PRODUCTION OF GINGER BEER

Beer is a beverage obtained through alcoholic fermentation of the malted cereal's

wort (Dallacort G, 2013), used as human food since 8000 B.C(Pinto LIF et al, 2015),
becoming the most consumed beverage worldwide after water and tea (Nelson DL
and Cox MM, 2014). One of the major consumers of beer, Brazil occupies third
place, having consumed approximately 14 billion litres in 2014, representing 62 litres
per capita, of which the Pilsner type beer is the absolute leader in the Brazilian
market preference corresponding to 98% of the total consumed (Pinto LIF et al,
2015).

With the growing beer market expansion, special beers have emerged, known
(Oliveira GA and Silva JM, 2017), garnering a market share of major breweries
(Murray DW and O'Neill MA, 2012) because of their strong flavour and aroma
associated with a high-quality standard, coming from a careful selection of raw
materials and changes in manufacturing processes, such as changes in the times
and temperature of mashing, fermentation and maturation (Aquilani B et al. 2015). At
the same time, consumers of craft beers are becoming more demanding when
choosing products, preferring those with innovative flavour and aroma, regarded as
the most important attributes in beer (Rendall R et al., 2015).

An increasing demand for artisanal and craft products has been observed in recent
years, this trend also reaching the alcoholic beverage market. This led to an
undeniable growth in the popularity of craft and specialty beers, with an explosion of
demand for variety in the brewing sector. Consumers show an increased interest in
exploring new and exciting flavours, taste and aroma being the main driving factors
when trying a new brew. The popularity of craft brewing is largely linked to the
diversity and uniqueness of these beers. Consumers are stepping away from mass-
produced, mainstream beers and are in search of new options that are exciting and
can express their taste, style and individuality. Besides the popularity of craft brews,
ginger and ginger flavoured products have also been received with growing interest
and excitement both in the form of beverages and other food products, expert even
going as far as calling it “the ubiquitous flavour of the moment”. Thus, the emergence
and quick growth of the alcoholic ginger beer market does not come as a surprise.

However, the production of alcoholic ginger beer has been very little researched,
thus the literature available regarding this topic is very limited. This thesis aims to fill
this gap by exploring the final stages of the development process of a new alcoholic
ginger beer, identify the difficulties encountered during production and evaluate
various solutions to overcome them. It is often disregarded that production upscaling
can lead to unexpected challenges, an adaptation of the processing method to the
new processing conditions being necessary.
With a production of 383 million hectoliters of beer in 2014, the European Union is
one of the world’s biggest producers, only second to China. In spite of a decline of
less than 1% in beer production and consumption in the European market, total
consumer spending has increased by just over 1% (The Contribution made by Beer
to the European Economy EU Report - January 2016, 2016).

According to the “Beer Statistics” report published in 2016 by the Brewers of Europe,
beer consumption per capita in Sweden dropped to 47 liters in 2015 following a
continuous decline since 2010 when it reached 50 liters per capita. Beer production
statistics point towards a trend for premiumization with consumers willing to pay
premium price. This represents a market opportunity for authentic, innovative,
specialty beers, creating a shift in the market towards lower volume and higher value
products ("Global beer market trends," 2015). Beer production in Sweden has seen
an overall decline in the past few years, with production dropping by over 4%
between 2011 and 2014. However, as shown in Figure 1, in 2015 beer production
reached 4689 thousand hectoliters, which is a 1% increase compared to the
previous year.

There was an undeniable increase in the popularity of craft and specialty beers in
recent years, with an explosion of demand for variety in the brewing sector.
Consumers show an increased interest in exploring new and exciting flavors. This
phenomenon was partly linked to globalization, consumers becoming acquainted
with various cuisines, thus developing more refined palates. According to previous
research, 46% of millennials drink craft beers, making their purchasing decision
based on flavor and quality, rather than pricing ("Scarlet Lane Brewing Company:
Carving Out a Niche in the Craft Beer Market," 2016).

FIGURE 1: Beer production and consumption in Sweden (1000 hectolitres). Adapted

from (Beer statistics 2016).

