Ginger Beer Plant (SCOBY)

[DeadFall]

I managed to get hold of a proper ginger beer plant and it arrived yesterday. So now one of my demijohns is filled up, brewing proper old school ginger beer. I know it's not alcoholic, but my 3.5 year old 'helper' wants to brew beer 'Just like daddydad'.

Lots of experimentation going to be going on... Any good ideas/recipes? There will be chilli.

[Spud395]

You sure it's not alcoholic?

[Andy]

If it's a proper ginger beer plant then it will ferment and produce alcohol. Don't give the nipper a glass full

[DeadFall]

With proper ginger beer plants the bacteria element will consume most of the alcohol and the result is usually under 0.5%. Pure yeast plants (not a scoby) will produce alcohol.

[micmacmoc]

I'd love one of these for the long hot summer we are due (well we are!). Where can you get the stuff? ta!



ps you can get 100g frozen, crushed ginger from the freezer dept in asda for a quid or so, have'nt tried it yet but have some waiting for an AG brew.....must do it soon.

[Andy]

What about this though -> http://www.instructables.com/id/The-REA ... er-recipe/

Using a real GBP (they're quite explicit about that) and they end up with what they claim is a > 4% ABV ginger beer.

[DeadFall]

Just done a quick bit of research, and I've seen people saying that GBP typically make beer up 1 - 2% alcohol, a bit different to what I got the first time I looked into this, and more than I'd be comfortable having an almost four year old to drink. So I think I'd better be careful, more research when I get home tonight. I might have to dilute his down with lemonade.

They measured the abv with a hydrometer. Hydrometers just measure change in density, in the case of beer/wine we know that most of the density change will be sugar -> alcohol. Chuck a bacteria that converts ethanol into acetic acid or something (i.e acetobacteria) into the wort with your yeast and ferment, what's the real alcohol content and what will your hydrometer tell you?


Micmacmoc, when I've got enough to split (in 2-3 months time), I'll probable swap with JBK members for a bottle of HB. That way I get to taste other peoples beer and they get a GBP (they're pretty hard to get hold of, this was the only one available)

[rens]

DeadFall, how did this turn out? Would happily swap a brew for some of your plant, if it made something reasonably low my 11 year old could drink.

[timbo41]

Found this on web hope it helps

" Many years ago the only place I could buy my fresh ginger was to visit the chemist. It was not the type of thing that you could buy from the corner shop. Today you can pick up ginger from any supermarket so how about making your own old fashioned live ginger beer plant. The process of feeding the plant daily fascinates both children and adults alike.

Each of my twelve grandchildren has their own plant kept in granddads shed and now all the children in the neighbourhood has one too. They have all come from the one original plant that I started so many years back that I cannot remember exactly when. You see the Ginger Beer Plant is the most social drink that I can think of. It is designed to give half to a friend which she will then cultivate and when ready will pass on half to their friends. The passing on to friends is infinite and as long as the instructions are followed and the plant is fed daily soon every house in the country could have one of Granny’s Ginger Plants sat on their kitchen windowsill.
~Granny’s Ginger Beer Plant~


~What utensils will you need~
Either a muslin square or a boiled tea towel
Large measuring jug
Funnel
Large Pan
Large Container for the Plant (I use a sweetie jar)
Plenty of plastic bottles with screw top lids


~Ingredients~
½ oz fresh yeast
¾ pint lukewarm water
8teaspoons of fresh grated ginger
8 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 ½ lbs of more granulated sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
7 pints of water in total


~Method~
To Start off the Plant

Mix together the yeast with ¾ pint of water, 2tsp ginger and 2tsp sugar. Leave for 24 hours then start to feed your plant

~How to Feed~

For the next seven days feed daily with one teaspoon of ginger and one teaspoon of sugar. After the seven days have passed, strain through your muslin or tea towel.
DO NOT throw the sediment away as this will start your new plant.


~Add the Flavour~
Dissolve the 1½ lb of sugar into 2 pints of hot water. Add the juice of the two lemons and the strained plant mixture. Add five more pints of lukewarm water and stir really well.

Pour into your plastic bottles and it will now only take seven days to mature before you are able to drink it.

~Giving a gift~

You still should have the strained sediment left and half of this is the present you give to a friend with the instructions to make their own plant. You keep the other half of the sediment to start your own plant again. Once they have got to the stage where they strain their plant, they then divide their sediment and give half to a friend with instructions. As you can see this is why I call this my infinitive mixture.

~What to do with the gift~

Add ½oz fresh yeast, 2tsp sugar and ¾ pt warm water. Leave for 24 hours and start feeding again as above.
~My Advice~
Get your fresh yeast from a bakery or ask in the supermarket
Use sugar cubes and roll your lemons over these before juicing to extract more flavour
Do not use glass bottles as these may explode with the pressure.
If you do not feed the plant daily it will die

[timbo41]

or maybe this;
http://www.instructables.com/id/Ginger- ... c-Version/

wuth usual disclaimers of course!!

[rens]

Timbo41, both of those recipes are yeast only; where does the bacteria come in to eat the alcohol?

[timbo41]

Wish i could tell you. Didnt really get the instructions. Perhaps airbourne??

[BeerEagle]

A real ginger beer plant has a special mix of micro-organisms which live symbiotically. It's a mix of yeasts and bacteria - about 20 different species living together.

Have a look here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_beer#section_2

[DeadFall]

DeadFall, how did this turn out? Would happily swap a brew for some of your plant, if it made something reasonably low my 11 year old could drink.

Sorry, not visited this section of the forum for a while. It's turned out great. I have had one batch that came out tasting quite alcoholic, but that happened after I put it in the bottles and I bottled earlier than usual, so it's worth having a taste before hand. Usually, there's not even a hint of alcohol, but I still limit my 3.5 year old to a small glass just to be safe.

Something got into my last batch, I had thin translucent sheets of white stuff running through it that didn't look too appetising. So I gave the plant a good rinse with bottled water and have just been making small jars to clean it out and haven't seen it again. I've made a full batch today and if that works out I'll probably have enough to split now.

If we ever get a summer, it's going to be glorious to have this with a few cubes of ice in it whilst sitting in the sun. The last drinkable lot was very fiery with a lovely citric kick.

One thing I have started doing is letting gas out of the bottles on a daily basis after a day or two, otherwise it's a ginger beer shower!

[Manx Guy]

Hi!
Any updates....?
I'm giving some thought to making a ginger beer for my smaller corni (11l) for summer drinking. I'd only want something 3-4% abv
any advice greatfully received!



Guy