Does anyone make their own Ginger Beer?

[MmmCoffee]

I've had a ginger beer 'plant' going for a couple of months, had some lovely fizzy ginger beer every week out of it. But last week I ran out of ginger. I'd just split the plant for a new batch, and it got one teaspoon of ginger on Monday when I split it, and none since. I've been sugaring it every day, and today I finally remembered to buy ginger and bunged in a couple of tablespoons.

Will it 'work' or should I ditch it and start a fresh plant?

Ginger beer 'plant'????

I must know more....

Yes I used to make it regularly.

Have had many explosions!

The plant is just live yeast, so as long as it has had food - the sugar - it will survive. This batch may just not be quite so ferociously gingery!

Ooh please can I have your recipe? Was trying to find the one that mum used to make when we were kids but she no longer has it. I love homemade ginger beer!

this recipe looks very like the one I used.

Plastic pop bottles will work, but don't over-fill, and keep it somewhere cool for the maturing week.

Wow- i was just talking about starting one off! So you can use screw top pop bottles? I might go and start one off right now!

we tried it once - making an alcoholic version.
ended up being quite 'lively'!

You do need very strong bottles - either use glass champagne bottles (with the deep dent in the bottom) and wire the corks in or 2litre pop bottles and don't over-fill. Even then they might explode!

Might have to go and do some myself!

Lemons - check
sugar - check
ginger - check
yeast - check!

hmmmmm.

Darn link didn't work!

I don't have a proper recipe, started off with a teaspoon or so of yeast, warm water, sugar and ground ginger. Fed it with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of ginger every day. After a week, I sieve it, throw away half the sludge and add water to the rest to make a new 'plant'.

The liquid gets a few tablespoons of lemon juice added, then I mix a mugful of sugar with a saucepan full of warm water, stir in the ginger liquid, and bottle it. It's good to drink after one week.

Very very unscientific!

Oh and I use fizzy drink bottles, my saucepan holds enough for a 2 litre and a 1.5 litre bottle, filled to about 3" below the top, then I squeeze the air out and put the lid on.

They haven't exploded yet! [hopeful emoticon]

I was just googling to see if anyone had any ginger beer recipes here, and found this from a few days ago.

I've found a few yeast-based recipes, but was wondering whether if I used them I could be pretty sure that it would turn out non-alcoholic (I know it would have trace amounts of alcohol in - I mean, safe for children to drink). I'm worried that mine would ferment faster or something and end up like ohyoubadbadkitten's...

Yay! Ginger beer. I used to make it with my dad when I was little until one day all the bottles exploded at once over his brand new Ford Granada (child of the eighties!)

I feel inspired to have a go this weekend!!

Vesela - why would yours turn out alcoholic? Do you have some special magic alcohol wand?

because yeast turns sugar to alcohol?

meltedmarsbars - the alcohol level is related to how long it ferments for, so if I follow the recipe and use the right amount of sugar then in theory it should be fine - I think I just have an irrational fear that mine will turn out differently and I'll get DD drunk .

Most recipes suggest fermenting it for 2-3 days, but it seems to depend on how warm it is - apparently you want to do it until it's just fizzy.

OK, this recipe must be pretty reliable, surely - Dean Madden from the National Centre for Biotechnology Education of Reading University suggests fermenting it at 21 degrees for no more than 48 hours (IMPORTANT!) and then putting it in the fridge. I think that's the degree of precision I was looking for...

n.b. that recipe also tells you to ferment it in a covered bowl first for 24 hours (before you bottle it) so 3 days in all.

Blimey that recipe is complicated! I leave mine for a week but I just finished off a bottle that was 3 weeks old. It was very definitely alcoholic - not very strong, but you could definitely taste it.