Monday, November 29, 2010

Ginger Beer 2

Sunday morning and the ginger beer plant was ready. It is a really simple process to make. Just melt 4 cups of sugar in 1 litre of water on the stove. Take off the heat and add a further 4 1/2 litres of cold water and 1/2 cup of lemon juice.




Strain the ginger beer plant through some muslin and add the strained liquid to the water and sugar mix. That's it.






Now pour the mix into some clean PET bottles, put the lids on and wait for about 2 weeks. I still always store the bottles in a shed outside but that is just out of habit. In the old glass bottle days, it was much safer to have them outside where the mess of an exploding bottle didn't matter so much!
To keep the plant going,  the residue in the muslin is divided in half. Put half back in your plant jar, add 1 cup lukewarm water, 1 teaspoon of sugar and ginger. Continue to add sugar and ginger each day for another week, then you can make up the recipe and bottle another batch. The second half of the residue either gets thrown out or made into another plant to share with a friend!
Happy drinking.

3 comments:

alex said...

how long does it keep for as most ginger beer doesn't keep very long?

Sue Roberts said...

we have drunk some of this ginger beer recently as there are still a couple of bottles left over from Christmas time and it is still fine....so it is about 9 or 10 months old.

Unknown said...

The primary ingredient in ginger beer -- ginger root -- contains active compounds that can help relieve nausea and possibly fight inflammation and prevent the growth of cancer. Ginger beer is made from fresh or dried ginger, sugar and some lemon juice. These are the same basic ingredients used in ginger ale, but the ale adds seltzer water, while the beer uses water and yeast to produce gas and a carbonated effect.

Source: Fresh Ginger Beer