Ginger Beer

firsttwodie

Hi all my name is Steve, and I thought I would write a blog on my current brewing exploit. I am trying to culture a Ginger Beer Plant. This is not a large green plant with bottles of beer on it (if only). It is in fact a mixture of bacterias and yeast which is called symbiotic fermentation but people regard it as a plant as it breaths, moves and grows (in its own way I don't think you'll be taking it for a walk anytime soon). Now there are two ways of culturing your plant one is the more modern method which involves adding brewers yeast to the recipe I'm about to give youe more modern beer brewing. The second which seems more hit and miss involves using fresh ginger, sugar and water without using the yeast now from what I can understand this involves leaving the top of the jar to the elements hoping that the natural yeast is already in the mix either on the ginger or in the air. I am doing both versions to see which one works better ideally I would prefer the latter to be the culture of choice but am unsure as to its reliability. The second ginger beer plant (GBP) if it works is a method hundreds of years old and these GBP's were past down the generations from father/mother to son/daughter until the second world war where it is believed rationing restricted the raw ingredients enough to make the plants obsolete. As these plants were cultured and passed on, the way they were created appears to have been lost or relatively unknown. I have done research on the net and found a few people who believe they know how to culture the original plant and this is the method I will describe today.
Firstly you will need to sterilise all of your equipment thoroughly and rinse off any sterilising agents, you can just wash them very thoroughly but run the risk of adding bacteria which you don't want.

You will need.

1. 1kg Fresh Ginger (depending on taste)
2. 1 pint of dechlorinated water (leave tap water out overnight in an uncovered container)
3. Jam jar/Mayonaise jar
4. muslin cloth or similar
5. elastic band
6. white Sugar


For my experiment I am using an old large mayonnaise jar you can use a jam jar but I have blokes hands and without cutting off my thumb find them easier to clean as they have a wider neck and are slightly larger in capacity.
First off wash your ginger all you want to do is get any mud off don't scrub them its more like a safety rinse. The reason for not scrubbing and peeling the ginger is I want to encourage the bacteria and yeast to grow and as yet don't know were its coming from (more detail later). Now cut off about a table spoons size of ginger about 2 inches and chop finely leaving the skin on you need the most amount of surface area so little 1 mm cubes or smaller will do. I tried to put mine in a blender but considering the amount being used proved more hassle than chopping. Now add your ginger into the jar along with a pint of de-chlorinated water (leave tap water uncovered in a jar overnight to let the chlorine evaporate) now to your mix add 2 teaspoons full of sugar and give a stir. The cheating method would have you add some yeast here whilst this should give more instant results, it apparently gives a different taste. Think about trying to brew with bakers yeast it may well work but your product will taste different.
Now cover your jar with a piece of muslin I use a new clean washing cloth but any material will do this is to stop debris from falling in but allow air flow. Other sites suggest leaving completely exposed (no lid) in a high traffic area (where lots of people travel) during the day and covering at night. I have animals and am bound to find a cats nose in it at some stage so covered mine. Now leave the jar for a week in a warm area of high traffic i.e a kitchen. To your mix add 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger daily and observe your mix. Now whilst checking your mix observe to see if any bacteria has taken hold by floating on top now 2 of the websites differ in their opinion on this one says scrap it off and leave it again, 1 says bin it and start from scratch. I personally would go for the latter if its bad now it isn't going to get any better as the bad bacteria is already there competing with the yeast and bacteria I do want.
I personally lost my courage and placed a lid on it after 24 hours. Double purpose for this one if it was going to get yeast drop into it I would hope it was in this time span because its pretty much guaranteed bacteria would have got in there, also if it is starting to ferment then I can see if any pressure builds up I can always take the lid off again and re-expose.
After a week have a smell of your mix it should have a pleasant odour and a frothy head (congratulations you're the parent of a beautiful floating Ginger Beer Plant) if not back to square one and start from scratch.

Now you have your own plant you can start brewing yeah!!!

Now this is where personal preference comes into play there are loads of different recipes on the net which all use a GBP the choice is yours all you do is sieve out your GBP which is the solid you can now place it back into your jar and start feeding it again by adding room temp water, sugar and ginger as you did before for a week. Just be aware it grows and at some stage you will need to split it and either have 2 running or pass part on to a friend and restart the tradition again.
To make your Ginger Beer take the sieved liquid add it to a container capable of holding 8 pints plus add 1 1/2 Ibs of sugar the juice of 2 lemons and 2 pints of pre-boiled water you can add this to the hot water then add 5 pints of water at room temperature to cool for bottling everybody recommends not using glass bottles as the pressure build up can be nasty with glass flying. Plastic drink bottles are ideal as they have a bit of give in them I'm going to fill up to the neck and squeeze out the remaining air before placing on the lid to allow for the pressure. Now leave for 7 days to mature and then down the hatch.

