ginger beer

[crazywitch]

just started my ginger beer plant off. used to make it for the kids when they were younger and they loved it on hot sunny days. not using glass bottles like my mum who had to dig out embedded glass from kitchen cupboard doors lol. old plastic pop bottles do fine. i can see myself now sat on my allotment gently browning and an ice cold beer in my hand.

[grannymem]

I used to make loads of it and can well remember the exploding bottles in anold outhouse we had then.
I no longer have a ginger beer 'plant'. Can you remind me of how to get it started? Do you have to use fresh yeast or would dried yeast be OK?

Any recipe would be greatly appreciated

[zazen999]

I remember having one as well; it was very 70s wasn't it

[crazywitch]

I used to make loads of it and can well remember the exploding bottles in anold outhouse we had then.
I no longer have a ginger beer 'plant'. Can you remind me of how to get it started? Do you have to use fresh yeast or would dried yeast be OK?

Any recipe would be greatly appreciated

1oz fresh yeast or 15g dried yeast
10fl oz tepid water
2tsp suger
2tsp ground ginger
stir and put in a warm place for 24 hours covered loosly
feed plant 1tsp suger and 1 tsp ginger each day for next 6 days stir each time,
cover and leave for further 24 hours
strain through muslin (my mum used to boil an old piece of linen sheeting for this use)
reserve the juice for making beer and split the sediment into 2. use half for starting off the plant again and bin or give away the other half.

dissolve 2 lbs of suger in a saucepan and bring to boil to make a syrup
allow this to cool to tepid, in a large container add syrup, juice from plant and the juice off 2 lemons and stir add a further 6 pints of water and stir.
put into bottles and store in a dark cool place, if using plastic pop bottles screw the tops on or if using glass bottles use corks to stopper them.
SAFETY WARNING: PLEASE REMEBER TO RELEASE THE PRESSURE IN THE BOTTLES EACH DAY AT LEAST FOR THE FIRST 2 WEEKS AS NOT DOING SO MAY CAUSE BOTTLES TO EXPLODE, AND IF YOU CAN RESIST DRINKING IT KEEP AN EYE ON THE PRESSURE AFTER THIS

[ohbeary]

The last Ginger beer I made was 14 years ago, it got rather strong!, being a winemaker I kept adding sugar to sweeten! forgetting that it would get more alcoholic the more sugar I added, Duh!, should have used a sweetener!, it became way too powerful for the kiddies attending my **th birthday party so a quantity of commercial fizzy pop was purchased, the excessively dry ginger beer was found by a mate who declared it "mental" just needs something sweet!, the Peach Schnapps I had made was rather sweet, a combination of the two produced a very pleasant drink, please do not try this!!, the grownups were so sozzled that no-one noticed the young teens, my two being the ringleaders, making off with a couple of slabs of canned beer................