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Incorporate probiotic bacterial into ginger-based beverages! Yum.
Some simple ingredients, a few items from around the kitchen and within 2-3 weeks you can have your own DIY probiotic ginger beer.
Some simple ingredients, a few items from around the kitchen and within 2-3 weeks you can have your own DIY probiotic ginger beer.
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Signing UpStep 1Starting the Ginger Bug
Place 1 cup of filtered water in a pint jar
Add 2 teaspoons of freshly grated ginger root (skin and all)
Stir in 2 teaspoons of evaporated cane sugar, tighten lid and shake.
Cover* and Store in a warm place, add 2 teaspoons of cane sugar and ginger root each day. In 2-7 days, when it starts bubbling, it is active and ready for the next step.
Use right away for best results.
* I use a coffee filter and rubber-band to cover the pint jar.
Add 2 teaspoons of freshly grated ginger root (skin and all)
Stir in 2 teaspoons of evaporated cane sugar, tighten lid and shake.
Cover* and Store in a warm place, add 2 teaspoons of cane sugar and ginger root each day. In 2-7 days, when it starts bubbling, it is active and ready for the next step.
Use right away for best results.
* I use a coffee filter and rubber-band to cover the pint jar.
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Also I used a glass gallon jug with a screw top lid. Will it help ferment?
Wouldn't the yeasty fermentation add to the yeastiness of the gut?
I'm not sure I understand.
Great 'ible, I look forward to trying this :)
Glass bottles are certainly more dangerous, but also more elegant and allow better flavor. Use heavy antique bottles ("refillables") and use a capper, because they will withstand tremendous pressure before exploding. Do not use twist-offs, jars, jugs, growlers, or anything other glass containers. They explode very easily.
I think you and I have had different experiences because you bottle beer while I do soda. Bottling soda is different in some important ways. Explosions are much more common as soda has much higher potential for carbonation after bottling because of its higher sugar content. Bottling beer in mason jars might work fine (I don't know; I have never done it) but bottling soda in them will cause explosions. For more explanation on this (and for more good soda information in general), I recommend Stephen Cresswell's "Homemade Root Beer, Soda, and Pop". In fact, check any published literature about soda brewing and they all contain warnings about both using thin glass and about too much headspace.
I won't argue the point that beverages taste better from glass than from plastic. They do to me, but if you have no preference, then go on doing what you're doing.
Finally, exploding bottles ARE dangerous. Maybe your explosions have not been violent, but some of mine have. I once wanted to bottle in a growler to save time and bottle caps, and the growler exploded while it was in the fridge when the door was opened. I had used the recommended amount of fermentation time, sugar and headspace. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but there were bits of glass in the next room. Flying glass is dangerous and can cause eye injuries. In fact, read the comment below this from Pattus, who had an exploding bottle of soda destroy a refrigerator. If it can do that, I'd call it dangerous.
Maybe you are a better brewer than I am and have had fewer explosions, but I certainly don't want to be responsible for anyone who reads these threads to be injured.
It may not look as nice but when I make ginger beer I use the PET plastic bottles, either old softdrink bottles cleaned or ones Ive bought new from the home brew store. They take a lot of pressure and if they do burst are more likely to tear then explode.
If you wanted to gift them in the swing top glass bottles, I guess you could carefully decant it from plastic to glass with a tiny bit of sugar a day or two before.
You are correct! Yeast takes the sugar molecule, strips oxygen from it, and releases alcohol. It starts in an aerobic environment, then scrubs the environment of oxygen utilizing the oxygen in the sugar for metabolism.
If carefully controlled the amount of sugar in the sealed container will allow the yeast to produce just the right amount of carbonation. Too much the pressure goes beyond the breaking point.
I found out the hard way when I tried to keep outside organisms from invading my primary fermentation by screwing the top down and releasing it when I went by. I didn't have the experience or equipment at the time. The jug blew up, embedding glass into a solid oak desk, scaring the crap out of the dog who wouldn't come back in for days, and leaving sugar water flavored with sunflower petals all over the floor.
There are several ways to stopping the microbes from processing more sugar. The best way is to chill it to 34 degrees Fahrenheit (around 1 degree Celsius). That would either drop the microbes out of suspension or stop them from processing the sugar.
I would recommend instead of using a mystery culture to carbonate like in the steps above (and possibly skunk your drink) is to use something more reliable. Two good options are yeast for beer or whey from yogurt. The yeast can create alcohol and the whey will add a tang to the brew.
If the first fermentation consumes most of the sugars (a week or two) and you only add like a tea spoon per bottle, then the container should be capable of handling the secondary fermentation without a problem.
The thing is and many posters have pointed out is the glass container exploding.
Just think if your office as mentioned in one post container explodes and the boss or some one walking by is hit?
