Author Topic: Ginger Beer Plant (SCOBY type)  (Read 5715 times)

Offline daska

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 32
    • View Profile
Ginger Beer Plant (SCOBY type)
« on: December 05, 2011, 03:55:44 pm »
Does anyone else here have a GBP? The old fashioned kind which has a scoby that looks like a bit of stewed apple (not brewers/bakers yeast ones)? And do you have any suggestions on recipes/techniques.?

Today I did it as follows: I sliced about an inch of ginger and put it in the bowl wiith a quartered lemon, half tsp of cream of tartar and blitzed on speed 9 for 10 seconds. I then poured in about 500g boiling water and turbo'd it once to clean the sides down. Then I added 200g of sugar and stirred for a minute before straining it into my brew jar and topping up to about 2 litres. (Obviously I'm waiting for it to cool before adding the scoby.)

can I simplify it further?

Off the south coast of England

Offline CarolineW

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1102
    • View Profile
Re: Ginger Beer Plant (SCOBY type)
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2012, 10:51:26 am »
To be honest I don't do mine in the tmx.  I'm making it using a 'continuous' system.  I have a large glass drinks dispenser with a spigot (tap, in case you like me didn't know what a spigot was  ;D ). If you do use is system make sure your container isn't plastic as the GBP has a go at processing that along with the ginger, etc and releases chemical into your brew.  Also, as I'm sure is obvious, the lid shouldn't be airtight.

I started off by doing a normal mix similar to the one you describe.  After a couple of days I added more lumps of peeled ginger direct, put in some sugar, a squeeze of lemon and some filtered water.  I just top it up this way intermittently.  I don't measure (although I probably should).  I put in a mug of sugar and a filter jug full of water, roughly, plus squeeze in half a lemon.  I wondered about just dropping in the lemon, but thought it might eventually become bitter from the pith?

Every couple of top ups I add a tsp of cream of tartar.  I'm thinking of adding the clean shell from a boiled egg to add calcium - good for us and the GBP

Every 3 months or so I drain it off, reserve the GBP (which I have contained in a muslin bag for ease), sterilise the container, and then start again.

I used to do a green tea version rather than a ginger version (same recipe just skip ginger and use green tea instead of water) which was lovely, but I make that with a kombucha scoby now to vary the health benefits.
As my picture shows, I've suddenly become younger :-)  DD was of the opinion that her picture should be here, not mine!

Offline daska

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 32
    • View Profile
Re: Ginger Beer Plant (SCOBY type)
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2012, 12:22:29 pm »
That sounds like a very sensible way to do it. I'm off to find a dispenser :D
Off the south coast of England

Offline CarolineW

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1102
    • View Profile
Re: Ginger Beer Plant (SCOBY type)
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2012, 02:26:41 pm »
😄 best of luck. Let me know how you get on.
As my picture shows, I've suddenly become younger :-)  DD was of the opinion that her picture should be here, not mine!