Ginger beer

[CrealCritter]

Yeast harvesting

I'm going to brew up another batch of this blueberry ginger cream ale. Instead of growing a fresh ginger bug, I'll just use the ginger yeast from the bottom of the bottles instead.

Sterilization is a must! I have no rinse sanitizer in the 1/2 gallon jar with hot water. See the trub in the bottom of the glass, that's inactive yeast from where it sat in the refrigerator in the bottle. This will be my starter. After I drink as much of the ale off the trub as I can with a straw.

After dumping the sanitizer into my bottling bucket and sucking as much ale off the top of the trub as I could with a sanitized plastic straw. I poured some non chlorinated spring water into the glass and swirled it around to suspend the yeast and poured it into the 1/2 gallon canning jar. Then I topped it to 2 cups with same non chlorinated spring water added 2 table spoons of white sugar and swirled it around. I then put the jar in the sink with hot water to wake up the yeast.

As I pull bottles of ale out of the fridge to drink, I'll harvest the yeast and add to the 1/2 gallon canning jar, add 2 tablespoons white sugar and top to two cups with non chlorinated spring water.

With any luck I'll have a good crop of yeast starter for my next batch of blueberry ginger cream ale.

Talking about scraping the bottom of the barrel -lol

 

[CrealCritter]

I think I should start brewing ginger ale! It sounds wonderful. I add blueberries to my morning smoothies often, so I'm covered there and glad to see how beneficial they are too.

You should give it a try Sumi. I thought of my ginger bug as a fish in a bowl, feed it every day. When growing your bug just remember to peel the organic ginger root. The skin comes off easy scraping with a spoon. Start with as much water as you need for your batch of ginger ale. At least 1 cup of bug juice to 1 gallon of ale seems to be a good ratio.

Feed your bug 1 tablespoon peeled and grated organic ginger and 1 tablespoon white sugar everyday until you set it loose in the ale.

Beside you can add raisins too

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Even when drinking carefully with a straw, I'd be worried about a bit of back slopping. If I were going to harvest the yeast from the bottom of the bottle, I'd start a suction with a sterile tube, siphon off the trub, then enjoy the rest of the contents.

 

[CrealCritter]

I wanted to add that my daughter left her 8 bottles on the kitchen counter until yesterday (9 days since bottling). She keeps her house cool like we do 65 during the day 62 at night. We cracked one of the bottles open tonight and it poured a nice creamy white head in the glass. It tasted very good and left us with a foam mustaches.

I bottled in plastic pet bottles which is really handy because you can squeeze them and get a good feel for how the carbonation is coming along. I told her to check them daily and when the bottles get rock hard. Put them in the refrigerator to slow the carbonation down so they don't explode.

I just wanted so say thank you @sumi for pointing me to the cream of tarter tip for making cream ale.

I hope batch #2 turns out as good as this batch. I love not having my hands and finger hurting, its quite a relief.

 

[sumi]

You're welcome I hope the second batch will turn out as good, if not better! It's wonderful that you found something that helps with the pain you had and it's not "medicine" as such, it's natural.