Found this on web hope it helps
" Many years ago the only place I could buy my fresh ginger was to visit the chemist. It was not the type of thing that you could buy from the corner shop. Today you can pick up ginger from any supermarket so how about making your own old fashioned live ginger beer plant. The process of feeding the plant daily fascinates both children and adults alike.
Each of my twelve grandchildren has their own plant kept in granddads shed and now all the children in the neighbourhood has one too. They have all come from the one original plant that I started so many years back that I cannot remember exactly when. You see the Ginger Beer Plant is the most social drink that I can think of. It is designed to give half to a friend which she will then cultivate and when ready will pass on half to their friends. The passing on to friends is infinite and as long as the instructions are followed and the plant is fed daily soon every house in the country could have one of Granny’s Ginger Plants sat on their kitchen windowsill.
~Granny’s Ginger Beer Plant~
~What utensils will you need~
Either a muslin square or a boiled tea towel
Large measuring jug
Funnel
Large Pan
Large Container for the Plant (I use a sweetie jar)
Plenty of plastic bottles with screw top lids
~Ingredients~
½ oz fresh yeast
¾ pint lukewarm water
8teaspoons of fresh grated ginger
8 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 ½ lbs of more granulated sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
7 pints of water in total
~Method~
To Start off the Plant
Mix together the yeast with ¾ pint of water, 2tsp ginger and 2tsp sugar. Leave for 24 hours then start to feed your plant
~How to Feed~
For the next seven days feed daily with one teaspoon of ginger and one teaspoon of sugar. After the seven days have passed, strain through your muslin or tea towel.
DO NOT throw the sediment away as this will start your new plant.
~Add the Flavour~
Dissolve the 1½ lb of sugar into 2 pints of hot water. Add the juice of the two lemons and the strained plant mixture. Add five more pints of lukewarm water and stir really well.
Pour into your plastic bottles and it will now only take seven days to mature before you are able to drink it.
~Giving a gift~
You still should have the strained sediment left and half of this is the present you give to a friend with the instructions to make their own plant. You keep the other half of the sediment to start your own plant again. Once they have got to the stage where they strain their plant, they then divide their sediment and give half to a friend with instructions. As you can see this is why I call this my infinitive mixture.
~What to do with the gift~
Add ½oz fresh yeast, 2tsp sugar and ¾ pt warm water. Leave for 24 hours and start feeding again as above.
~My Advice~
Get your fresh yeast from a bakery or ask in the supermarket
Use sugar cubes and roll your lemons over these before juicing to extract more flavour
Do not use glass bottles as these may explode with the pressure.
If you do not feed the plant daily it will die
