Finally, after many months of searching, I have a Ginger Beer Plant. A what? people ask. Well, I’ll explain.
A Ginger Beer Plant is a symbiotic collection of microbes (yeasts and bacteria) that is particularly good at fermenting sugar solutions. It exists as gelatinous lumps that look vaguely like overcooked rice crossed with snot, and they will happily ferment any sugary liquid into a tasty (and fizzy drink).
Ginger Beer plants are relatively rare - they first seem to appear in the UK in the 1800’s, which may or may not be related to soliders returning from the Crimean war, bringing them with them. They were very popular, but gradually waned as people turned to shop-bought drinks, to the point where it has become increasingly difficult to track one down.
Sadly, those people who do think of ginger beer plants often think of just using yeasts, which while making ginger beer, is in no way as fascinating (or tasty) as the genuine article!
Hopefully as my plant grows, I’ll be able to share the grains with other people. Until then, the best option is to get onto the Yahoogroups Ginger Beer Plant discussion list, and ask around (which is how I got mine). They come into the general category of SCOBYs (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeasts) which includes sourdough and kombucha, for which there is also a ton of information on the internet.
There are countless recipes and methods online for making Ginger Beer using the plant - however they seem to all boil down into 2 main varieties. In both cases, keep the plant in the light to keep the lactobacillus levels down as these can give a vinegary edge to the plant if they grow too much.
Traditional (Daily) Recipe
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Put the 50-200g of GBP in a jar with a loose lid. Add a pint of water, 2 tsp ginger (powder or grated root) and 2 tsp brown sugar.
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Every day for 7 days, add 1 tsp of ginger and 1 tsp of sugar.
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Strain off the liquid, keeping the grains (optionally wash them to remove the ginger).
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To the liquid, add 1-2 cups of sugar, make up to 2 litres, and seal in a plastic fizzy drinks bottle.
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After 5-7 days (when the bottle is hard) open and drink.
Low Maintenance (Easy) Recipe
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Grate or slice a fistful of peeled root ginger into a pan, add 2 litres of water and simmer, covered for 15 minutes. Leave to cool, then strain. (I grate a whole load in a food processor and freeze the excess).
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Put 50g-200g of ginger beer plant, 200g of sugar (brown or white) and the ginger liquid into a jar.
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Leave in a warm place for 2-5 days, until a sudsy foam forms on the surface.
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Strain off and keep the grains to reuse, add more sugar if necessary to sweeten the liquid, then bottle as above.
I fine the ‘low maintenance’ variation a lot easier, and much prefer the flavour it develops. However, if you have kids or are the kind of person who likes to ‘fiddle’ with these things every day, then the first one might be more to your liking. Of course, there are endless variations that can be made to the recipe - replacing sugar with honey, water with fruit juice. Of course, always be sure never to add anything containing preservatives or ‘antibiotic properties’ to the plant. Experiment with different flavours and quantities.
In general there’s never a need to wash the plant between batches, as this can slow down or change the flavour of the next one. However sometimes the plant can become excessively yeasty (you sometimes see a sandy layer forming around the grains. In this case, wash them briefly in a sieve under the cold tap, but be aware your next batch might taste or behave slightly differently as a result!
Of course, once your plant grows too big for you to use it all, send it on to someone else! The more people have plants, the better for the survival of this delicacy.
There is one more recipe which I use, which is a ‘booster’ recipe - not designed for drinking, but for ‘energising’ the plant and increasing its size. At the end throw away the liquid rather than trying to make ginger beer with it! I’ve made it up based on reading articles on what the microbes in a GBP would like to have access to, and it does seem to encourage growth - so try it and see!
Booster Recipe
As the low maintenance recipe, but replace the 200g of brown sugar with 300g of really dark Molasses Sugar, and also add 1 tsp of cream of tartar, juice of half a lemon, and 25g malt extract (or 2 tsp marmite).
Leave in a warm, sunny place for 7 days. Hopefully the plant will become very active and have increased noticeably in size, with a thick foam on the surface. Swirl well, then strain through a mesh sieve, then wash the grains in cold water to remove as many yeast cells and unwanted flavours as possible
The extra ingredients do the following: cream of tartar acidifies the solution, and helps draw minerals out of the sugar for the plant to use in building more structure. The molasses sugars contain a lot more minerals for the plant to make use of. The malt extract or marmite gives a boost of B vitamins, which are very useful for yeasts and bacterial ‘health’.
Good luck finding a plant, and happy brewing!
