Topic: GINGER BEER

[floraldi]

Does anyone have a very easy recipe for ginger beer?  I have made it many years ago and that recipe included yeast which is what I would prefer compared to the ones I found last night which were from American sites and all seemed to include bought soda and have a lot of sugar in them.

[jennym]

We used to call this a Ginger Beer Plant, I've copied instructions from a BBC site below, but I'm fairly sure we didnt store it before drinking it! I don't think we used the lemon either, and would have used ordinary granulated sugar instead of caster because it's cheaper.
Ingredients:
25g Dry yeast
2tbsp ground ginger
2tbsp caster sugar
½pt (300ml) water
Method:
Stir the yeast in with ¼ pint (150ml) of lukewarm water and a bit of sugar. Leave this mixture for 10-15 mins.
Mix the wettened yeast with the sugar until they cream to form a liquid. Then add the ground ginger and remaining water. Stir this mixture well and pour it into a jar with a loose-fitting lid, so as to let the mixture breathe. Now leave this mixture in a cool place.
The next day, and each day thereafter, add 1 level tsp (5ml) of ground ginger and the same amount of caster sugar to your jar and stir the mixture thoroughly.
After 10 days. dissolve 18oz (500g) of caster sugar and 1½pt (900ml) of water, bring this mix to the boil and let it cool slightly. Add the strained juice of two lemons to the water.
Strain your ginger plant through fine muslin and add the strained liquid to the sugar and lemon juice mixture, along with 6pt (3.4l)water.
Stir the mixture well and bottle it straight away in strong screw-topped bottles, like those in which you would store cider or beer. Make sure you store the bottles in a cool place for about two weeks before you drink it. This is essential!

To Make More Ginger Beer
Halve the sediment left on the muslin and divide it into two separate jars. Add ½pt (300ml) water, 2tsps (10ml) and 2tsps (10ml) caster sugar to each jar. Stir it well and continue the same process as before for ten days.
This means that the produce is doubled every ten days.

Here's a similar one in pdf format: http://www.microbiologyonline.org.uk/forms/gbeer.pdf

[Baccy Man]

This is one of Mrs Beetons recipes.

20.45lt (36 pints) Boiling Water
1.13kg (2½lb) Sugar
40g (1½oz) Bruised Ginger
25g (1oz) Cream of Tartar
2 Lemons, rind and juice
2 large tbsp Brewer’s Yeast

Peel the lemons, squeeze the juice, strain it and put the peel and juice into a large earthen pan, with the bruised ginger, cream of tartar and sugar.
Pour over 13.6lt (3 gallons) of boiling water.
Let it stand until just warm.
Add the yeast, which should be thick and perfectly fresh.
Stir the contents of the pan well and keep in a warm place over night, covering the pan over with a cloth.
The next day skim off the yeast and pour the liquor carefully into another vessel, leaving the sediment.
Bottle immediately and secure the corks.
In 3 days the ginger beer will be fit for use.
For some tastes, the above proportion of sugar may be found rather too large, when it may be diminished, but the beer will not keep so long good.


This is the ginger beer plant method I grew up with.

Propagating the plant (Step 1)
In a large jar mix the following items:
3/4 pint of warm water
2 tsps sugar
2 tsps ground ginger
8 sultanas or 1/2 oz fresh bread yeast or 1tsp brewing yeast

Leave to ferment for 3 days.
Store the jar in a warm dry place to help this process along.

Feeding the ginger beer plant (Step 2)
From the forth day day your plant must be fed daily by adding the following:
1tsp sugar
1tsp ground ginger

The harvest (Step 3)
After feeding your plant for one week, it now becomes time to harvest the crop. You will now need the following items:
Bucket or large pan
Piece of muslin
Bottles
24oz sugar
7 pints of water
Juice of 2 lemons

Strain the plant through the muslin into the bucket (set plant aside to divide later). Add the sugar, 2 pints of warm water & the lemon juice stir until sugar has dissolved. Add the remaining 5 pints of water, mix well. Bottle & store somwhere cool leave for a minimum of 3 days before drinking.

Splitting the plant (Step 4)
Place half of your plant back in it's jar and add:
3/4 pint of warm water
2 tsps sugar
2 tsps ground ginger
Then continue from step 2 (you don't need to wait 3 days before feeding as the culture is already active) the other half can be made up in a new jar & given away or just chucked on the compost heap.
When you get bored with it or go on holiday you can freeze your plant and revive it when you want to try again.

[PurpleHeather]

Warning.

This recipe is excellent but the yeast and sugar fermentation process does produce alcohol. Fairly low percentage. But it is there.

[flighty02]

There is a page on making your own ginger beer here it also gives a recipe for quick ginger beer which is quite easy to do.

[killerflies]

Just made Ginger beer using this recepie.

Man alive it was worth the wait! I wasnt toooo sure about it over the last few days, the colour and smell were "unusual". That I can put down to pure inexperience.

Give it a try. I actually started it with ginger root I had frozen and fed with ground ginger and refined white sugar. It really does have a ginger-y taste.

And a lovely aftertaste!

This is the ginger beer plant method I grew up with.

Propagating the plant (Step 1)
In a large jar mix the following items:
3/4 pint of warm water
2 tsps sugar
2 tsps ground ginger
8 sultanas or 1/2 oz fresh bread yeast or 1tsp brewing yeast

Leave to ferment for 3 days.
Store the jar in a warm dry place to help this process along.

Feeding the ginger beer plant (Step 2)
From the forth day day your plant must be fed daily by adding the following:
1tsp sugar
1tsp ground ginger

The harvest (Step 3)
After feeding your plant for one week, it now becomes time to harvest the crop. You will now need the following items:
Bucket or large pan
Piece of muslin
Bottles
24oz sugar
7 pints of water
Juice of 2 lemons

Strain the plant through the muslin into the bucket (set plant aside to divide later). Add the sugar, 2 pints of warm water & the lemon juice stir until sugar has dissolved. Add the remaining 5 pints of water, mix well. Bottle & store somwhere cool leave for a minimum of 3 days before drinking.

Splitting the plant (Step 4)
Place half of your plant back in it's jar and add:
3/4 pint of warm water
2 tsps sugar
2 tsps ground ginger
Then continue from step 2 (you don't need to wait 3 days before feeding as the culture is already active) the other half can be made up in a new jar & given away or just chucked on the compost heap.
When you get bored with it or go on holiday you can freeze your plant and revive it when you want to try again.

[Digeroo]

This recipe is excellent but the yeast and sugar fermentation process does produce alcohol. Fairly low percentage

Can get quite potent.  Watch out for tipsy children. ::) ::) ::)

[Poppy Mole]

My mother made lots when I was little, it was only in later years that I realised why I felt so "good" after drinking it - guess that's where I got the taste for alcohol from!
Just about to give it a try.