Ye Olde Fashioned Ginger Beer

[wildschwein]

I've been pondering writing a post on lacto-fermented soft drinks for quite a while, but I've been in beer mode and haven't done any homemade soft drinks for a year or so. However, the other day I was given a link in one of the forums to http://www.basicbrewing.com which is an American online HB site with lots of radio and video content. One of the 2006 archived radio programs had an interview with a guy called Raj Apte who has been messing around with an authenticate ginger beer plant he acquired from Germany. You can listen to this interview here http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr08-31-06.mp3. And there is some other stuff here http://www2.parc.com/emdl/members/apte/GingerBeer.pdf and here http://www.fermentedtreasures.com/

After reading and hearing all this I was inspired to make another ginger beer plant, as I threw my other one out a while back and had forgotten about it. I just thought I'd use this post to share some of my experiences with home bred cultures and how I've used them to partly ferment and carbonate home brew soft drinks which are great if you have any citrus trees in your back yard. I've tried a couple of the commercial ginger beer home brew kits and was pretty unimpressed with the results as they taste like diet soft drinks, and I don't like fake sugar flavour. The following brews are not really geared towards large scale production, rather it's for small batches like 4-6L that are consumed within a week or two of bottling. Although you could do more if you want to feed a large crowd in the near future. The good things is that you can prepare it and have it ready faster the home brew beer.

To make a plant you need some type of unsprayed, uncleaned fresh or dried fruit. For the last plant I made I used 1/2 a handful of organic raisins placed in a clean jam jar covered them with cold water, left the lid slightly ajar and then left it near a sunny window (lactobacillus like light, yeast doesn't) for about five days. After this period I strained the water into another jar and added a teaspoon of dried ginger (you can use grated fresh ginger too) and 2 teaspoons of sugar. The sugar feeds the culture, which should be a mixture of lactobacillus and some wild yeasts which will largely be suppressed by the bacteria. In winter the plant needs to be fed 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and 1 teaspoon of sugar every 2-3 days in order to keep it lively. In summer it will need to be feed more often as it is more active in warmer weather. Malt extract will give the culture a more nutritional feed. The plant I made the other day was made by picking a mandarin from a tree in the back yard covering it with water and a dissolved teaspoon of malt extract and following the same procedure as above for the raisins. Any fresh untreated fruit will give you a similar result to using organic raisins. Treated fruits usually have been soaked in bleach solutions which will have killed off many of the wild yeasts and bacterias present on the skins.

So what do you do with the plant? Other than keeping it fed I use it to partly ferment home made soft drinks. For around 6L of ginger beer I usually juice and zest about 6 smallish to medium lemons, or oranges (whatever is on the trees out the back), fresh grated ginger if I have some, and add quite a bit of sugar, a teaspoon of cream of tarter, some boiling water to dissolve the sugar and extract the citrus oils, plus whatever cold water is needed to make up to 6L. I usually do this mix by taste to get the sweetness I'm after. Obviously less sugar more citrus gives you a tarter result.

I then funnel the drink mix into PET bottles or clear plastic soft drink bottles which have been cleaned in very hot water. I would never use glass for this and ultra-careful sanatation is not that important because we're not dealing here with long storage times like we are with beer. The bottles are filled, leaving about 2 inches of head space. I then pour the liquid off the top of the ginger beer plant through a funnel to distribute it evenly amongst the bottles. The dried ginger sediment that is left behind in the jar is the plant. To keep it going for the next batch I add some more cold water (about 1/2-3/4 cup) to it plus a teaspoon or so of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of dried ginger. All the bottles are then capped but only loosely. This is important, as they will explode if left for a while to carb up at room temperature. Leaving them loosely capped allows fermentation to take place and let the excess CO2 vent out. For a sweet soft drink 2-4 days fermentation in winter in a warmish, well lit place is more than enough. I seal the bottle lids tightly and allow them to carbonate fully for a about a day, but no longer. Checking the hardness of the bottle is a good way to see if it is ready: hard bottle = good carbonation. In summer all of this happens in less time. Then I refrigerate before serving. Cooling the ginger beer down is a very good idea before opening otherwise it can gush. Once refrigerated the lactobacillus becomes inactive, and the wild yeasts will often back off too and you can keep the drink in the fridge for about week. It's not advisable to leave it any longer though unless you let off some excess pressure by quickly undoing the lid to vent off the excess CO2. This is a good way to regulate the pressure in the bottles. But the contents should be cold or they will defintely gush. The bit of head space in the bottle gives me some time to quickly twist the cap back to the closed position if the brew tries to escape.