Prehistorically. ginger was used as a medicinal plant which is classified under the
Zingiberaceae family and scientifically known as Zingiber officinale Roscoe. native to
Asia. It is a perennial plant with yellow flowers, pseudo-stem and tuberous rhizomes
called ginger or ginger root. Ginger rhizome is utilized due to its aromatic odour and
pungent taste (Mahomoodally MF et al. 2019). Apart from its role as food aroma or
spicy, other therapeutic values such as antimicrobial, anti-parasitic, antioxidant, anti-
inflammatory, analgesic, aphrodisiac, anticancer, hepato-protective, digestive aid,
immune stimulating properties etc. have been associated to ginger (Bag BB, 2018).
Ginger is composed of carbohydrates. lipids, water, fibers, proteins and minerals.
For centuries. ginger has been the fundamental part of most traditional herbal
medicines in Africa, China and India for managing/treating aliments such as
headaches, colds. osteoarthritis, muscle pains, nervous diseases, gingivitis,
toothache and asthma (Li H et al. 2008). The health benefits associated with ginger
are ascribed to its outstanding amount of various phenolics compounds which
include gingerols, paradols, shogaols, and zingerones (Srinivasan K, 2017), as well
as 3-dihydroshogaols, dihydroparadols, acetylated gingerol derivatives, gingerdiols,
diaryl heptanoids and ferollic acid derivates.

It is speculated that ginger beer first originated from England in the mid-170k and
was highly patronized due to its low alcohol Content. It was a common drink
available even for children and considered safer than water which was frequently
contaminated (Madden D, 2008). Moreover, a recent document revealed that the
non-alcoholic and low alcohol beer (NABLAB) market has significant growth in the
past years and is forecasted to keep growing (Bellut K and Arendt EK, 2019). There
is growing consumer demand for NABLAB with different flavours taking into
consideration the health benefit from such products. One possible strategy to satisfy
the consumer need is to add ginger or its extract to beer during brewing, to retain its
flavour and health promoting phytochemicals. Earlier researchers have added
various fruits to beer with the aim of improving the antioxidant and other health
promoting factors (Adadi P et al. 2017). A literature search on databases (Web of
Science, PubMed, and Scopus) identified only two studies (Dookeran MM, 2004)
with regards to the production technologies of ginger beer. Therefore, the present
review aims to highlight the market trend, health benefits and production technology
of ginger beer.

AIM:

 To introduce the science of microbiology by demonstrating how a carbonated drink such as a

ginger beer can be made using the single-celled organism, yeast.

OBJECTIVES:

1. To produce ginger beer by natural and controlled fermentation.

2. To modify a traditional ginger beer formulation.

REQUIREMENTS:

 2 L of distilled water
 Ginger root
  Scalpel
 The juice of one large lemon
 1 cup of sugar
 A quarter teaspoon cream of yeast
 Half a teaspoon of dried yeast
 Fermenting bucket with airlock
 Stainless steel jug
 Mixing spoon
 Heat source; Bunsen burner
 Bottles
 Filter paper
 Funnel
 Plastic tubing
 Bleach
 Bottles caps
 Group designed labels.
 Malt extract agar

PART 1: FERMENTATION

PROCEDURE:

In a clean fermenting bucket, one and a half liters of distilled water was poured and allowed to
stand. 500 ml of distilled water in a stainless-steel jug was boiled over a heat source for 10 minutes.
While the water was boiling over a heat source, the following ingredients were added and mixed; 2
tablespoons of chopped ginger, juice of one large lemon, 1 cup of sugar and a quarter teaspoon
cream of tartar. The mixture was then allowed to boil for a further 5 minutes to allow the
ingredients to diffuse together. In the fermenting bucket which already had the remaining water, the
lemon-ginger mix was added and stir to dissolve all ingredients. The mixture in the fermenting
bucket was therefore allowed to cool at room temperature before half a teaspoon of dried yeast
was added. The fermenting bucket was sealed with its lid tightly fitted and filled the airlock half full
with water. The fermenting bucket was therefore kept in warm place at room temperature for 7
days for fermentation to occur.

