Looking for "real" ginger beer plant

[GingaNinja]

Up until today i thought making a ginger beer plant consisted of adding bread yeast, ginger and suger in a jar and letting it do its thing for a week. Apparently its not that simple.

Ginger Beer Plant is an anaerobic ginger beer starter culture, a natural occurring self-propagating organism comparable to gelatinous lichen. It consists of primary yeast known as Saccharomyces pyriformis and a primary bacteria species Brevibacterium vermiforme, now known as Lactobacillus hilgardii

The gelatinous ginger beer plant (often referred to as the “real ginger beer plant”), as distinguished from the delicate, wild caught yeast variety, consisting of ginger sludge that circulates by the same name and for which the gelatinous ginger beer plant was named, was at one time in wide usage as a ginger beer starter culture, especially in England, until wars brought shortages of sugar and spices with which to maintain it, thus contributing to its demise.

Taken from www.fermentedtreasures.com/gingerbp.html

its probably a long shot but worth a crack.

If anyone has some or knows where to get some please let me know.

Cheers

Ginganinja

Edited July 28, 2008 by GingaNinja

[Teotzlcoatl]

hmm....

Cool!

It's kinda like Kombucha, I guess... do you know what that is?

[2b]

My mum used to make ginger beer when we were kids. She would start the plant with one saltana then once it got going it was divided up for each bottle. I also think she used powdered ginger.

[GingaNinja]

My mum used to make ginger beer when we were kids. She would start the plant with one saltana then once it got going it was divided up for each bottle. I also think she used powdered ginger.

Yeah thats the type of recipe that i know and use. They claim this is the newer version to the old version with the gelatinous plant. It could be something simple but from what i can gather its not so easy to just "make' this gelatinous one at home. people seem to send the culture all around the world.

[shortly]

The only mobs i've heard of selling what is supposed to be the real deal are www.gingerbeerplant.net & www.happyherbalist.com/