Our local supermarket has been selling fresh yeast having run out of stocks of dried yeast before the start of lockdown. When I was a child my mum used to buy fresh yeast to use for baking. It came wrapped in brown paper and was sold in the village pet shop which now seems a little strange but after my experiences this week, I am starting to think a pet shop is probably the right place to buy fresh yeast.
The supermarket yeast was sold from the dairy fridge in clear plastic bags. A helpful assistant advised us to “Keep it cold and keep in mind it will probably die after a couple of days.” Not the best sales patter but if the shop that used to sell us our son’s goldfish had been as honest an awful lot of heartache and lolly stick grave markers could have been avoided.
So my new pet made it safely home and into the fridge. The following morning I made some bread. You have to use twice the amount of fresh yeast to dried yeast and it needs to be activated using sugar and lukewarm water.
The biggest problem I had was I only had plain flour. The dough took twice as long to knead as dough made with bread flour but I got a good rise and the bread tasted fine.
Day 2 and my new pet was starting to look a bit worse for wear. It had broken down into small crumbs and looked quite dry. I wasn’t sure if it was still alive. However, a meal of sugar and water revived it and it was soon bubbling away.
“I think I’ll make a ginger beer plant.” I said to my husband. His reaction was not completely favourable and based on past experience.; “So you are going to use that yeast that you’ve worried and fussed over for two days to create something that is going to cause you even more worry and stress?”
Actually I ended up with two lively little pot pets. I used the last of the yeast to make a ginger beer starter.
It will need feeding once a day with ground ginger and sugar for a week. It can then be used to make ginger beer.
So what about my other little pot pet? It is possible to make a ginger beer plant without using yeast. If the ingredients and the conditions are right wild yeast spores will settle onto your plant and start to ferment. I have tried this countless times and never had any success. I did quite a bit of research and found a recipe that uses fresh ginger* I tried it and it worked! The only thing I would say is I added a few raisins which might be cheating slightly.
This one will need feeding with fresh ginger and sugar once a day and is ready to use after four days.
So today I boiled up more fresh ginger in 2 litres of water and also added 4 lemongrass stalks. I added sugar, lemon juice and another 2 litres of water. I then strained in the liquid from my ginger beer plant, stirred and covered. I will leave this for about two weeks then bottle.
I have put the little pot pet into hibernation in the fridge for a few weeks but when I am ready to create a new recipe I’ll take it out and start feeding it again.
The little pet I bought from the supermarket might only have lived for two days but for that brief time the kitchen was filled with the aroma of baking bread and the popping and fizzing sounds of fermenting yeast and I am left with the promise of a summer’s supply of homemade ginger beer.
* Check out Judy Gowan’s amazing website where I found the no-yeast ginger beer plant recipe.
GINGER BUG – THE EASY STARTER FOR HOMEMADE GINGER BEER & FIZZY DRINKS