Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Ginger - Update

I've been feeding Ginger every day with a teaspoonful of ground ginger and a teaspoonful of white sugar. When I remove her teatowel she looks like a puddle of clear liquid, with some pale brown sediment on the bottom and a few brownish bubbles on top. After I've fed her and given her a stir, she looks more evenly golden-brown. Then half an hour or so later, she is a lively mass of froth and bubbles. You can see by the tide-mark on the side of her bowl how big she grows at her largest. Then she settles back down to quiescence again.

I'm very fond of her and I'm looking forward to turning her into ginger beer at the weekend. Meanwhile my researches into ginger beer plants have turned up some very surprising and exciting findings. More on that later.

3 comments:

Nick said...

So if I did this in a sealed container and airlock (instead of merely covering with a cloth) would it make alcoholic ginger beer?

Lis said...

I can remember my mum making this wehn we were kids. As for reviving the plant I fround a good set of instructions here that might help you.

http://porteous.org/ginger_beer

ps I enjoy reading your blog :)

Melanie Rimmer said...

Nick, the answer is no. You'd need to add more sugar and use an alcohol-tolerant yeast to get alcoholic ginger beer.