On Sat, 28 Dec 2019 08:01:57 +0000, Chris Hogg wrote:

On Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:05:21 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

On Wednesday, July 5, 2000 at 8:00:00 AM UTC+1, Colin Heyburn wrote:
Dear Sir,

We are having considerable trouble locating or finding out anything about an
" ale plant." Suffice to say we are unsure as to the correct spelling of the
name but we know that it has a yellow flower that is kept in a jar and is
fed on brow sugar and water. It was used for centuries as a cure for
hangovers. I am reliably informed that the plant would grow in the jar. It
was also very common in Ireland hence why the good cure for hangovers. The
plant also cured the thirst in the summers.

If you have any ideas I would be very grateful if you could pass them on,
and if not, well thank you for your time.

Yours

Colin Heyburn

I can remember my Father growing an ale plant many years ago.
It was a mystery to us then as it is now!...Someone gave him the plant,
and i can remember he put it in a large glass sweet jar, and he filled
it with water, and i have no idea how it tasted, but it looked like ale!
with brown unpleasant looking substance on the bottom of the jar.....we
were always told to "never go near it for any reason"...So all i can say
is, that it did exist, but i am afraid i can not solve the mystery.....
By the way, i am from Northern Ireland so.,..

When I was a kid, my mother 'grew' a ginger beer plant on the kitchen
windowsill. It was simply a jam-jar of water with a soft spongy lump
of yeast in it about the size of a golf ball, that was 'fed' daily
with a teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of powdered ginger. As the
yeast consumed the sugar, the gas generated caused the yeast ball to
float to the surface. At the end of the week, the water was strained
off, diluted, possibly a little more sugar added, and bottled in
screw-top bottles. After a few days it was very nice fizzy ginger
beer. The lump of yeast in the jam-jar was divided and one half either
thrown away or passed on to someone else, and the whole process
re-started. If you didn't know anyone with a 'ginger beer plant' you
could start your own simply with yeast, sugar, water and ginger. I
don't know if it was brewers yeast or bakers yeast; whatever was
available, I guess.

Whether a 'ginger beer plant' as here described is the same as a
'ginger ale plant', possibly abbreviated to an 'ale plant' I don't
know, but it wasn't a plant in the conventional sense, and certainly
didn't have a flower! There's some discussion here
http://tinyurl.com/wud6t6q

Indeed. Once one person had one, there was more at the end than at the
beginning. Like the famous chain letters of the 60s, it all eventually
fizzled out (excuse pun).
The sound of exploding bottles could be heard for miles, but it tasted OK.
--
Jim S