Ginger Beer from Scratch: Part 2

 Last time we spoke, I was feeding the "bug" on my kitchen counter. 

That went on for a week and I did not kill, starve it, drop it or spill it. (It's ok to be shocked, I was.) At the end of 7 days on a restricted sugar-ginger diet, I could swish it around a bit and actually hear fizzing going on. Through the cloth that was the lid on my jar, I could smell something unapologetically ginger-beery! So that's all good news. 

Then came time to make something out of the syrup and bottle it. My recipe was a bit short on the details and my mamma hadn't held my hand this far, so I did what all people my age do... I Googled the heck out of it. (Now there is time I'll never get back!) 

It's safe to say there are 100 different recipes out there and after I weeded out the ones that add yeast, brown sugar or ginger syrup, I found "my people" and collated their advice into something I wanted to hear anyway.  Admit it, we all do it!

The general consensus was to not put the "bug water" into the nearly boiling sugar-water as my recipe seemed to suggest. Instead I added the cold water then added the bug to the 4+ liters of liquid that was barely lukewarm. 

Yes... I halved the recipe. Just not convinced I needed 8+ liters of soda with a limited life expectancy,  in the next 4 days. Plus, it might be awful. I'm learning by experimentation and my test batches shouldn't feel like 5 cups of sugar going down the sink when 2.5 cups would be plenty enough to feel wasteful.

I sterilized my bottles in the oven - after I removed the reusable caps which I'm pretty sure shouldn't be baked. Then let them cool under a clean cloth.

I bottled the ginger beer, leaving the neck of the bottle empty for accumulating gas and pressure.  After labeling with my handy chalk pen, they each received a single raisin and then went back to the counter where the granite that surrounded them rarely gets too warm. 

NOTE: I had way more than 6 pint bottles worth of immature ginger beer. I took some left over and added to a large Mason jar. I doubled down on the ginger syrup in this mix because having tasted the immature ginger beer, I thought it was quite weak and a tad disappointing. I have no idea if apparent strength changes over the next 3-4 days but at least I'd be able to compare the recipe version with my own more concentrated version to figure it out this week - before my bug was ready to produce batch #2. (If I were you, I wouldn't use a mason jar. Learn from me! The gas causes the screw top lid to get tighter and it pushes up. If yours was a more successful batch than mine, it would likely explode!)

It is also worth noting that one of the recipes I read suggested to NOT make ginger beer from the syrup in Week 1, but instead to toss it out and just divide and feed the bug for another week before attempting to brew.  So I guess part of this experiment will also be comparing Week 1 with Week 2 at recipe strength and at Dallice's gut-instinct strength. What could go wrong?!

As for the bug, I had squeezed it out good and proper after straining it through my cotton cloth and it seemed the next step was always going to be to divide the wad of ginger/lemon/raisins in half, then return half of it to the "starter" Mason jar with another 2.5 c of water and more ginger and sugar. 

Having read that natural ginger root (vs powder) contains a yeast that helps with brewing, I decided that todays tablespoon of ginger would be the finely grated kind. 

Now it was a waiting game... I'll update when we've tasted the final product!

October 1, 2023

Well, I've tasted several bottles of the ginger beer over the past couple of days and I wasn't very impressed with my handiwork! (Including the double-syrup one.)

Fizzy        0/10

Flavor      5/10

Effort      10/10

Today I washed all the ginger beer down the sink and set to work with my bug, to make Brew #2. I tweaked the recipe so that I only used 3L of water and 3/4 c of sugar. Into that I added 1.5T of lemon juice and 2 T of finely chopped fresh ginger. It got boiled and strained and when back to room temp, I added 1.25c of the strained bug-juice (starter). It tasted considerably more gingery and that's already an improvement on last week! 

6 bottles are back on the counter again and we'll simply repeat the "taste and review process" next week. 

Oh... and I went back to my love-hate relationship with Google to see if gathering more info would yield different results. 

• I used fresh ginger in the cooking of the ginger beer liquid today.
• I'll be using just fresh ginger in my ongoing bug this week. 
• I'm considering moving the bottles to a darker and slightly warmer location.
• I noticed that one guy mixed his beer recipe in a large container then covers it with cloth and ferments it again for a week before bottling.... and I've filed that under "tweaks I might try".
• Another person made no bones about it: making ginger beer from scratch using the "probiotic method" without yeast and flavorings, is actually not as easy! My gratitude goes to that person, who made me feel more like a scientist than just a failure!

Yeah... I'm getting thirsty. And impatient. This type of project is probably better suited to persons of character a bit different to mine! Luckily I'm stubborn too.

October 13th.

It has been almost 2 weeks since I bottled Brew #2. I try to burp them everyday, but there's no gas to be burped! About a week ago I moved them to a warmer location... it has not helped. Because some recipes literally say it takes a couple of weeks, these bottles will get the benefit of the doubt and more time to ferment.

