wine must.
- Sky
- Living the good life
- Posts: 482
- Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:49 am
- Location: Eyrewell Canterbury NZ
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Great link!oldfella wrote:Go to http://www.kefirshop.co.uk and they sell both the original and the ingredients to make your own starter
Eddy
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
er it may just be scurrilous rumour, but I thought the only genuine G Beer plant was from either those with it who would share, a culture bank establishment, or the likes of http://gingerbeerplant.net/
From other sites it would appear the Kefir shop and the Retro site were just sundry cultures and not real GBP.
There would appear to be a lot of 'passing off' when it comes to GBP.
From other sites it would appear the Kefir shop and the Retro site were just sundry cultures and not real GBP.
There would appear to be a lot of 'passing off' when it comes to GBP.
-
- margo - newbie
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 6:07 pm
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
The only true Ginger Beer Plant is available here http://gingerbeerplant.net/GetGBP.html they got theirs via the German Culture bank.
Kefir shop uk say on that their culture isn't a GBP but WKG merely fed ginger, which is a bit like saying if you eat grass you'll turn into a cow. :-) The other 'culture' they do is just baker's yeast. Retro C were on the Yahoo group bragging they'd created a new strain they call Nightingale by crossing a culture they got from ebay and one they got from someone else so theirs is not a GBP either, I checked out Retro C's culture and it is WKG.
Cheers
Kefir shop uk say on that their culture isn't a GBP but WKG merely fed ginger, which is a bit like saying if you eat grass you'll turn into a cow. :-) The other 'culture' they do is just baker's yeast. Retro C were on the Yahoo group bragging they'd created a new strain they call Nightingale by crossing a culture they got from ebay and one they got from someone else so theirs is not a GBP either, I checked out Retro C's culture and it is WKG.
Cheers
-
- margo - newbie
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2011 2:31 pm
- latitude: 53 19'08.43N
- longitude: 1 19'25.25W
- Location: Sheffield
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Am really confused now having read all the posts on this thread.... A complete mewling newbie (already said "Hi" on the intro section) and wondering of these "magical" GBP produce anything remotely alcoholic (I read the post re producing 1.5 ish% ).... Loving the mass produced Crabbies GB and at around 4% suits me fine but at the ridiculously stupid prices charged in our local supermarkets, was wondering if I could produce something akin to the aforementioned Crabbies? Help or advice welcome 

-
- margo - newbie
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:03 pm
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
Firstly, it can't be impossible to make a ginger beer plant or there would be no such thing. Someone must have made one somehow. You can buy it online from that gingerbeerplant.net site but it is outrageously priced and the kefir sites have their own culture that is similarly extortionate. Many people on here have advertised their surplus ginger beer plant and they have given it away for free. Although I have only just registered, I have been reading the posts on this site for some considerable time and it surprises me just how many times the same questions are asked when they are all pretty well answered in previous messages.
It is perfectly possible to make traditional, fermented, alcoholic ginger beer without being ripped off. I tried Tony Suffolk's method for making ginger beer plant simply by using the natural yeasts that are found in the ginger root. I can confirm unequivocally that it makes excellent ginger beer that is certainly alcoholic (basically as alcoholic as you want to make it) but so far I have not yet managed to cultivate a culture that can be carried forward to the next batch. Consequently, I have had to start from scratch; each time cultivating the yeasts until there is enough to start off fermenting a full brew. As long as there is a yeast in the brew, part of it can be retained for immediate use as the yeast will continue to devour the sugar (converting it into carbon dioxide and alcohol) and multiply as a result. The only problem is that it can't be kept and stored that way. That's where the ginger beer plant comes in. Unfortunately, each time I strain out the fermented brew into the bottles to condition, there is nothing left in the filter other than the fine yeast sediment. I guess I just keep trying to make the culture and one day the right yeast and bacteria will be present in the brew and "hey presto" there will be the plant to carry over to a new brew.
It is perfectly possible to make traditional, fermented, alcoholic ginger beer without being ripped off. I tried Tony Suffolk's method for making ginger beer plant simply by using the natural yeasts that are found in the ginger root. I can confirm unequivocally that it makes excellent ginger beer that is certainly alcoholic (basically as alcoholic as you want to make it) but so far I have not yet managed to cultivate a culture that can be carried forward to the next batch. Consequently, I have had to start from scratch; each time cultivating the yeasts until there is enough to start off fermenting a full brew. As long as there is a yeast in the brew, part of it can be retained for immediate use as the yeast will continue to devour the sugar (converting it into carbon dioxide and alcohol) and multiply as a result. The only problem is that it can't be kept and stored that way. That's where the ginger beer plant comes in. Unfortunately, each time I strain out the fermented brew into the bottles to condition, there is nothing left in the filter other than the fine yeast sediment. I guess I just keep trying to make the culture and one day the right yeast and bacteria will be present in the brew and "hey presto" there will be the plant to carry over to a new brew.
- Green Aura
- Site Admin
- Posts: 9313
- Joined: Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:16 pm
- latitude: 58.569279
- longitude: -4.762620
- Location: North West Highlands
Re: Real Ginger Beer Plant
I've dipped in and out of this thread for ages now (although I can't say I've read it all). I usually have a look when a new member posts here first (Hi supergenius BTW, welcome to Ish
) because for some reason this thread seems to attract people advertising stuff like no other thread does.
Anyway, that long-winded preamble aside - I'm really missing some vital point here!
Ginger beer is a lovely drink - I've never tasted one made from "the one and only true Ginger Beer Plant" and probably never will but I've made it from yeast and I've made it from kefir - both are delicious on a hot sunny day in the garden.
So why do some of you seem to get so het up about it?


Anyway, that long-winded preamble aside - I'm really missing some vital point here!
Ginger beer is a lovely drink - I've never tasted one made from "the one and only true Ginger Beer Plant" and probably never will but I've made it from yeast and I've made it from kefir - both are delicious on a hot sunny day in the garden.
So why do some of you seem to get so het up about it?



Maggie
Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin
Never doubt that you can change history. You already have. Marge Piercy
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. Anais Nin