[foodhackingbase] ginger beer plant and water kefir cultures growing - info, ideas?

[algoldor at foodhackingbase.org]

Hi to all,
I've started two days ago a two new batches of water kefir and ginger 
beer plant cultures. I used 0.25% (w/v) of black tea and 7% (w/v) of 
light brown sugar each in 5 l plastic container, closed leaving around 
15% of the container empty with air (so 12.5 g of black tea and 350 g of 
light brown sugar). I let the tea steep for around 10 minutes, strained 
it and add it to the sugar which I dissolved adding bit of extra hot 
water. I diluted the syrup and add it to the brewing vessels, top it up 
to +- 80% of the volume and added the cultures - ginger beer plant =194 
g (crystals of 2-5 mm size in diameter), water kefir culture +50-52 g 
(crystals of 1-2 mm size in diameter).

I placed the vessels to a water batch set to +- 24-26C and let to 
ferment (it is quite dark in the fermentation room).

Lets see how it goes, I expect the ginger beer plant (gbp) culture to be 
ready to be harvested within one week, we will see how the water kefir 
does. What do you think Ingo Weidauer as a former "father" of the 
ginger beer plant culture?

Please if you have any of these cultures try to keep an eye on them, 
weights of grains, recipes etc. we really should come up with proper 
formulas for growing them reliably and of course with cool recipes which 
will results in lovely brews! I'll try to find more info about these 
cultures and post it to our discuss and here.

Sincerely,

FAA

PS I've friend in Sweden who is a scientist and who would love to have 
some ginger beer plant culture and water kefir, anyone willing to share? 
He would happily cover costs of shipping, he already bought the water 
kefir but he is not very happy with the results, it doesn't really 
ferment the sugar, he is getting more or less sweet water.