I love ginger beer and used to make it, with Mum's help, when I was little so I thought I'd give it a go. I knew you had to grow a ginger beer plant first and looked up how to do it. The recipe said you needed a large jam jar and I have 3 one & a half litre kilner jars that I thought would fit the bill. Cleaned and sterilised them and got the ingredients together, yeast, ginger, sugar and water. I added them to the jar and sat down for a well earned break. I looked up five minutes later and things had gone a little pear shaped. The stuff in the jar, that only reached at most a quarter of the way up the jar when I started, was now right upto the top and carried on overflowing the jar. I frantically sorted out another jar while trying to deal with the evergrowing gloop eventually scooping the overflow into the second jar until I had an even amount in each. Things then seemed to slow down. The recipe said add 2oz of yeast to the jar and on close examination of the recipe I found tiny footnote that said the author meant to write 2g of yeast. Why couldn't they have just changed the bit at the top After consulting Ali, she eventually stopped laughing, I think I will start over and try again. Dom
My mother (Baptist, teetotal) was given one of those 'ginger beer plants'. A bit like a chain letter - you had to divide it and give half away every few days. I've heard stories of the bottles exploding etc. And people not realising that they were making an alcoholic drink.
Right, I have dumped the gloop monster down the drain and started again. I have done a bit more research and found out that using yeast is a bit cheaty cheat pants and not how it was done in ancient times, so I decided to try both ways of growing a ginger plant. I have made one batch with yeast and 45 minutes later the level hasn't risen and it shows no signs of trying to escape the jar but it is lightly bubbling which is apparently a good sign I have also made a batch the old fashioned way using just fresh ginger, sugar and water. This method is apparently harder to get right and end up with a ginger beer plant but I figure that if it works I get double the amount of ginger beer and if it doesn't I can try again until I get it right or give up
The jar on the left is the old fashioned recipe and the jar on the right is the modern version
I have to say I prefer the colour of the left hand jar. I need to feed them for a week or so before I can start making the ginger beer itself which will take a further week or so to brew before I can drink it. I will keep you posted on how things go and if I should poison myself Ali will let you know the funeral details. Dom
I did exactly the same once Dom, only I went ahead and bottled it I heard this weird hissing noise coming from the (plastic) bottles, realised what was going to happen and put them outside the kitchen door. Then, despite my protests the cat went to investigate and.....
BANG!!!!!
She came back home several hours later, with all of her hair crunchy with dried ginger beer and sticking out like a hedgehog!!
My daughter's inlaws used some of my apples to make some sparkling cider. The sample bottle they gave us ended up 90% on our walls & ceiling, 10% in the glass.
Mo wrote:My daughter's inlaws used some of my apples to make some sparkling cider. The sample bottle they gave us ended up 90% on our walls & ceiling, 10% in the glass.
I remember my dad making it when I was at home and a glass bottle exploding under the pressure after bottling. The trick now a days is to use 2 litre soft drink bottles; they can take incredible pressure without splitting (up to 150 psi with liquid in apparently). You fill them, leaving some air at the top, and as you screw the top on, squeeze the air out. The bottle looks a little crushed to begin with but as the secondary fermentation kicks in, the bottle expands again but hopefully not to too much pressure.
It's day four of the ginger beer plant growing process so I thought I'd give you all an update. The version made with yeast doesn't seem to be doing a lot, not much in the way of bubbling. The old fashioned version with no yeast added seems to be doing fine, bubbling away and smelling nice. Still between 3 and 6 days to go growing the ginger beer plants before I can think of making the ginger beer itself so all goes well. Typical of me that the easy peasy method seems to be failing but the alledgedly almost impossible one is apparently going well. Dom
Day 6 and for the last couple of days things seemed to slow almost to a stop. The old fashioned recipe was bubbling but only very very slightly and the new recipe seemed to have stopped. A bit of research suggested that this might be down to the temperature not being high enough for fermentation to take place so I checked the temp where the jars are and found it hovered around 18C which is on the low side. I ran some hot water into the kitchen sink and got it to around 20C and stood the jars in it. Within 10 minutes both were starting to bubble nicely. I found online that you could get heat mats you can set the temp on to stand the jars on but they were a bit pricey, so I did some lateral thinking. I needed some way to keep the jars at between 25C - 30C for optimal fermentation and came up with filling a roasting dish with 3" of water and popping the water heater from our fish tank (not in use at the moment so you don't have to worry about any fishes catching a cold) in it set at 28C and standing the jars in the water. Just over an hour later the water temp has stabilised at 28C and both jars are bubbling nicely. Dom PS Ali and my youngest are laughing at me saying that I must be really obsessed to have made my jars of ginger beer plants their own hot tub.
Been a bit busy recently so didn't get around to giving an update. Since my last post the plant has been strained and added to a gallon of water mixed with 400g of sugar and left to ferment. It has also been bottled and is almost ready to drink. I have taken readings with the hydrometer and, if my calculations are correct, it is just a smidge under 5% strength. I've had a sip and it seems to back up the alcoholic reading. It is maybe a little drier tasting than I would like but I guess I can play with the sugar content or add some sweetner until it's just right. Dom
Helen Cannon used to make Ginger Beer when we first married.
We both felt it best for her to retire from that when one day a bottle exploded in the kitchen and went in just about every nook and cranny beside all over the ceiling and floor!
Richard
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Well I tried my ginger beer last night and it was delicious. It is a little drier than I usually like it but it had a real kick to it. Half a pint and I was a touch squiffy Definitely confirmed as being 5% alcohol just by the affects I have split the ginger beer plant in two and am feeding them in aticipation of brewing double the amount. I will have a play and maybe bottle one lot after 3 or four days and leave the other batch a few days longer to see what the difference is. Dom
I heard this weird hissing noise coming from the (plastic) bottles, realised what was going to happen and put them outside the kitchen door. Then, despite my protests the cat went to investigate and.....
all goes well.
Obvioulsy not when it's immersed in water 
