How to make real ginger beer (GBP tutorial)

A true Ginger Beer Plant. (DSMZ Strain 2472)

Ok this is my first ever blog project that may actually get me some real followers to this rubbish I waste my time on every other day. I have and always will love and cherish Ginger Beer, or as its marketed by Coca Cola - tangawizi.

I however, hate the carbonated rubbish that the soft drink companys make as it's too sweet, carries junk contents and tastes like you need to brush your teeth immediately after drinking it.

So I used my mate: google. Google said to look at several blogs and articles, so I did - and may i point out if you plan to read only one persons account of making ginger beer then you may fail. I noticed that in some they added or left out parts that others had. So I combined them all together and made my own (bit like that mad religion that takes all the good bits and makes a new one from it).

So Here is what I done for day one:

We want to create a cool named mirk callled lactobacillus, a culture that lives and makes the fizz and more for the brew. Ginger beer is a fermented drink - don't think otherwise. It is special and dates back to ye olde tymes. So, enough with my stupid into, onward to the beer.

1. Grab a jam jar, coffee jar and wash it good.

2. Find some fresh ORGANIC fruit, if you miss this and get tesco/supermarket stuff the yeasts and nice things are all dead with the chemical bleaching etc. So find something like your kids raisins (they are great) I grabbed 3 wee boxes and tipped them into the jar.

3. Fill with water about half way up, dont put the lid on the whole way on the jar - leave it 'ajar' lol. This lets the air at it and allows the yeasts and lactobacillus to start making it happen. Now leave for a warm five days in sunlight, yeast don't like sun but lactobacillus do.

4. By day five you have yeast and lactobacillus and a bunch of smelly fruit, so ditch the fruit and now you have a certified and sought after GBP - a ginger beer plant. You may notice that it does not pack the funky leaves and flowers a plant boasts, but it has all kinds of cool happening, this is the base for any fermented drink from beer to cola.

5. After this period tip the contents through a strainer, transferring the water into another jar. You then added a teaspoon of dried ginger (you could also use freshly grated ginger) 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.

You are now a GBP owner.

For more info join this group like a nerdy me:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GingerBeerPlantArchive/

Part two coming soon. Once I brew it!