Accidental Ginger Ale?

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Accidental Ginger Ale?

Postby apshaitwister on Tue Oct 18, 2016 6:29 pm

Hi all,

Every year when the seasons change and the weather starts to get cooler I make a big batch of what I consider to my sort of "winter health tonic". It might be pyschosomatic, but even if it is, I'd still drink it for the taste.

What I do is take fresh ginger, grate it with a cheese grater and tie it in some cheesecloth so I have the equivalent of fresh ginger tea bags, squeeze some lemons, and add some honey. Then I steep it all in freshly boiled water. I usually fill up a water bottle and carry it around with me, topping it off as necessary, essentially building on the same batch. Normally this process yields a continuous supply of sweet, gingery, lemony goodness for the colder months.

But I decided to try a new process a few days ago, and the result is something pretty interesting and mysterious (at least to me). Every part of the process is the same - except the water. Instead of using boiled water, I filtered some room temperature tap water and added that to all my ingredients. I let it sit in the sun out on the porch, in a container with a lid. After two days, I poured some into my water bottle as usual, and nothing was different.

The next day, however, when I opened my water bottle there was a noticeable release of pressure. There was evidence of the same in the lidded container as well, as the lid was partially pushed up from building pressure in the container. I decided to be adventurous and drank some, and it's fizzy and delicious. Mild, but there is definitely some fermentation going on. It's been about a week and it's still continuing to carbonate. No mold has formed, it smells wonderful, no SCOBY, no real noticeable differences from when I first brewed it.

My question is - what on earth do I have on my hands? Is it possible to accidentally make ginger ale/soda/whatever?
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Re: Accidental Ginger Ale?

Postby khoomeizhi on Wed Oct 19, 2016 6:44 am

absolutely! grated ginger (skin still on) is a common source of wild yeast. add sugar (or honey) and don't kill the yeast with hot water, and fermentation is likely.
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Re: Accidental Ginger Ale?

Postby Christopher Weeks on Wed Oct 19, 2016 7:44 am

Yup. Accidental ginger ale is a perfect name for it.
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Re: Accidental Ginger Ale?

Postby apshaitwister on Wed Oct 19, 2016 7:54 pm

Awesome! I'm hoping that if I just keep "feeding it", it'll stick around for awhile. I'm also just hoping that it's not going to kill me, which I guess remains to be seen. I kind of just assumed all fermented things are in some measure "good" for you, but perhaps that may not be true?

In any case, there must be a way to figure out what type of yeast one has on one's hands, right? At my local home brew supply store they were selling a "yeast wrangling" kit, complete with instructions on how to make agar plates and all. Is there any merit to something like this?
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Re: Accidental Ginger Ale?

Postby Christopher Weeks on Thu Oct 20, 2016 7:20 am

Regarding fermented things being good for you: I think the deal is, when microbes act on food in a way that we like (because it's yummy, preserves the food for winter, makes it more healthful, or gets us drunk) then we call it fermentation. If the microbes do something we don't like, we call it spoilage. So, on one level, I agree with your claim, but it's only due to semantic recontextualization.

As to yeast wrangling, I have no idea, but it sounds very cool! You should do that and keep us informed. :-)
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