Hi everyone!
I want to ask the opinion of folks with more experience fermenting whether what I've got brewing is safe to drink. Here's what I did:
1. About a month ago, I made ginger bug. Then I simmered ginger in about 2L of water, added sugar, then added the ginger bug once it was cooled. About a week later I bottled what I got and it was delicious!
2. Last week I simmered more ginger in about 2L of water, added sugar, then I added a splash of the ginger beer I made last time, which was still bubbly.
3. After two or three days of waiting and stirring, nothing seemed to be happening. So, I added a splash of another ferment I had in the fridge. This was a kind of cherry soda: in the summer, I covered some cherries with sugar, then a week or so later I strained out the syrup and bottled it. I forgot about it – luckily, I stored it in a plastic bottle in the fridge, which by now was very, very carbonated. That's what I added to my ginger beer, a couple splashes of that.
Then, the next morning, my ginger beer was visibly quite bubbly but also a few reddish-grey masses of clumpy ... somethings appeared. They looked a bit like lees only they were floating near the top of the beverage. I strained them out and put the jar I'm fermenting in in the pantry, where it's a bit colder than it would be in the fridge. Two days later now, there are no changes.
My question: Do you folks think it's safe to drink the ginger beer? Or should I be concerned about the clumpy reddish-greyish stuff and throw it all out?
Thank you!