#everybitcountschallenge Day 16, 16 August 2022 - Ginger Beer Plant

I have happy memories from my childhood of drinking Ginger beer on a hot summer's day when we used to go and visit relatives.  Notably to my Uncle's home. I loved it.  Mum used to make it sometimes and then when I got older I was allowed to make it myself, until my Dad got shot by exploding Ginger Beer bottles in the garage on a hot Summer's day.  He banned me from making it after that.  The only thing is that it can be explosive and very lively and a lot of people do not like it for this reason.  I have been reading recently though that if you use the gasket Kilner bottles, you can burp the bottle daily for the first week to relieve the pressure and after that first week  you can leave nature to itself.  I have proper similar bottles and so will be trialling this out next week to see if I can keep it any better.

The recipe I have had, and which I have had for a long time is as follows:

Requirements for the Plant:

One large clean jar

15g or 1/2 an oz of general purpose dried yeast

300mll/ 1/2 a pint of water

2 teaspoons of ground ginger

2 teaspoons of sugar

Requirements for Making the Drink:

Juice of 2 Lemons

50g/2oz of sugar

Cold Water

Sturdy Bottles

Method:

Add all the ingredients to a previously sterilised clean jar.  Give everything a good stir to blend it all together.  Close and cover with some cling film.

Each day thereafter for seven days, feed 1 teaspoon of ginger and one teaspoon of sugar to the "plant" jar and give a good stir.

On day 8, strain the mixture from "the Plant" through a piece of muslin.  And to the collected liquid add the juice of two Lemons, 2oz of sugar.  Then make the liquid up to 4.5 litre/1 gallon of cold water.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Bottle into screw top, cider, beer or plastic bottles.  Keep for seven to ten days when the Ginger beer is sparkling and ready for drinking.

Burp the bottles daily for the first week by either loosening and then closing each individual bottle if a screw cap or by depressing the lever on the bottle opening and then closing again.  This is meant to get rid of some of the build up of gases.

What do I do with the sediment?

Keep the sediment from the plant.  Divide into two jars and then start the plant off again by doing the following:

To the sediment add 300ml/1/2 a pint of water, 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of ginger.  Reciprocate the instructions as above.

Give a jar of the "Plant" away to a friend who wants to have a go at making this with written instructions.

My Plant:

Is growing as we speak.  This is what I ended up with:

My Ginger Beer Plant was started, and is slowly springing into life.  I used dried yeast for this, as I currently have no access to fresh yeast, and fresh yeast was traditionally used in the recipe I have.  Basically this yeast has to have water added to it, to start the culture before you can use it. It is not suitable for bread machines only for handmade bread.  The recommendation is that if a recipe says 1oz of fresh yeast, then  you would use half the amount of this dried yeast i.e. 1/2 an oz to substitute for your recipe.

Today when I checked on it, there is a line of bubbles forming on the top of the liquid which is an indicator that the yeast is working. You get the lovely tang of Ginger when you open the jar.

Fingers crossed I do not get shot with this.  Nostalgia trip really as there are so many happy memories from my childhood involving Ginger Beer, made the old fashioned way.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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