In the meantime Brew #3 happened tonight!

The recipe HAD to be tweaked. I'm not an idiot... if I did the same as Brew #2, wouldn't I likely get the same results?! *Maybe.  But I'll be honest; my bug is way more active this week. Visible bubbles accumulate under the weight of ginger bits and it's hella more vocal too. Is it crazy that I believe I am starting to understand it's communications to me? Some days, when it sounds quiet and tired, I give it a little extra sugar. It totally perks up! (Yes, it is probably just as well I didn't rear children.)

Step 1: 

Boil a 1/4c of grated fresh ginger, 1/4 c of lemon juice and 1 c of white sugar in 1 liter of water. 

Let it steep for 1 hour before straining. I wouldn't say my 'tea' was clear or debris-free at this time as small particles of ginger got through... but I wasn't too worried.

Add 1 liter of cold water to this tea and let it come to room temp. Mine was just over 80℉.

Add 1 c of the strained bug-juice. (Taste tested here... Yummy! The right amount of ginger now, IMHO.)

Stir and bottle into sterile containers. 

Seal and label!

This batch found themselves in a shady corner of my office, which is likely a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house.

October 17

I have been burping Brew #3 for 3 days and YES, there is gas!  Today I decided to take it a step further and taste test a sip. 

Note to self; don't do this in your office, do it over the kitchen sink. Despite being burped just seconds earlier, there was enough gas to fizz my sticky drink up and out onto the floor as I panicked and ran across the room with it. LOL. I'm sure the floor was overdue to be mopped anyway. 

I lost about 3 tablespoons of ginger beer!

Taste: Pretty good. A bit sweet for my liking so the cap went back on and I'll continue to burp but not retest for a couple more days. The idea is that the bug consumes more sugar before then, leaving me with a spicier and less sweet version of what I have now.

                                   

I have transferred these bottles into bubble-wrap baggies and put them in a cardboard box for the remainder of their growing life outside of a fridge. All of a sudden the explosion risk feels real. I'm in the big leagues now!

Today I'm discarding Brew #2 - still flat as a pancake with raisins drowned pitifully in the bottom of each bottle. Those bottles will be reused for Brew #4 this weekend! My bug is still gurgling along on the kitchen counter :-)

Ok final note for today; The longer I work at this the easier it is to see that perhaps one recipe doesn't fit all - no matter how many generations the recipe-gifter claims had success with it! The amount of yeast on the ginger, the speed of growth of the bug at altitude or my temperature, the ratio of water and lemon and ginger... all kinda hit and miss, a lot depending on personal preference for taste in the end. This IS a science experiment and failure means learning just as much - or more - than success does.  The bar was set inappropriately high for my finished product the second I aimed to be "just like Bundaburg or Fever Tree ginger beer".  And now I know why it's pricey to buy too!

October 19th. 

Tonight, I drank ginger beer! 

Taste.  8/10

Fizz.     8/10

Brew #4 goes ahead tomorrow - with minimal tweaks.  Maybe a little less lemon.  5+ days to sit and percolate... then put it in the fridge to put the halts on it and drink it cold. 

• 1 L of water, boiled with. 1.5 c of white sugar, 1/4 c lemon juice and about a inch of thick ginger root, finely chopped. 
• Leave the water to come to room temp (or stew about an hour) before straining it and adding 2 L to the mix. 
• Add to this, 1.5 c of the strained bug juice. 
• Bottle, add a raisin and cap.
• Label.

October 31st, 2023

Brew #4 is a success and I repeated it with Brew #5...  but as is always the case, there *might* be room to improve it after giving it more taste testing and cogitating a bit.

Im going to reduce the sugar to 1.25 c for the next brew. The spiciness is perfect but what if it was a touch less sweet?  Yes!

A bit of a Kiwi road trip

 I do feel like this has become a wee tradition. I land, stay, visit and then my folks offer to drive me back to Auckland (via the scenic route) for the flight back Stateside.

We left New Plymouth with a good plan I think. It was time to reintroduce me to the path less traveled... The Forgotten Highway that runs from Stratford to Taumarunui, through Whangamomona and with a slight diversion, through Ohura too.

 It had been almost 35 years since I traveled these unfamiliar but peaceful and colorful roads. Each turn more winding. The hills rolling, dotted with farm animals, a stone's throw from precisely nowhere!

Back in Colorado lichen grows slowly and this little forest-on-a-stick would be 20 years in the making. Here in King Country, lichen seizes every chance to smother any kind of wood that is undisturbed for a few months!

Good advice, I'd say.

We stopped in Whanga for a flat white and bathroom break. The old hotel smelled like an English pub, the food was homemade and of the 5 people we saw, 2 were doing as we were... just passing through.

