Ginger beer is a type of carbonated alcoholic beverage or soft drink, 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.^[1] The original recipe requires only ginger, sugar, and water, to which is added a gelatinous substance called "ginger beer plant". Fermentation over a few days turns the mixture into ginger beer. Lemon may be added. Bubbles of carbon dioxide float to the surface of a soft drink. ... Bottles of cachaça, a Brazilian alcoholic beverage. ... A soft drink is a drink that contains no alcohol. ... Binomial name Zingiber officinale Roscoe Ginger is used extensively as a spice in cuisines throughout the world. ... Binomial name Citrus × limon (L.) Burm. ... Magnification of typical sugar showing monoclinic hemihedral crystalline structure. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Events January 1 - Russia accepts Julian calendar. ... // First flight by the Wright brothers, December 17, 1903. ...

Instead of using the ginger beer plant, some other form of live culture may be used to produce fermented (real) 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%,^[1] 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 and Stormy. The soda version of ginger beer is the main ingredient in the Moscow Mule cocktail. Brewers yeast (also known as brewers yeast or brewing yeast) can mean any live yeast used in brewing. ... Species L. acidophilus L. bulgaricus L. plantarum L.reuteri etc. ... Grains of kefir Kefir (alternately kephir, kewra, talai, mudu kekiya, waterkefir, milkkefir, búlgaros) is a fermented milk drink originating in the Caucasus. ... Tibicos Tibicos, also known as tibi, water kefir grains, sugar kefir grains, Japanese water crystals and California Bees, are a culture of bacteria and yeast held in a polysaccharide matrix created by the bacteria. ... A selection of bottled beers A selection of cask beers Beer is the worlds oldest[1] and most popular[2] alcoholic beverage, selling more than 133 billion litres (35 billion gallons) per year. ... For other uses, see Ale (disambiguation). ... A popular shandy Shandy is a term for beer flavoured with lemonade or some sort of soft drink. ... Goslings Black Seal Rum, on far left Goslings Rum is a brand of rum, founded in 1806 by James Gosling in Bermuda after leaving his home in London. ... Caribbean rum, circa 1941 Rum is a distilled beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses and sugarcane juice by a process of fermentation and distillation. ... A Moscow Mule is a cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer, and lime. ...

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 described as ginger ale with a "kick" to it). Other distinctions, vis a vis ginger ale, are the cloudy appearance (which is traditional) a predominately citrus sour taste base, and the spicy ginger bite. Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. ... Ginger ale is a soft drink flavored with ginger. ...

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 U.S. (which had been affected by the Prohibition Laws), and 1000 in Canada.^[1] The term Prohibition, also known as Dry Law, refers to a law in a certain country by which the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages is restricted or illegal. ...

Ginger beer plant

Ginger beer plant (GBP) is a symbiotic mixture of microorganisms which must contain the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus (formerly Saccharomyces pyriformis) and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii (formerly Brevibacterium vermiforme).^[2][3][4] 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.^[5] A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is so small that it is microscopic (invisible to the naked eye). ... Typical divisions Ascomycota Saccharomycotina (true yeasts) Taphrinomycotina Schizosaccharomycetes (fission yeasts) Basidiomycota Basidiomycotina (club fungi) Urediniomycetes Sporidiales Yeasts are unicellular, eukaryotic microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi. ... Species Saccharomyces bayanus Saccharomyces boullardii Saccharomyces cerevisiae Saccharomyces pombe Saccharomyces uvarum Saccharomyces is a genus in the kingdom of fungi that includes many species of yeast; the name Saccharomyces meaning sugar fungi. The inability to utilize nitrate and ability to ferment various carbohydrates are typical characteristics of Saccharomyces. ... Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... Species L. acidophilus L. bulgaricus L. casei L. plantarum L. reuterietc. ... Grains of kefir Kefir (alternately kephir, kewra, talai, mudu kekiya, waterkefir, milkkefir, búlgaros) is a fermented milk drink originating in the Caucasus. ... Tibicos Tibicos, also known as tibi, water kefir grains, sugar kefir grains, Japanese water crystals and California Bees, are a culture of bacteria and yeast held in a polysaccharide matrix created by the bacteria. ...

The GBP was first described by Harry Marshall Ward in 1892, from samples he received in 1887.^[4][6][7] Original ginger beer is made by leaving water, sugar, ginger, and GBP to ferment. Harry Marshall Ward, b. ...

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.^[8][9] There is also an active Yahoo discussion group^[3] dedicated to "the real traditional Ginger Beer Plant" and members of that group may share excess plant material.

See also

• Root beer
• Caribbean cuisine

A glass of root beer with foam Root beer is a dark beverage that comes in two forms, alcoholic and as a soft drink. ... Caribbean cuisine is a fusion of Spanish, French, African, Amerindian and Indian cuisine. ...

References

2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... June 16 is the 167th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (168th in leap years), with 198 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 7 is the 341st day (342nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... September 28 is the 271st day of the year (272nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikibooks Cookbook has an article on

Ginger beer

• Making Ginger Ale At Home
• 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.
• Making Ginger Ale from Scratch
• A Simple Ginger Beer Drink Recipe