Now you have your Ginger Beer Plant there are other recipes out there be adventurous I have found one that you add juiced Chilli pepper or Cayenne powder to which is on this link http://mistyhorizon2003.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Grow-Your-Own-Ginger-Beer-Plant
enjoy
Steve

Please let me know how you get on and how helpful you found my waffling blog

HBO_Staff

Hi Steve, That's great thanks, sounds very interesting, we look forward to hearing how anyone gets on with this, keep us posted....

firsttwodie

Day 3 and 4 of the experiment day 4 for the brewer's yeast mix and day 3 for the natural ginger mix.
The brewer's yeast jar looks like a gingery brown liquid with a sludge at the bottom. It smells like a normal beer brew with a hint of ginger although there is a slight hint of vinegar which has concerned me a little but only time will tell.
The natural attempt at creating a GBP smells like a lovely cold ginger soup as yet no sign of fermentation although it is hard to tell the ginger pieces do appear to be moving but as I don't have an airlock its hard to tell. It however looks more appetising due to using fresh ginger were as the yeast added mix used powdered ginger which came with the kit. Today I have bitten the bullet today and removed the jar lid and fitted a Muslin cloth over the top to try to see if this starts or increases the process. I have also lost the ability to replace the jar lid as whilst writing this my puppy decided the lid made an interesting chew toy and I don't have a replacement (and I don't fancy eating a large jar of mayonnaise just for the lid).

marko

Good blog, looking forward to hearing how it turns out. I'll sticky this post.

firsttwodie

The attempt to create an authentic GBP appears to have failed so I may have to try again or invest in purchasing one as I think the results may be worth noting.
Bottling day “simples”.
First off take your GBP plant jar and sieve the contents through a fine sieve the finer the better especially if using Ginger powder you will see when it comes to drinking time. I used a coffee percolator sieve or even better a coffee filter paper. Although be warned with the Ginger powder it clogs up very quickly and takes an age so be prepared to use more than one but the finer the sieve the better. The mass that you have sieved from the GBP liquid is what is usually described as a Ginger Beer Plant. If you place this back into a container you can start the process off again by just adding ginger and sugar as before for 7 days.
Next you add 1 1/2 pounds of sugar to 2 pints of boiling water in a tub to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved add the liquid from the sieved GBP and then add a further 5 pints of water and ensure the contents are mixed together and add the juice of 2 lemons and then bottle. I found that three 2 litre lemonade bottles are enough to contain your Ginger Beer, do not use glass if you can get away with it as the pressure builds up in the bottles. I left a reasonable gap in the top of each one for expansion even deflating the bottles by squeezing out the extra air. I stored mine on the kitchen draining board for a couple of days then lost my nerve and placed them outside incase of bottle explosion. It appears that the gas that the fermentation process produces is kept in suspension in the liquid whilst it is kept under pressure, as soon as the pressure is reduced the gas is released.
Sample day.
I have successfully left my 5 litres of Ginger Beer in plastic bottles for 7-14 days now for the sampling. First off I have never experienced the job of a bomb disposal expert, but now have a foresight into their job. I refer to undoing the lids of the plastic bottles. In the bottom of each plastic bottle there is a ginger sediment which when the top is loosened goes mad with bubbles and redistributes itself throughout the liquid. Without exaggerating each bottle takes about 15-20 mins of careful negotiation to get the lid off, do not just crack off the top as its like pulling a pin out of a grenade 4 seconds later you will have a room full of Ginger Beer (needless to say it is quite impressive). Now after you have diffused your bottles the taste test. I actually like it but there is only a slight ginger taste, my wife describes it as an orange drink but was probably just the citrus from the lemon. The next batch I will use fresh Ginger and double the amount as per the original recipe to get a better ginger kick going. There are recipes including paprika or chillies to add to the kick which I may experiment with later. Overall a worthwhile experiment which I will continue to tinker with the recipe for personal taste although I intend to use fresh ginger and maybe invest in an original ginger beer plant when one becomes available after Christmas.

firsttwodie

Latest recipe consists of 2 large fresh Ginger roots mashed up with 2 Bird’s eye chillies (including pips) now thats more like it. If you like fiery ginger give this a try you won't regret it.

MattP

Hi, I'm very interested in your ginger beer experiments as I do dearly love the odd pint of ginger beer.

I had one of the "proper" plants which you describe years ago when I was a kid. I got it from a friend of my sister, and I think that's pretty much how it happens. You have to know sombody with a plant who'll give you a starter.

Unfortunately I no longer have it, and it's almost impossible to obtain commercially. You're quite correct, these plants are a symbiotic yeast / bacteria culture, but I don't think that you'll ever manage to produce one by the method which you describe. The best you could hope for is a wild yeast culture. I have no idea how the original symbiotic culture was produced.

I have come accross the odd website which claims to supply the culture in a dried form, but whenever I ask if I can purchase some, it's mysteriously unavailable.

If you do ever track down the "real deal" perhaps you could let us know ? I'd certainly be interested in a sample.

The commercially available ginger beer plants which you may have come accross are almost certainly only yeast based, and not the same thing at all.

Tech

MattP said:

Hi, I'm very interested in your ginger beer experiments as I do dearly love the odd pint of ginger beer.

I had one of the "proper" plants which you describe years ago when I was a kid. I got it from a friend of my sister, and I think that's pretty much how it happens. You have to know sombody with a plant who'll give you a starter.

Unfortunately I no longer have it, and it's almost impossible to obtain commercially. You're quite correct, these plants are a symbiotic yeast / bacteria culture, but I don't think that you'll ever manage to produce one by the method which you describe. The best you could hope for is a wild yeast culture. I have no idea how the original symbiotic culture was produced.

I have come accross the odd website which claims to supply the culture in a dried form, but whenever I ask if I can purchase some, it's mysteriously unavailable.

If you do ever track down the "real deal" perhaps you could let us know ? I'd certainly be interested in a sample.

The commercially available ginger beer plants which you may have come accross are almost certainly only yeast based, and not the same thing at all.

I would like to know about the results of the experiment I want to try it to