Recently, we purchased a "ginger beer plant" from England, so that we could begin to create and bottle our very own ginger beer. The idea was planted in our minds over Christmas when Lee's father told us about this old school technique which blew up many a british kitchen a few decades ago. Few people make ginger beer the proper way anymore, and if you haven't made it this way, it is unlikely you have ever tasted anything like it.
It's very similar to keeping a bread starter. You feed your "plant" daily with 1 tsp powdered ginger and 2 tsp of sugar. After 7 days you are ready to make ginger beer.
On bottling day, strain liquid and reserve plant and liquid.
Boil 1 litre of water and add 680g of sugar.
Add 3 litres of cold water.
Add juice of 2 lemons.
Add reserved liquid from plant.
Bottle.
2 to 4 days later the plastic bottles should be firm, put in the fridge.
Split plant into 2 and start again.
For higher alcohol, step everything up. In a fermented add your yeast plant starter after the 7 days, add a load of water, lemons and sugar, take your gravity reading, add an airlock, and take readings every few days until you get where you want to go alcohol wise. Probably need to back sweeten if it dries out too much, and careful not to get so high that it kills the yeast or you'll have to force carb. It. Should be able to get to 11%
For an added treat, here's a cocktail we came up with using our ginger beer.
2 parts homemade ginger beer
1 part whiskey or bourbon
.5 parts honey UPDATE: maple syrup works really nicely here too!
.5 parts yuzu
two dashes of maple bitters
Server over ice.
Hey, great article but you have to excuse my ignorance... what is the plant you are referring to? (I assume it's some small scale fermenter?). I'm fairly new to these things but if you could point me towards some valuable background reading that you've found useful, I'd appreciate it (so that I'd best be able to use your recipe). Cheers :-)
ReplyDeleteHi there -- Here is a link to a place with GBP:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.gingerbeerplant.net/
Ginger Beer Plant is essentially the 'starter' to making ginger beer and contains bacteria and yeast. The most authentic you can get comes from the German Culture Bank. We ultimately replaced the English GBP we had with the authentic one from Germany.
Cheers, much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteIf you are kind and generous, you pass on the discarded half of the plant to a friend who then does the same thing. Within a few months your entire town will be brewing Ginger Beer. I wish I was close to you as I would love an original German one. Happy brewing, Chris (Australia)
ReplyDelete