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

Hi Colin,

It's Kombucha that you're looking for!

On 31/01/2021 23:40, Liza Cox 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

Hi Colin,

It's Kombucha that you're looking for!


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/gui...-make-kombucha

On 31/01/2021 23:47, David Hill wrote:
On 31/01/2021 23:40, Liza Cox 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

Hi Colin,

It's Kombucha that you're looking for!


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/gui...-make-kombucha

I wonder if Colin's taste has changed since he asked his question more
than 20 years ago?

--

Jeff

On Sun, 31 Jan 2021 23:47:43 +0000, David Hill wrote:

On 31/01/2021 23:40, Liza Cox 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

Hi Colin,

It's Kombucha that you're looking for!


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/gui...-make-kombucha

Remarkably similar to the ginger beer plant we used to have.

Just baker's yeast fed on ginger and sugar.

Cheers



Dave R



--
Dell Latitude 7280 with Full HD and Thunderbolt (woo hoo)

On 02/02/2021 11:44, David wrote:
On Sun, 31 Jan 2021 23:47:43 +0000, David Hill wrote:

On 31/01/2021 23:40, Liza Cox 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

Hi Colin,

It's Kombucha that you're looking for!


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/gui...-make-kombucha

Remarkably similar to the ginger beer plant we used to have.

Just baker's yeast fed on ginger and sugar.

+1.



--
Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the
gospel of envy.

Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Winston Churchill

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

+2. The various links to Kombucha that come up on Google show a quite
well-defined disc of jelly-like stuff. The ginger beer plants I knew
were never like that - more of a soft amorphous blob that sat in the
bottom of the jar.

The way that ALL of those mechanisms work, whether sourdough, lambic
beers, kombucha or ginger beer plant, is by starting off a fermentation
with some convenient yeast, and then letting it evolve naturally. The
result will be a mixture of fungi and bacteria that is dependent on
both the location and how you maintain it (e.g. the acidity, type of
food, and level of aeration).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Tue, 2 Feb 2021 14:58:44 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

+2. The various links to Kombucha that come up on Google show a quite
well-defined disc of jelly-like stuff. The ginger beer plants I knew
were never like that - more of a soft amorphous blob that sat in the
bottom of the jar.

The way that ALL of those mechanisms work, whether sourdough, lambic
beers, kombucha or ginger beer plant, is by starting off a fermentation
with some convenient yeast, and then letting it evolve naturally. The
result will be a mixture of fungi and bacteria that is dependent on
both the location and how you maintain it (e.g. the acidity, type of
food, and level of aeration).

A couple of years ago I had a surfeit of cider apples and so I decided
to try to make cider vinegar. I used a bit of a ham-fisted approach and
added some vinegar from a commercial cider vinegar. I say ham-fisted
because I had no idea whether the commercial stuff had a live culture in
it or not but, anyway, I left it in an open jar covered with muslin
(vinegar culture needs aerobic conditions, rather then anaerobic as with
cider, wine, etc.) for about three or four months and, indeed, it
produced vinegar and, sitting on the top was this jelly-like substance
which is known as the mother.

This last year I became interested in making kombucha and, since the
making of vinegar and kombucha uses a similar process, I decided to add
my vinegar mother to the tea infusion - and it worked.

I've done a lot of reading around about making kombucha and one thing
they all emphasise is that one *cannot* use a vinegar mother to make
kombucha successfully, but one must use a SCOBY - which is a similar
sort of thing - but they don't exactly tell you why. Presumably there is
a taint which make it taste vinegary, but mine didn't. I've also read
that, if you leave a SCOBY kombucha fermenting for too long, that will
taste vinegary.

The only thing that my experimental kombucha could be criticised for was
that it became extremely cloudy, especially when I bottled it and put it
in the fridge! But then, so did my vinegar! Even filtering it made no
difference.

One of my daughters gave me a dried SCOBY for Christmas. I haven't yet
tried to resuscitate it. I must do so as I do like the taste of
kombucha. And the advantage of kombucha-making over vinegar-making is
that vinegar takes many months whereas kombucha takes only about a week.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

In article ,
David Rance wrote:

I've done a lot of reading around about making kombucha and one thing
they all emphasise is that one *cannot* use a vinegar mother to make
kombucha successfully, but one must use a SCOBY - which is a similar
sort of thing - but they don't exactly tell you why.

I doubt very much that the commercial vinegar had any effect; the
acetobacter (plus lactobacillus and many others) would have come from
the air or skins. I have made very good cider without adding any yeast.

My guess is that they say don't use a vinegar mother because kombucha
needs a different balance. In your case, it will evolve differently
in apple juice open to the air and tea+sugar in a closed container.
I make no assertion about the accuracy of this page, but it's plausible.

https://www.culturesforhealth.com/le...acteria-yeast/


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Thu, 4 Feb 2021 12:40:08 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
David Rance wrote:

I've done a lot of reading around about making kombucha and one thing
they all emphasise is that one *cannot* use a vinegar mother to make
kombucha successfully, but one must use a SCOBY - which is a similar
sort of thing - but they don't exactly tell you why.

