Ginger Beer with Ronda

Just before Christmas, Ronda (on her Down-to-Earth blog) posted up a recipe for Ginger Beer.  I thought it was something interesting I could do.  Phil thought it was a great idea too, as he loves that kind of thing.  Not the alcoholic kind, just the home brewed drinks - Bundaberg style :D

So I started our own ginger beer plant.  I thought it was doing pretty well, until I mixed it in with the water, sugar and lemon juice, then it seemed to die.

I am currently testing whether adding a tiny bit of yeast each day, then draining some of the 'plant' into the bottle ginger beer helps.  It seems to be doing a much better job.  Obviously I don't have enough air circulating around my kitchen.  The rainy weather possibly isn't helping at all either!

Anyways, here's the link to Ronda's blog with detailed instructions.  http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2012/01/making-ginger-beer-from-scratch.html The comments are helpful as well, especially the bit about leaving the tops off your plastic bottles when you have them sitting on the bench full of ginger beer so that air can still circulate (doh, didn't know about that until this morning).

 Fresh Ginger and a teeny tiny little grater

 20 cups of water in a giant tub.

 My Ginger Beer plant - it needs lots of stirs during the day to get the air circulating into it.

 Pouring the first bottle

Ladles and Ginger Beer

I have a second Ginger Beer plant bubbling away happily on my bench which is looking a lot more promising than the first one.  The three bottles I have from my first batch, which I added a little bit of the second plant seem to be doing much better today.  There is definitely something happening in them now.  Just have to wait a few more days to find out if they will work.