PART 2: BOTTLING AND MICROBIOLOGICAL TESTING

PROCEDURE:

Once fermentation was complete, a suction tubing, funnel and a filter paper was used to sieve out all
the remaining ginger bits without disturbing the yeast deposit at the base of the bucket. The bottles
got sterilized and the labels were pasted on them. The ginger beer was therefore decanted into the
bottles. The bottles were tightly capped and stored in a cool place for a period of four weeks. At that
point after four weeks, some of the liquid was streaked out onto the agar plates. Once growth had
occurred, the appearance of the colonies was recorded, and slides were prepared for microscopy.
RESULTS:

THE BELOW TABLE SHOWS THE OBTAINED RESULTS FOR THIS REPORT

FIGURES PICTURES
FIGURE 1: The figure shows the
ingredients used for the ginger beer.

FIGURE 2: the picture shows the results

obtained from a malt extract agar that
was streaked with ginger beer.
 FIGURE 3: The picture shows the results
of a yeast from the ginger beer that was
viewed under the microscope (1000x
objectives).

FIGURE 4: The picture above shows the

obtained yeast cell from the malt extract
agar plate that was viewed under the
microscope.

Figure 5: The front and the back of our ginger beer product

INGWER BIER
For your enjoyment
Ingredients:
2 L of distilled water, Ginger root, one large lemon juice, 1 cup of sugar, A quarter teaspoon cream of
yeast, half a teaspoon of dried yeast.
Produced in SOUTH AFRICA. Brewed by VAAL University of Technology Company (Pty) Ltd, Andries
Potgieter Blvd, Vanderbijlpark, 1900.

Not for sale for persons under the age of 18.

Nutrition information:

Total fats (g) 0g 0%

Sodium (mg) 41 mg 2%
Total carbohydrates (g) 40 g 13%
Sugars (g) 40 g 13%
Protein (g) 0g 0%

69 9 5 00 3 10 9 72 600
ALCOHOL ABUSE IS HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH.
DISCUSSION

Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae are the world’s premier microorganisms. In

addition to their wide exploitation in the production of beer, food and
pharmaceuticals, yeasts also play significant roles as a model eukaryotic cell in
furthering our knowledge in the biological and biomedical sciences.( John Willey &
Sons, 1998)
Figure 1 Shows the ingredients used on the production of Ginger beer, which are
yeast, lemon juice, Sugar, Cream of tartar, Water and Ginger root. These ingredients
help in making the production of Ginger beer successful.
Figure 2 shows the results obtained from a malt extract agar streaked with ginger
beer sample. Malt extract agar was used in this experiment because it contains malt
extract, dextrose, peptone, agar since it used mainly used for culturing fungi and
yeast. Because of its low pH the growth of bacteria is inhibited.

REFERENCES
1. Mahomoodally, M.F.; Aumeeruddy, M.Z.; Rengasamy, K.R.R.; Roshan, S.;
Hammad, S.; Pandohee, J.; Hu, X.; Zengin, G. Ginger and its active
 compounds in cancer therapy: From folk uses to nano-therapeutic
applications. Semin. Cancer Biol. 2019, in press. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
2. Bag, B.B. Ginger processing in India (Zingiber officinale): A review. Int. J.
Curr. Microbiol. Appl. Sci. 2018, 7, 1639–1651. [CrossRef]
3. Li, H.; Liu, Y.; Luo, D.; Ma, Y.; Zhang, J.; Li, M.; Yao, L.; Shi, X.; Liu, X.; Yang,
K. Ginger for health care: An overview of systematic reviews. Complement.
Ther. Med. 2019, 45, 114–123.
4. Srinivasan, K. Ginger rhizomes (Zingiber officinale): A spice with multiple
health beneficial potentials. PharmaNutrition 2017, 5, 18–28. [CrossRef]
5. Madden, D. Ginger beer: A traditional fermented low alcohol drink. Eur. J. Sci.
Teach. 2008, 8, 29–33.
6. Bellut, K.; Arendt, E.K. Chance and challenge: non-saccharomyces yeasts in
non-alcoholic and low alcohol beer brewing—A review. J. Am. Soc. Brew.
Chem. 2019, 77, 77–91. [CrossRef]
7. Dookeran, M.M.; Baccus-Taylor, G.S.; Akingbala, J.O. Laboratory
manufacture and comparison of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) beer
quality. J. Food Agric. Environ. 2004, 2, 29–33.
8. Aquilani, B., Laureti, T., Poponi, S., & Secondi, L. (2015). Beer choice and
consumption determinants when craft beers are tasted: An exploratory study
of consumer preferences. Food Quality and Preference, 41, 214-224.
do:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2014.12.005