Jan
2010
How To Make Old Fashioned Ginger Beer
There’s nothing better than a cold refreshing ginger beer after a long hot day.
The following recipe is to make a batch of non-alcoholic ginger beer using a ginger beer plant or living culture of ginger and yeast. The whole process takes almost 2 weeks. I will be starting my ginger plant today.
Ingredients
Plant
1 cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon of fresh yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
Ginger Beer
1 kg sugar
6 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 L cold water
2 lemons
Method
Plant
- use a glass jar and mix together the yeast and water.
- add sugar and ginger, stir well.
- 24 hours later add another 2 tsp sugar and 1 tsp ginger.
- repeat step 3 for the next 5 days, stirring well after each addition
Ginger Beer
- mix sugar, boiling water and cream of tartar together stirring until sugar dissolves. Cool.
- add the cold water.
- juice lemons, strain the juice and add to syrup.
- strain ginger plant through a fine muslin cloth and add the liquid to the syrup.
- bottle, seal and leave for 7 days. I have found leaving a 2 inch air gap in the bottle reduces the chances of explosions!
Store the ginger beer outside the house as bottles may explode with the buildup of gases and always open away from your face!
You can keep the plant going ready for your next brew by dividing the plant mass into 2 and discarding one half. Add 1 cup of water to the plant and repeat the feeding process for 6 days.
Update: am just making the Ginger Beer now and about to bottle. I am re-using beer and wine bottles and have a capper. I am sterilising the bottles by putting them in the oven so no chemicals are used. Hopefully i don’t get too many exploded bottles!
Update: so far so good no exploding bottles! 3 more days to go then the bottles go into the fridge to stop the fermentation process. I’ll be bottling another batch with the ginger beer plant that I kept going.
we had one bottle explode in the middle of the night! Hence why you should put the bottles outside the house to ferment. The rest of the bottles have gone into the fridge to stop the fermentation. This has been less than the directed 7 days of fermentation but because it is summer and temperatures during the day average 27 it has been quicker than expected.
Hi ~ thanks for the instructions! This is something that I have wanted to try making. Did you use regular (baking) yeast or brewer’s yeast?
Hi Kristin, I used brewers yeast, but I might try a batch with bakers yeast as it is something I have in the fridge all the time (for making bread). Although once you make the ginger beer plant, you can keep feeding it and you may not have to make it again for a while… I also used fresh finely grated ginger (instead of the powdered ginger) which is not as strong so I recommend adding more fresh ginger than the recipe calls for and blending it or grating it finely to allow as much flavour to come out. Hey I love the Prudent and Practical site
Kat
I have kept the ginger beer plant going for about 6 weeks now. I have found that using powdered ginger is best (more flavour) and the brewers yeast progressively looses its ability to ferment the ginger beer in the bottle resulting in half fizzy beer. Time to start a new ginger beer plant using dried bakers yeast as an experiment.
Starting plant today, do you seal glass jar during making of plant ?
Hi Simon, I just recycled a glass jar and sealed it with the lid. Are you using fresh yeast? I used brewers yeast and after the 6th batch from the same plant, when opening the bottle there was still a lot of pressure but the ginger beer had considerably lost its fizz. Not sure why it did that I think it came down to the yeast not being so active… The first batch was so fizzy that it made my eyes water. Oh and I had an explosion too! Lucky it was stored under the house…
Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but real GBP is really hard to get hold of these days. It’s not just yeast, but a “symbiotic organism” consisting of a type of fungus and a type of bacteria which grow together to form GBP. There are a few websites out there selling it, although I think they mostly sell just brewers yeast, although one or two may be legit. The following is a good writeup… http://www2.parc.com/emdl/members/apte/GingerBeer.pdf
That’s good to know, thanks Don. That is a great resource you have linked to. Oh how I would love to get hold of a ginger beer plant from the late 1800s!
Thank you for the recipe i found you add 2 or 3 sultanas to bottles just made is the bom
making gb plant for the first time to day. I am using baking yeast so i hope it works!
let us know how you get on… be prepared for explosions
Ginger beer is dead easy to make, I have been doing it on and off for years.
Fresh ground ginger from Buderim Ginger is best not the stale stuff you get in supermarkets however I think Buderim has discontinued ground ginger. I have had reasonable success getting my ginger from some of the Asian stores where their turnover is much better.
If you use raw or brown sugar the GB tends to taste beery, white sugar doesn’t. Depends on your taste. Limes add a nice flavour as an alternative to lemon however I found limes must be green in colour not the over ripe yellow colour. The same can be said of lemons as long as they have some green as well as yellow. Using over ripe fruit can add a woody taste to the GB but it is all up to the users taste. Feel free to experiment but only make a small trial batch rather than throw out your mistakes.
When bottling the beer I found it is much easier to dissolve the 600 – 700g of sugar in about 1 litre or less of boiling water and let cool. Now combine the rest of your ingredients. This way you only end up with about 2 litres of concentrate.
Divide this equally between 6 of 1.25 litre PLASTIC (PET)drink bottles. Sterilize the bottles first in sodium metabisulphite available from your local brewing shop or supermarket. Use 11g per litre for the sterilising solution or as stated on the packet. Follow all other precautions and instructions before using.
DO NOT rinse out after sterilising or you may re-introduce organisms from the water supply.
Now all you have to do is top up your bottles with plain water leaving about 40 to 50mm airgap and store them in an Esky in a cool place. Place a felt tip mark on the water level in the bottle and monitor this level. As the pressure builds the level will drop because the PET bottle will expand or stretch.