I doubt very much that the commercial vinegar had any effect; the
acetobacter (plus lactobacillus and many others) would have come from
the air or skins.

I'm inclined to agree with you. Although I have an almost empty bottle
of Waitrose malt vinegar and I noticed the other day that it has grown a
mother. Whether that mother is any good I would doubt!

I have made very good cider without adding any yeast.

I used to make cider without adding yeast. While some years I produced
some good cider, in other years it wasn't so good, and so I generally
add a cider yeast these days in order to get a fairly consistent result.
Doesn't cost much, especially where up to twenty gallons are concerned
(though the yield is usually more like ten gallons).

My guess is that they say don't use a vinegar mother because kombucha
needs a different balance. In your case, it will evolve differently
in apple juice open to the air and tea+sugar in a closed container.
I make no assertion about the accuracy of this page, but it's plausible.

https://www.culturesforhealth.com/le...acteria-yeast/

Thanks for that link. I hadn't seen it before and it looks interesting.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

On 04/02/2021 20:44, David Rance wrote:
On Thu, 4 Feb 2021 12:40:08 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
David RanceÂ* wrote:

I've done a lot of reading around about making kombucha and one thing
they all emphasise is that one *cannot* use a vinegar mother to make
kombucha successfully, but one must use a SCOBY - which is a similar
sort of thing - but they don't exactly tell you why.

I doubt very much that the commercial vinegar had any effect; the
acetobacter (plus lactobacillus and many others) would have come from
the air or skins.

I'm inclined to agree with you. Although I have an almost empty bottle
of Waitrose malt vinegar and I noticed the other day that it has grown a
mother. Whether that mother is any good I would doubt!

Â*I have made very good cider without adding any yeast.

I used to make cider without adding yeast. While some years I produced
some good cider, in other years it wasn't so good, and so I generally
add a cider yeast these days in order to get a fairly consistent result.
Doesn't cost much, especially where up to twenty gallons are concerned
(though the yield is usually more like ten gallons).

My guess is that they say don't use a vinegar mother because kombucha
needs a different balance.Â* In your case, it will evolve differently
in apple juice open to the air and tea+sugar in a closed container.
I make no assertion about the accuracy of this page, but it's plausible.

https://www.culturesforhealth.com/le...acteria-yeast/

Thanks for that link. I hadn't seen it before and it looks interesting.

David

What do you do with 10 to 20 galls of vinegar a year?

On Fri, 5 Feb 2021 01:28:15 David Hill wrote:

On 04/02/2021 20:44, David Rance wrote:
On Thu, 4 Feb 2021 12:40:08 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
David Rance* wrote:

I've done a lot of reading around about making kombucha and one thing
they all emphasise is that one *cannot* use a vinegar mother to make
kombucha successfully, but one must use a SCOBY - which is a similar
sort of thing - but they don't exactly tell you why.

I doubt very much that the commercial vinegar had any effect; the
acetobacter (plus lactobacillus and many others) would have come from
the air or skins.
I'm inclined to agree with you. Although I have an almost empty
bottle of Waitrose malt vinegar and I noticed the other day that it
has grown a mother. Whether that mother is any good I would doubt!

*I have made very good cider without adding any yeast.
I used to make cider without adding yeast. While some years I
produced some good cider, in other years it wasn't so good, and so I
generally add a cider yeast these days in order to get a fairly
consistent result. Doesn't cost much, especially where up to twenty
gallons are concerned (though the yield is usually more like ten gallons).

My guess is that they say don't use a vinegar mother because kombucha
needs a different balance.* In your case, it will evolve differently
in apple juice open to the air and tea+sugar in a closed container.
I make no assertion about the accuracy of this page, but it's plausible.

https://www.culturesforhealth.com/le...acteria-yeast/
Thanks for that link. I hadn't seen it before and it looks
interesting.
David

What do you do with 10 to 20 galls of vinegar a year?

I didn't say that I turned all of it over to vinegar. ;-) Half to cider
and half to vinegar.

I have a large family: 4 daughters and a son, five granddaughters and
two grandsons, and one great-granddaughter. I get rid of it quite
easily, quite apart from what I use myself for drinking and cooking
(cider) and pickling and cooking (vinegar). One of my daughters uses it
for descaling kettles. Another uses it for getting rid of lime deposits
in the bathroom.

It soon goes.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

In article ,
David Rance wrote:

I have a large family: 4 daughters and a son, five granddaughters and
two grandsons, and one great-granddaughter. I get rid of it quite
easily, quite apart from what I use myself for drinking and cooking
(cider) and pickling and cooking (vinegar). One of my daughters uses it
for descaling kettles. Another uses it for getting rid of lime deposits
in the bathroom.

I use it for derusting screws etc.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.