Beer making is done most of the time the way you mentioned. First stage you make "wort". Then it is done in a sealed metal container with it totally sterilized. The sugar already in it it the sole source of food for the yeast. Then when the fermentation gets to a point or stops you drain the "mung" sentiment from the bottom; while keeping things clean. This "mung" is the yeast culture or in this case the bacteria culture. Brewers keep this "mung" for future brewing. Then "bottled" and then letting the fermentation to complete. The process is more involved than I mentioned; but for simplicity sakes I just mentioned the two minimum stages.
One post let it ferment with what ever critters are on the Ginger. Not a real good idea since these "critters" ARE NOT YEAST BUT BACTERIA INSTEAD. Since Ginger grows in the ground the bacteria most likely would be Staphylococcus at a minimum.
The first "beer" was mead. Made similarly as this post but it was a sweet mushy mixture like wort. Set to ferment and hope they got it right to get alcohol instead of food poisoning.
I am going to try this but I am going to use normal sugar :)
I'm sorry, there really wasn't any other way to phrase it and be genuine. :-)
This is a 10 minute presentation: http://bewellmyfriends.blogspot.com/2011/04/dr-oz-on-sugar.html
This one is longer: http://bewellmyfriends.blogspot.com/2011/04/robert-h-lustig-md.html
No matter what you choose to use, stay well!
If you wanted to sweeten it up without fermentation from yeast, use lactose. If bacteria are in there, specifically ones of the lactobacillus genus, they will add a tang because they can process the lactose.
If you use refined white sugar, off flavors can arise. Microbes process it differently then other sugars.
Honey will be completely different then the above two because it imparts a honey flavor addition to the mix after it's sugars have been processed.
If you want little to no flavor contribution of the sugar (from yeast fermentation), then use corn sugar. This is the sugar of choice for home brewers for bottling for the above reasons. For carbonation at room temperatures, go with 3/4 to 1 cup per 5 gallons of brew.
Use a trusted culture and be aware that different flavors can arise from the sugars you use.
Following are the most significant "results" from using the different sugars. This is according to me, so if you feel different, that is up to you. Not all are by "taste", some are by "drunk feel" and side effects.
Malt sugar: very clean, "unoffensive" malty flavor, with a yellowish color. Not sour. Almost no post-sobriety wooziness. Tastes good up to about 7%, then gets a noticeable "texture" - almost a touch syrupy, which is not always bad, but not always good. Once you sober up, you are good to go, however, which is NOT the case with the other sugars!
Corn sugar: This is the "glucose" corn sugar, NOT the high-fructose corn syrup! Clean, clear beer, but with a bit of apple-ish tang. May leave you a touch nauseas or groggy after the alcoholic high wears off, but very mild.
Fruit sugar (Fructose?) from fruit (grapes, apples, etc and I believe is a fructose blend): This stuff is pretty rough, in the wrong hands. It goes from "tasty juice" to "toilet wine" in a flash. Can have a potent alcoholic high, but also is wracked with nausea and grogginess, which can lead to going "Mel Gibson". My theory is: the charcoal in the oak wine barrels "charcoal filters" whatever byproduct the fermentation makes. Without the charcoal barrel aging, this is a hangover and headache creator. This is just my theory, derived from years of wine tasting, and stand by it. This is also expensive sugar, compared to the other sugars, unless you access to the fruit.
White sugar: Slightly cloudy, and hard to clarify. Not tangy. If not-too-strong (<4% alcohol), tastes really, really pleasant, but higher strength is not-so-clean tasting. The alcohol effect is only half the high - a "pirate drunk on Nyquil" feel comes on along with the alcohol effect, like you are in a cloud, and can stick around for a few HOURS, so it is not necessarily a good thing, or maybe it is! This "drunk pirate" effect can actually be STRONGER than the alcoholic effect. It is like drinking a cheap tequila vs well aged scotch, where this is the cheap tequila. Still, it is MUCH more predictable than fruit sugar.
Brown sugar: Similar to white sugar. Tasty, but use with caution.
Molasses: Similar to white sugar, but very expensive.
High-fructose corn syrup: Similar to fruit juice (fructose). This has a high percentage of fructose, and can really kick you in the head. The result is "clear", but with apple-like tang. Not a benign or easy sugar to ferment.
The combination of "ginger" and "white sugar" make a really fantastic tasting brew. It tastes pleasant, and makes you wish you were sitting by a pool sipping it cold from the fridge. In low concentrations, the drunk pirate effect is minimized, but trying to put down a 6-pack of it would be ill-advised, unless you used maltose as the main fermenting sugar, but then, it tastes like malt. In concentrations over 5%, the "drunken pirate" kicks in hard.
http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showid=16717
After the long introduction, he goes into how the human body processes food and in particular, sugars. It turns out that there is high fructose corn syrup is an insidious chemical that, when processed by our body, has devastating effects on our health. Avoid it like the plague that it is.