Ginger Beer

Real ginger beer is made with Ginger Beer Plant, a fungal-bacteria symbiote.    The symbiote is a combination of Saccharomyces florentinus and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii.  I happened to stumble across a company, now defunct that sold the plant a few years ago.  Since then I've been brewing ginger beer to the delight of my family and to the trepidation of a few friends that have been induced to try it.  I've been playing around with the recipe and I've gotten to the point where I just eyeball things and let the Ginger Beer Plant work it's magic.

Lemon-Lime Ginger Beer


Ingredients

2 cups of dark brown sugar
3 lemons juice and zest
3 limes juice and zest
2 tsp cream of tartar
4-6 thumb sized pieces of fresh ginger
4 l of non-chlorinated water
1 tbsp Ginger Beer Plant

Equipment

bodum
teakettle
gallon(4L) pickle jar
long wooden spoon
clean dish towel
strong elastic
jelly bag or cheesecloth
garlic press
strainer
plastic bottles


Zest the lemons and limes.  Place the zest in a bodum and fill with boiling water and allow to steep for about 10 minutes.  Remove the zest and cool the water to room temperature.  While the water is cooling, peel the ginger and cut into small pieces.  Place the jelly bag in the jar and secure the bag's opening over the mouth of the jar using the elastic. Using a garlic press place small pieces of ginger in the press and crush them into the jelly bag taking care to direct the juice into the bag as well.  After the ginger is crushed press the bag to extract the juice.  Add the sugar and the lemon water to the jar as well as the cream of tartar.  Strain the ginger beer plant from the jar you store it in and add it to the pickle jar and then add the remaining water to make up about 3.5 litres.  Place the towel over the mouth of the jar and secure with the elastic.  Leave the jar at room temperature for 24-48 hours or until the desired flavor is reached.  Strain out the ginger beer plant and store as you would normally, bottle the ginger beer and leave at room temperature until the bottles firm up.  Refrigerate the bottles and consume within a week to ten days.

I generally store the plant in sugar water mixed with a bit of dried ginger in the fridge.  The one problem with this is that it seems to make the plant a bit sluggish and slow to reproduce.  When I store it on the counter it seems to reproduce much quicker.  Don't use glass bottles to bottle the ginger beer unless you want glass grenades in the fridge.

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 I should note that you want to maintain a ratio of about a 1/2 cup of sugar to 1 litre of water.  Otherwise you'll stress your plant and get some off smells from your ginger beer.  If you want it a bit sweeter then you can add a bit of sugar to the bottle as you bottle the ginger beer.