In a ferment...

thriftwizard

I know a number of you make sourdough bread, and kimchi & kombucha have been mentioned elsewhere, as has kefir in one or other of its guises. All of which I do regularly, and have done for a number of years. I've yet to make sauerkraut, but am looking forward to doing so; I've just failed to make lacto-fermented tomatoes (but will try again) and I'm looking forward to trying lacto-fermented plums as soon as they're ripe!

So I'm hoping to tap into the hive-mind here, as something unexpected has happened. A bottle of ginger beer had been stuck at the back of the fridge for weeks; it wasn't in one of my usual brown swing-top bottles (brown=ginger beer, green=water kefir, clear=elderflower champagne or kombucha) so I'd lost track of it. Anyway it was the only fun thing to drink with tea tonight, so I drank it, and it was very, very good, if less sweet than usual and almost alcoholic-tasting. But at the bottom was an unusual residue; not the usual dead yeast, but kefir-type grains! Lots of them - they'd clearly been growing in there.

Obviously cross-contamination has happened, though I'm slightly puzzled as to how, as the nearly-four-year-old ginger beer "plant" lives on top of the boiler and the water kefir in the fridge; it only comes out to be "refreshed" and bottled up. I rarely make the two brews at the same time & they don't share bottles or utensils. I know ginger beer was originally made with something similar to kefir grains, rather than just yeast; is it possible that somehow my "plant" has spontaneously produced it's own symbiotic culture?

I've popped some of them into a jar with water, sugar, ginger & a slice of lemon - will report back on whether they continue to grow!

maryb

Ooh interesting! Let us know how it gets on

I prefer kombucha to kefir because I find kefir gives me heartburn. I think a number of people find that judging by t'internet. But ginger is good for upper digestive tract so you could have a real winner on your hands

pattypan4

cross contamintion is bound to happen. I keep kombucha, sauerkraut and sd starters all in the same fridge. Super charged bacteria. It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall in their microscopic world

PipneyJane

I am very curious to find out whether your experiment works.

In the meantime, please tell me more about making ginger beer. I think I've got a recipe kicking around somewhere - and I had ambitions to brew things, when we moved into this house 16 years ago - but I've never attempted it. What equipment do you need?

- Pip

thriftwizard

PipneyJane, I originally used Margaret Vaughan's recipe from the book "Fruity Passions" - it's about country winemaking! As follows, slightly edited, denoted by an *:

Ginger Beer Recipe

"For the "Starter"
15g yeast (*I used dried bread yeast)
450ml warm water
2tsps ground ginger
2 tsps sugar

To "feed" the "plant"
6 tsps ground ginger
6 tsps sugar

To Flavour the End Result
750g of sugar (*I use 700g, it works)
1.2l water
Juice of 2 lemons

To Dilute
2.75l water

Mix starter ingredients in a glass jar with a lid. Stir well, cover & leave in a warm place for 24 hours (a sunny windowsill is fine).

Feed with 1 tsp of ground ginger & 1 tsp sugar daily.

After 7 days, strain the plant through a fine sieve.

To flavour, the drink, dissolve sugar in warm water. (*Make sure the temperature isn't above 40℃ or your yeasts will die! I always dissolve the sugar in about 500ml of hot water, then add the 2.75l cool water to bring the temperature back down) Add the lemon juice & the liquid from the plant. Mix well & bottle; leave for 7 days to mature."

I use swing-top glass bottles now (secondhand brown Grolsch bottles, found in a charity shop) but previously re-used 500ml plastic Coca-Cola bottles as DS3 is a Coca-Cola addict. (I don't want to think about the possibility of plastic contamination, but equally, at least the bottles got re-used!)

Don't panic if you forget to feed it one day - just give it a bit more the next day! It takes quite a while for the yeast to die, though you will get an "off" flavour if it's left hungry for too long.

Also, you can "chain" the ferment by discarding, or giving away, half of the stuff you strained out of the liquid, putting the other half back into your jar, refilling with water & continuing as before! As I live in an area where my (now grown-up) kids consider ginger beer to be a cultural obligation (thank you, Enid Blyton) my ginger beer plant has now been going for almost 4 years and has assumed a character all its own - fiery but refreshing & delicious! - and probably contains more agents of fermentation than just yeast.

