Ginger beer

Brewed ginger beer originated in the UK, but is sold worldwide. Crabbie's is a popular brand in the UK.[9] It is usually labelled "alcoholic ginger beer" to distinguish it from the more established commercial ginger beers, which are not brewed (fermented), but carbonated with pressurized carbon dioxide.[10]

Ginger beer brands on a supermarket shelf

The ginger beer plant (GBP), also known as "bees wine", "Palestinian bees", "Californian bees", and "balm of Gilead",[11][12] is not what is usually considered a plant but a composite organism comprising the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus (formerly S. pyriformis) and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii (formerly Brevibacterium vermiforme),[13][14] which form a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). It forms a gelatinous substance that allows it to be easily transferred from one fermenting substrate to the next, much like kefir grains, kombucha, and tibicos.[15] The GBP was first described by Harry Marshall Ward in 1892, from samples he received in 1887.[14][16][17] Original ginger beer is brewed by leaving water, sugar, ginger, optional ingredients such as lemon juice and cream of tartar, and GBP to ferment for several days, converting some of the sugar into alcohol. GBP may be obtained from several commercial sources. Until about 2008 laboratory-grade GBP was available only from the yeast bank Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen in Germany (catalogue number DMS 2484),[12] but the item is no longer listed. The National Collection of Yeast Cultures (NCYC) had an old sample of "Bees wine" as of 2008, but current staff have not used it, and NCYC are unable to supply it for safety reasons, as the exact composition of the sample is unknown.[12]

In the UK, the origins of the original ginger beer plant is unknown. When a batch of ginger beer was made using some ginger beer plant (GBP), the jelly-like residue was also bottled and became the new GBP. Some of this GBP was kept for making the next batch of ginger beer, and some was given to friends and family, so the 'plant' was passed on through generations. Following Ward's research and experiments, he created his own ginger beer from a new 'plant' that he had made, and he proposed, but did not prove, that the 'plant' was created by contaminants found on the raw materials, with the yeast coming from the raw brown sugar and the bacteria coming from the ginger root.[18]

A ginger beer starter can be made by fermenting a mixture of water, brewer's or baker's yeast (not from SCOBY as described above), ginger, and sugar; this is kept for a week or longer, with sugar regularly added (e.g. daily) to increase alcohol content. More ginger may also be added. When finished, this concentrated mix is strained, diluted with water and lemon juice, and bottled.[19][20][21][22][23][24] This is the process used by commercial ginger beer makers. Ginger beer made from a yeast-based starter is reported to not have the same taste or mouth feel as that made with ginger beer plant. And it must be noted the near-complete loss of the ginger beer plant is likely due to the decrease in home brewing and the increased commercial production of ginger beer in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Large-scale breweries favored the use of yeast, as used in conventional beer-making, because of ease for scaled production.

Non-alcoholic ginger beer is a type of carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. An example is Stoney, a product of The Coca-Cola Company widely sold in southern and eastern Africa.[25]