The town is "blink and you miss it" small. But what it lacks in population and all sorts of other things, it makes up for in character and history.

When I die, I'd like my headstone to read "unique and lovely thing from New Zealand". Kidding... I'm being cremated so no-one has to frown while they carve the word "lovely"!

A couple of gems from the Whangamomona Hotel:

Also good advice!

We headed toward Ohura, stopping only to show me the grave site of a surveyor who died of suspected appendicitis (turned peritonitis) back in the day when the pony ride out of this place took so long that a person died before help could be fetched.  He was a relative of my grandfather on my mom's side - if I'm not mistaken.

R.I.P Joshua Morgan

Ohura. Now just 120 people.  My great grandparents had the general store once upon a time and my grandmother was their oldest child of 11. My grandfather worked in the coal mining industry. They raised 4 kids of their own here... my mother being the youngest daughter.

My father got his first job in Ohura, working for the bank and moved here from Taumarunui - about 50km away. This is where my parents met. I also learned that their respective grandparents had known each other for a long time prior to the meeting. Small towns... everyone knows everyone and nothing is a secret for long!

Now the store, the bank and the coal mine are all just part of this towns history. Time has not been all that kind to the dwellings I saw here and rumor has it, it's the most affordable place to buy a house in all of NZ. It doesn't seem to be stopping people from being happy here and enjoying the perks of living away from the hustle and bustle of ... Taumarunui!

A quick stop in Taumarunui for coffee and cookies. A bit of a drive-by to see the former houses of my dad's parents (nana and pop Tylee) and my dad's youngest sister (the late aunty Marilyn). Both places I spent a lot of time at as a kid. Memories that are lovely and I feel deeply connected too but strangely don't match up very well with what things actually look like. 

This is nana and pop Tylee's house: It was warm with underfloor heating and heavy drapes. On Sunday's it smelled like roast chicken. The dining room had a giant heavy black phone on a hutch and it rang loudly. My nana hummed along to a Richard Clayderman record playing from the living room. Our beds had feather quilts and more often than not we had porridge for breakfast before heading out into the back yard to play with the neighbors guinea pigs. My grandparents had no problem giving 7 year old me a knife and a few empty glass essence bottles so I could chop and smoosh plants and acorns up in the yard, to make potions! The house always seemed bigger than it is in this picture.

Aunty Marilyns house was where my sister and I played with our twin cousins and their neighbors. I almost lost my brand new front teeth jumping out of one of those front windows. They had a vintage fridge that fascinated me and there always seemed to be little buns with jam inside them coming out of the oven. None of us had all that much... but I don't remember that mattered.

Leaving Taumarunui, we stopped at a lookout. The 360 degree view went for miles. We were in the heart of NZ. The heart of New Zealand is an unfolding landscape that is rich in trees, farmland and very small towns. The roads are narrow and winding. The smell is fresh and on a good day, the sky is blue. Today was a good day!

I'm a shadows and reflections focused photographer. And lucky for me, my parents are good with playing along.

Lake Taupō. New Zealand's largest lake - located in the caldera of Taupō volcano. A great place to end the day at sunset and begin tomorrow with a lake walk.

I come by my questionable sense of humor, honestly!

Looking across the lake to Mounts Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe.

Kiwis are known for their ingenuity. One of the things that delighted me about Taupo was the bicycle repair station positioned along the path of the lake. Complete with tools and a bike pump, this is just downright genius... and kind! Two of my favorite things!

This is my dad . Now in his mid-70's he's still rocking it as my model and delighting in all thing cycling! I hope I'm half the person he is when I get there too.

I was pretty sure this guy and I were going to be BFF's. Alas when he found out I had no snacks, he rejected me. Rude mallard!

A bit of cultural art and for me, musings on how different cultures share similarities. This Maori 'tree of life' sort of thing was fascinating. Deep down our different cultures actually have more in common than we probably realize. 

Arrived in Tauranga. Shoot it was warm! I took off my boots and barefooted it to the beach (directly across the road from the sweet Airbnb we had). The sand was soft, the shells washed up were pretty and the surf was gentle - yet loud.

Soooo many questions about shrink-wrapping a house in plastic in order to do construction undercover! NZ is a pretty environmentally friendly place so it surprised me that all this plastic was to be dumped after use.... leaving behind a more efficient and updated house at what environmental cost?!

My parents. Married 51 years.

I ended my trip with a Jandhe visit, as I often do. We met and worked together in London about 25 years ago. Where has the time gone? 

It seems funny to me that I forget to take a selfie with her almost every single visit. Our friendship has been like this forever. The moments together are rich and rewarding - and I literally stay present in those moments. What a gift! And now I get bonus gifts. Her daughter Abi and I get along like a house on fire and I look forward to seeing her too. Plus Jandhe has a Chris now.... This guy makes her smile brightly and clearly cherishes her. 

That makes me smile too. :-)