Ginger beer

Ginger beer is a type of carbonated soft drink or occasionally, alcoholic beverage flavored primarily with ginger, lemon and sugar. It originated in England in the mid 1700s, and it reached its peak of popularity in the early 1900s.cite web
url=http://www.fohbc.com/BandE_Article4.html
title=Root Beer and Ginger Beer heritage
author=Donald Yates
date=Spring 2003
accessdate=2006-12-06] The original recipe requires only ginger, sugar, and water, to which is added a gelatinous substance called "ginger beer plant" (see below). Fermentation over a few days turns the mixture into ginger beer. Lemon may be added. A simple version of this recipe can be made at home today in which the following is bottled in a 2 liter bottle: grated fresh ginger, sugar, a small amount of baker's yeast, and (optionally) lemon juice. It is sealed at room temperature for a day or two before refrigerating. [http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Ginger_Ale_Ag0.htm]

Instead of using the ginger beer plant, some other form of live culture may be used to produce fermented ginger beer. This is often baker's or brewer's yeast, but can also be a culture of lactic acid bacteria, kefir grains, or tibicos. Ginger beer is fizzy due to carbon dioxide. The alcohol content when produced by the traditional process can be high, up to 11%, although it is possible to ferment ginger beer in such a way as to produce little alcohol. Ginger beer may be mixed with beer (usually a British ale of some sort) to make one type of shandy, and with Gosling's Black Seal rum to make a drink, originally from Bermuda, called a Dark 'N' Stormy. The soda version of ginger beer is the main ingredient in the Moscow Mule cocktail.

The beverage produced industrially today is often not brewed (fermented). Such ginger beer is carbonated with pressurized carbon dioxide, does not contain alcohol, and is sold as a soft drink. Ginger beer is similar to ginger ale except that it has a significantly stronger ginger taste, often being described as ginger ale with a kick to it. Its other distinctive properties include its traditional cloudy appearance, its predominately citrus sour taste base and its spicy ginger bite.

History

Ginger beer was first brewed in the 1700s, and the brewed, alcoholic drink became very popular in Britain and North America, with, in 1935, 3000 breweries in Britain, 300 in the United States (which had been affected by the Prohibition law), and 1000 in Canada. It is often sold as a nonalcoholic soda; an example being the Regatta brand.

It was brought to the Ionian Islands by the British Army in the 19th century, and is still made by older villagers in rural Corfu as a local specialty, along with plum pudding.

Today in Eastern Africa (especially in Kenya and Tanzania), ginger beer is a very popular drink. It is called "Tangawizi," which is the Swahili word for ginger. Stoney Tangawizi is a product of the Coca-Cola company.

Ginger beer plant

Ginger beer plant (GBP) is a fungus (typically occurring in the presence of bacterial symbionts), which must contain the yeast "Saccharomyces florentinus" (formerly "Saccharomyces pyriformis") and the bacterium "Lactobacillus hilgardii" (formerly "Brevibacterium vermiforme"). [cite web
url=http://www.plantcultures.org/plants/ginger_food_ginger_beer_plant.html
title=Ginger - ginger beer plant
publisher=Plant Cultures
date=16 June2006
accessdate=2006-12-06] cite web
url=http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GingerBeerPlant/
title=Yahoo! group GingerBeerPlant] cite web
url=http://www2.parc.com/emdl/members/apte/GingerBeer.pdf
title=Lactic Acid Beverages: sour beer, (milk) & soda
author=Raj B. Apte
date=22 June2006
accessdate=2006-12-06] It forms a gelatinous substance that allows it to be easily transferred from one fermenting substrate to the next, much like kefir grains and tibicos. [cite web
url=http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/picrender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1264278&blobtype=pdf
title=CCLI. Investigation of a Polysaccharide Produced From Sucrose by Betabacterium Vermiformé (Ward-Meyer)
author=Walter Donald Daker
coauthors=Maurice Stakey
date=14 September1938
accessdate=2006-12-07
format=pdf]

The GBP was first described by Harry Marshall Ward in 1892, from samples he received in 1887. [cite web
url=http://www.french4tots.co.uk/HMW/hmw.html
title=Harry Marshall Ward : Biography
accessdate=2006-12-06] [cite journal
url=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17523625.800.html
last=Vines
first=Gail
title=Marriage of equals
journal=New Scientist
issue=2362
pages=50
date=28 September2002] Original ginger beer is made by leaving water, sugar, ginger, and GBP to ferment.

Some modern sources and yeast-based recipes speak of GBP, but it is just a simple yeast culture rather than the original. The original may be found from several commercial sources or from yeast banks.cite web
url=http://www.fermentedtreasures.com/gingerbp.html
title=Ginger Beer Plant
publisher=Fermented Treasures
accessdate=2006-12-06] There is also an active Yahoo discussion group dedicated to "the real traditional Ginger Beer Plant" and members of that group may share excess plant material.

ee also

*Ginger ale
*Root beer
*Caribbean cuisine
*Ginger wine
*Canton (liqueur)

References

External links

* [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2000.01.0026&query=head%3D%23160 Of the Street Sale of Ginger-Beer, Sherbet, Lemonade,&C.] , from "London Labour and the London Poor", Volume 1, Henry Mayhew, 1851; subsequent pages cover the costs and income of street ginger beer sellers.