Basic Ginger Beer Plant Instructions-Recipe “A”
by adminTo Start A Basic “Ginger Beer Plant”
Ginger Beer Plant “A”
The ginger beer plant is actually a base culture which you “grow” or ferment until it is ready to use for making your ginger beer.
It is very simple.
Ingredients:
2 oz fresh bakers yeast (60g)
2 level tablespoons of castor sugar
2 level tablespoons of ground or powdered ginger
1/2 pint (half pint) of water (300 mls)
Method:
Blend or beat the yeast and sugar until they form a liquid paste. Note this is bakers yeast which is different to dried yeast granules. It is a type of paste or caked.
Add the water and ground ginger and stir well.
Place the mixture in a jar and although you can put a lid on it, but the “plant” needs to breath so a piece of cloth is better. Put a rubber band around the neck of the jar to keep it on.
Next Day:
Add 1 level teaspoon of ground ginger and 1 level teaspoon of castor sugar to the jar and mix gently.
Days 2 to 10:
Repeat adding the ginger and castor sugar. After 10 days your “ginger beer plant ” should be ready.
It will be a frothy white mess but that means it is working. A non active ginger beer plant is a dead ginger beer plant !
Now I can hear you say thats a lot of work but the great thing is you now have starter culture to use again and again.
To make the ginger beer using the plant you have just cultured or fermented go to
Ginger Beer Recipe No. 1 ( Mum’s Basic Ginger Beer)
To Make More Ginger Beer:
We will re-use the sediment leftover to restart another plant or culture going through the same process we have just completed.
You can have batch after batch on the go over a long hot summer.
Ginger Beer Plant is a unique composite organism, a symbiosis of several yeasts and bacteria living together in a polysaccharide matrix. The recipe here will make a decent ginger beer… but it is no more a “Ginger Beer Plant” than baker’s yeast is “sourdough starter”. The beverage made from this simple yeast recipe will not have the probiotic goodness or subtleties of flavor that real ginger beer made with true Ginger Beer Plant has.
Thank you for your comment Sam. In the interests of simplicity we use simple ingredients and methods to make a quick soda at home.
If I was to present a “pharmacist” type account of method and ingredients to people at home, initially, I doubt anyone would try to make it.
I am planning to put a few posts about what ginger beer is…authentic and pseudo and the differences.
As this is new blog I have put up posts for simplicity to begin with.
Thank you very much for your comment. I appreciate it.