Although this all sounds very backyard and esoteric (i don't make regular beer like this) these ideas presented here actually do work well and the taste of the drink is far superior to commercial home brew ginger beer kits IMO. Sourdough breads are actually made with very similar cultures to this and in Europe there are certain bakeries which have been using the same strains for over 200 years. I have also made lemonades and orangeades from the same plant by using more citrus juice in the mix. After a certain amount of use and refeeding the plant's properties became more stable as one type of culture in the mix becomes dominant over the others. Exposure to some sunlight will aid lactobacillus development and help to suppress any wild yeasts present in the blend.

[KEG]

i'm really beginning to enjoy your posts, the effort is appreciated

i intend to try this at some point too, just like i tried your specialty grain bread

[wildschwein]

Cheers for that. There is a bit info on the net and elsewhere about about it but old fashioned soft drink making is largely a forgotten process. It's a pity as, like regular beer making, it was once part of people's ordinary household practices. Although it's easy to go down the shop and buy a Bundaberg GB I reckon it's great to know how to make your own.

[rwh]

When we were kids my dad used to religiously make batches of ginger beer, about once a week, so that we always had some on hand. You're absolutely right about the glass bottles (don't use them). We even had a couple of PET bottles explode, probably after two weeks or so. It's quite interesting to notice the change in flavour and carbonation as the week progresses... early flat/sweet bottles become fizzy dry ones. Bloody delicious though, and it kept us away from the commercial soft drinks no problem.

[wildschwein]

I just put down a small batch today with my new plant cultivated from the wild stuff off a fresh-picked manadarin described above. I only made 3.75L just to test it out.

Firstly, I zested and squeezed the juice from 6 very small sour marmalade oranges (these seem to be more sour than lemons), and put this in a bucket along with the squeezed-out fruits. To this I added 1.5L of boiling water, 500g of raw sugar, 2 teaspoons of ground mixed spice, 1 heaped tablespoon of golden syrup and 2 heaped tablespoons of dried dark malt extract (DME). I didn't have any fresh ginger or cream of tartar on hand today. I then dissolved everything really well, left it to steep for 5 minutes and topped up the bucket to the 3.5L mark with cold water. Next I strained the contents through a seive to get out all the zest and squeezed orange parts. I used my hands to squeeze all the additional liquid out of the orange flesh. I then checked for sweetness and it seemed like it was sweet enough, so I topped up again with cold water so I had a total of 3.6L of ginger beer 'wort.' Temperature was in the mid 30s: just right for lactobacillus. I then funneled the wort evenly amongst 3 clean 1.25L Pepsi bottles. The additional 100-125mls was made with the liquid off the top of the ginger beer plant which was also poured through the funnel evenly amongst the 3 bottles. The colour is a nice cloudy amber thanks to the DME and golden syrup.

I then loosely capped the bottles and left 'em on a sunny, warm, north facing window ledge inside. Topped up the plant with water and gave it a good dose of dried ginger powder, DME and some raw sugar too; to keep it going for a while. Bubbles started forming in the bottles almost instantly so fermentation is already underway. Hopefully, this plant will be good.

[wildschwein]

First batch went well though I found the plant to be a bit lazy so I added a small amount of ale yeast to it just speed things a long a little. Put on a second batch and did a really authentic tasting GB in just 2 and half days.

I made another 3.75L batch. Firstly, I zested and squeezed the juice from 4 medium lemons into a big mixing bowl and also added 400g of raw sugar, 2 tablespoons of golden syrup, 2 heaped teaspoons of dried dark malt extract, 3/4 teapoon of cream of tartar, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ciric acid, 2 teaspoons of dried ginger, 1 teaspoon of mixed spice. I then covered all this with 1.5L of boiling water and left it to steep for 30 minutes. Then I strained all this through a sieve into a bucket and topped up to the 3.6L mark with cold water. Pitched my yeast boosted plant ( about 150mls worth) into the luke warm mix and bottles into 3 x 1.25L soft drink bottles. I left the lids loose for about a day and then on the second day tightened 'em up before I went to bed. When I woke up the bottle was quite hard so I let off the pressure and retightened 'em and then waited another several hours before they were hard again. Put 'em in the fridge and served it up. Best GB I have ever had. Excellent carb level and nice golden colour, and delightful spicy flavour. Tasted a lot like a specialty organic brand I have had before. At last GB Holy Grail.....