And don't, whatever you do, get in a tiswas about ingesting sugar; you're feeding it to the yeast, not yourself! Leave the sugar out & it will die, as several earnest health-seeking souls have discovered. There will be some left in the resulting brew, but not 700g... equally, there will be a trace of alcohol, but just a trace; you've stopped the process before it can really build up.

Enjoy!

maryb

How do you strain the liquid without some of the ground ginger making it sludgy? Do you use layers of muslin?

thriftwizard

I use muslin or another fine cotton in a nylon sieve, Mary's. I'm in a position where lots of old fabric passes through my hands. Muslin's fairly easily come by, as opposed to (proper) ticking, which is rarer than hen's teeth!

PipneyJane

thriftwizard wrote: »

PipneyJane, I originally used Margaret Vaughan's recipe from the book "Fruity Passions" - it's about country winemaking! As follows, slightly edited, denoted by an *:

Ginger Beer Recipe

"For the "Starter"
15g yeast (*I used dried bread yeast)
450ml warm water
2tsps ground ginger
2 tsps sugar

To "feed" the "plant"
6 tsps ground ginger
6 tsps sugar

To Flavour the End Result
750g of sugar (*I use 700g, it works)
1.2l water
Juice of 2 lemons

To Dilute
2.75l water

Mix starter ingredients in a glass jar with a lid. Stir well, cover & leave in a warm place for 24 hours (a sunny windowsill is fine).

Feed with 1 tsp of ground ginger & 1 tsp sugar daily.

After 7 days, strain the plant through a fine sieve.

To flavour, the drink, dissolve sugar in warm water. (*Make sure the temperature isn't above 40℃ or your yeasts will die! I always dissolve the sugar in about 500ml of hot water, then add the 2.75l cool water to bring the temperature back down) Add the lemon juice & the liquid from the plant. Mix well & bottle; leave for 7 days to mature."

I use swing-top glass bottles now (secondhand brown Grolsch bottles, found in a charity shop) but previously re-used 500ml plastic Coca-Cola bottles as DS3 is a Coca-Cola addict. (I don't want to think about the possibility of plastic contamination, but equally, at least the bottles got re-used!)

Don't panic if you forget to feed it one day - just give it a bit more the next day! It takes quite a while for the yeast to die, though you will get an "off" flavour if it's left hungry for too long.

Also, you can "chain" the ferment by discarding, or giving away, half of the stuff you strained out of the liquid, putting the other half back into your jar, refilling with water & continuing as before! As I live in an area where my (now grown-up) kids consider ginger beer to be a cultural obligation (thank you, Enid Blyton) my ginger beer plant has now been going for almost 4 years and has assumed a character all its own - fiery but refreshing & delicious! - and probably contains more agents of fermentation than just yeast.

And don't, whatever you do, get in a tiswas about ingesting sugar; you're feeding it to the yeast, not yourself! Leave the sugar out & it will die, as several earnest health-seeking souls have discovered. There will be some left in the resulting brew, but not 700g... equally, there will be a trace of alcohol, but just a trace; you've stopped the process before it can really build up.

Enjoy!

Thanks Thriftwizard. I will save you post and may have a go later in the year.

- Pip

- Pip

GardenGirl77

Thanks for the recipe I feel I need to try it too
I recently tried a (pre made) ginger & lemon kombucha and loved it so I might have to look into kombucha making too

betony

Very interesting, ThriftWizard! I look forward to the results of your experimentation.

Camomile

Reading with interest...
I was wondering what would happen if I “infected” my sd starter with sauerkraut juice.
Never tried kombucha, tempted to try kimchi but never enough time.

Making sauerkraut is dead easy: white cabbage shredded, salted and packed very tightly in a large container( ceramic is best). You can add some grated carrot, peppercorns and bay leaves(they are optional)

Put the ceramic plate at the top of cabbage and weigh down so all the cabbage is immersed in its juice.