DO NOT let the level drop anymore than about 20mm as you are now approaching the burst pressure of the bottle. If this happens carefully release a little of the pressure from the bottle not too much though and remark the level as the bottle will not shrink back to its original size. Discard any bottle that have been stressed in this way after you have enjoyed the contents.
One of the main causes of this is too much sugar or the storage temperature is too high, if possible maintain the temperature around 18C. Many recipes quote 1 kg of sugar, I only use between 600 and 700g, usually the lower amount however I occasionally get GB that is partially flat due to not enough sugar. Consistency in ingredients and method is the secret here.
If any bottle bursts then it is contained within the Esky or other suitable container. Do NOT use the soft polystyrene coolers, they will not contain the explosion.
Using PET bottles removes the risk of flying glass shrapnel and it is easy to monitor the pressure.
The longer you brew and the more sugar you use WILL raise the alcohol level and will taste more beery.
Enjoy.
hi doug
thanks for the tips, i am currently enjoying a brew from a can that used brown sugar, and it has a nice beer hint,
do you have details for using fresh ginger and details on how you make your plant?
I recently made a batch of ginger beer similar to the recipe described above.
Being my first attempt it isn’t quite as I would have liked as it was a little to sweet and not enough of the ginger bite. As Doug said, using less sugar may suite some peoples taste. As far as exploding bottles, ( I use glass 375ml beer bottles) the way I prevent any nasty explosions is by using 1x 600ml plastic re sealable coke bottle as a guide to what the pressure is in the bottles. After 3 days at 25 to 30 degrees C the pressure was quite substantial at which time I hastily put all the bottles in the fridge. The drink is very gassy, I am not sure what the result would have been after 7 days at that temperature. I am trying Champagne yeast on the next batch with less sugar and more ginger. I Hope it tastes better than the last brew.
Hi, I want to make gingerbeer for the first time.Mum used to make it when we were kids growing up out western Qld.
Can I use sterile wine bottles and use their screw on caps?
Thanks Lindy
yes, but if the temperatures are higher than 20 degrees you risk the bottles exploding, so I would store them outside.
Hi Guys
Can anyone tell me why when u divide the bug in half at bottling u only add more sugar and ginger to feed the bug you have left and not more yeast as well. Surely after multiple divides like this the yeast will be gone or does it self propogate
I have recently found out that yeast does self propagate, but when I kept my GB starter going for a few batches it progressively lost it’s ability to produce the CO2 or fizziness when I didn’t add more yeast. This could be because the amount of oxygen in the yeast/ginger/sugar/water mix is low and the yeast needs the oxygen to multiply? Maybe try leaving the jar lid off or shaking the starter after the 2nd or third batch? I have also read that there are differences between bakers yeast and brewers yeast. They are different strains and bakers yeast tend to ferment and produce CO2 rapidly whereas brewers yeast is not as ‘explosive’, taking longer to produce the CO2 (bubbles) but transforming more sugar into alcohol.
Hi kat
Many thanks for you observations. I also use bakers yeast and am now onto my third batch. I will monitor the carbonation level and if I feel it is reducing I will start another bug. I think the yeast does self propagate if properly aerated and kept in a warm place. I think stirring the bug every time sugar and ginger is added will help.
can anyone give me hints on maintaining a ginger beer plant while on vacation? i just got one going and made my first batch but will be gone for 3 weeks. Will the plant survive in the fridge if i feed it before I leave?
Hi Catharine, is it just a yeast and ginger plant that you have made yourself? If so I would just start a new one when you get back from vacation, as I don’t know how it would do without being fed the sugar everyday.
i am making ginger beer for the 2nd time, i made a starter with no yeast that worked, ginger, water and sugar, fed it everyday for 7 days, then i stored it in fridge and it went dormant and now ive awoken it with more ginger and sugar. i turned the first batch into root beer. i just started a 2nd batch of starter with yeast and ginger and sugar. will update.
That’s interesting you used no yeast. Was it fizzy? There must have been enough natural yeasts in the ginger, container or water…
This takes me back to when I used to have ginger on the go all thge time. Will now start one again.
A ginger beer plant is started off with water, sugar, ground ginger, lemon juice and sultanas (organic are best). The naturally occurring yeast on the sultanas grows and is fed by the daily feeds of sugar. Ground ginger is also fed each day to increase the ginger taste, if your plant slows down drop in another sultana taste just like bundy ginger beer
All your comments are interesting, my nana used the sultana’a also
I hope to try a batch soon
Judy
I kept a bug going for several years back in the 80s without needing more yeast. I kept a muslim cloth over the jar instead of a lid. When I went on holiday I got a friend to babysit it. Each week when I split the bug I either gave half to a friend, or used it to flavour a cake or muffins. I made the ginger beer in PET bottles. I once ran out and made some from a different recipe that was ready next day – nowhere near as nice, and 3 weeks later when I couldn’t get the lid off the severely-swollen last bottle, I made the mistake of trying to get the lid off with my teeth. The staff A&E thought it was hilarious- children, don’t try this at home!
My brew has been bottled for 6 days now and I just cracked a bottle (pet) and there was plenty of gas in it, but the drink itself when poured isn’t fizzy. I used 1 kg white sugar when bottling. Has a beautiful taste though no gas. Looks like the soda stream machine will get a workout pumping in some co2.