[Kevnlis]

Looking forward to hearing how this goes for you. Great info and I have plenty of citrus trees here in Bundy

Cumquats might be the go for the sourness you need?

[wildschwein]

Yeah I've got a cumquat tree but it hasn't produced a lot of fruit just yet. Citric acid is dirt cheap and certainly helps to bolster the sourness of the brew. So far I've tried sour marmalade oranges, lemons, oranges and mandarins and they all give subtlley different sourness and flavour profiles to the GB.

[wildschwein]

Here's a pic of the first batch

[Kevnlis]

I must say your citrus is in much better shape than ours!

I started a plant today in a small mason jar, used a small lemon and mandarine in half a jar of water with a couple teaspoons of sugar.

Will let you know how it goes!

[wildschwein]

Yeah like I said my plant was a bit lazy so I added a touch of dried ale yeast (left over from a beer kit) to it and that has given me a better performing plant. Ideally fresh grapes are the way to go but they're not in season so anything fresh should work. See how you go though, culturing can be a little hit and miss as you're not alway sure what you're gonna get in terms of effeciency.

[Kevnlis]

Yeah like I said my plant was a bit lazy so I added a touch of dried ale yeast (left over from a beer kit) to it and that has given me a better performing plant. Ideally fresh grapes are the way to go but they're not in season so anything fresh should work. See how you go though, culturing can be a little hit and miss as you're not alway sure what you're gonna get in terms of effeciency.

I have a few grape vines...but no grapes...not even in Bundy are they still growing

PS: Lots of leaves on it still...those never leave up here!

[wildschwein]

I had some mandarins in the fruit bowl that needed to be used up, So, I juiced and used them in general accordance with my ginger beer recipe. The result is a a sweet and refreshing mandarin soda with a thick mouthfeel and a very cloudy orange appearance.

For a 3.75L batch, I juiced 16 large mandarins and poured the juice several times through a sieve to remove as much pulp as possible. The juice was then combined with 400g of raw sugar, 2 heaped tablespoons of golden syrup, 3 teaspoons of dried ginger powder, 1 teaspoon of mixed spice, 1/2 a teaspoon of citric acid, and a pinch of cream of tartar (all put in a big pot and heated to 80C until the sugar was dissolved). This was then topped up with cold water (to make up about 3.6L), decanted in to clean soft drink bottles, and then some ginger beer plant (about 100-150mls) was added.

The bottles were left with the caps loosened overnight, and then sealed the next day. Within less than 8 hours the bottles were hard and carbonation had obviously occurred. I then whacked 'em them in the fridge, to get them cool prior to serving to avoid gushing.

[radtek]

Hi all! My first post to this forum. Crazy for GB!

I'm wondering if the plant from Kombucha would work as a substitute?

[Kevnlis]

Geez I haven't seen wildschwein in ages, he had alot of great posts like this!

Radtek, the ginger "plant" is not an actual plant. It is how we refer to the bacteria and wild yeast growing in the ginger, citrus, and water mixture to get the GB to ferment and create CO2 to pressurise the bottles.

[wambesi]

It does make some very tasty GB.
Just made my latest batch - doing smaller ones now, I ran out of fresh ginger to use in the mixture though so it does not taste like what I wanted

Oh well, in the new year will put on my next plant, trying out different methods still to see what I like best, mmmm Ginger Beer.

[rwh]

Kevnlis, the plant from Kombucha is also not an actual plant.

The culture contains a symbiosis of Acetobacter (acetic acid bacteria) and yeast...

[Kevnlis]

Strange, when I did a search it was talking about tea. Sorry about that radtek!

[radtek]

Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage.... Sounds nasty but supposedly it is wonderful. I have a bottle in the fridge right now. I'm trying to work up the the nerve to drink it.

I can see the plant laying on the bottom of the bottle. At the store they told me I could use it to start my own.

[Kevnlis]

Kombucha is a fermented tea beverage.... Sounds nasty but supposedly it is wonderful. I have a bottle in the fridge right now. I'm trying to work up the the nerve to drink it.

I can see the plant laying on the bottom of the bottle. At the store they told me I could use it to start my own.

I say go for it. If it is anything like GB you will not regret it