I bottled at 1.010 and believe me they needed burping daily. This is the problem in a nutshell.
I've had my fair share of drain feeding and I see no point in pretending it doesn't happen. I think it's important for newbies to understand that **** can go wrong. It isn't the end of the world and in my most recent case I've been able to actually still drink 120 bottles that would otherwise have been poured out. I was lucky as sometimes it is just rubbish and you need to cut your losses and go again.
I once had a fermenter that threw bad beer every time I used it no matter how much I tried to clean and sterilise it. Eventually had to just dispose of it. I'm sure many people will be aware of The Eumundi Brewery infection tale. I believe they shut the whole shebang down because they couldn't clean it up.
Ok - it might sound silly but I was just trying to understand, so I assume that you've essentially bottled it when you expect that it's still got further to go with the primary ferment? You've then added some extra sugar to ensure bottle carbonation and are 'burping' to keep this vaguely under control and not so you get froth monsters?
I understand - but I thought from your 'chronicle' you were fermenting it out down to a stable level. Then backsweetening with lactose, then adding enough sugar for bottle conditioning? Apologies if I've missed something.
Yes, thankfully I've never had a stubborn infection or any infection in either a bottle or fermenter. I always try and clean ASAP and change up what I use every now and then to keep the baddies off guard.
I did some fairly thorough research last night, following up on your question nick, about feeding and maintenance of a GBP. As it turns out, what is very commonly referred to as a GBP, actually isn't, and the "recipes" or instructions on how to create one are highly unlikely to succeed. What is actually created, unless you're extremely fortunate, is a ginger bug. I have most likely only created a bug and not a plant
Yes, I never really looked into the difference between the two myself - the Ginger Bug is essentially a scoby, similar to what is used for kombucha - as it's done by wild yeasts you might get lucky but you also might not - in terms of the end results it gives. From what I've read it very much struggles to do much more than low level sugar ferments.
A Ginger Beer Plant is a very specific combination of bacteria - and seems to be from the Water Kefir grain family. Its regarded as impossible to make yourself - and so you have to source from someone who has this.
Personal opinion only but for anything other than a very small trial brew - I'd go with the trusted, predictable results that a commercial brewing yeast brings over both of these - particularly with alcoholic GB. I'd feel to do otherwise would be an exercise in self flagellation.
There are so many YouTube videos and online recipes that use the terms interchangeably, and they are 100% wrong.
Agree, its confusing but once looked into they're very much completely different things. The other thing is once you go fermenting with these in your beer fermenter etc - you do run the risk of issues when you go back to using commercial yeasts from infections etc - so you'd either want to keep separate or ensure you clean very diligently.
The more I read up about actual ginger beer, the less I feel that this is an achievable outcome in a 23 litre batch scenario. The focus for me will be shifting towards a ginger flavoured beer type drink. I will now be looking further into recipe provided by Dino from NZ who makes a very lightly malted beer with ginger adjunct in the standard beer brewing fashion. I believe this holds the greatest chance of success.
Agree again, it's very hard to have a fully fermented alcoholic GB thats got a good level of residual sweetness and is bottle conditioned. I'd be interested to see what you get but a beer thats gingery, isn't a Ginger beer...but I am sure it could be fine. Haha when I come back to it - I'm going with the fully fermented GB that will be dry as a Nun's ^%#* and then bottle conditioned, a lil chilled sugar solution in the fridge, I pour that into a chilled glass, then the chilled dry GB - which is now lovely and sweet. Haha you know it just makes sense ;-)
I will however, still play around with ginger bug and quick ginger beer. You never know, I might get lucky and end up with a GBP scoby.
Oh you will - fresh veges have heaps of bacteria on them - particularly on their roots. I do lacto ferments of veges from our garden in salt solutions and these are delicious. In terms of getting a scoby that gives a decently fermented brew - thats going to be something of pot luck and will it tolerate fermenting much sugar? A few articles I read suggested the 'bug' struggles with this.
I'll try to write up the results of my latest tests soon. Some interesting things. I guess there is no way of knowing for certain if you have the 2 correct organisms to qualify as a ginger beer plant scoby without microscopic analysis, but the starter I created following the appropriate directions is certainly behaving like the real deal
I look forward to it - though I am certain if anything you have created the 'Bug' only - the 'Plant' as you allude is a very specific combination of bacteria and all sources state it is impossible to create at home.
