Tibicos

Lactobacillus brevis bacteria has been identified as the species responsible for the production of the dextran polysaccharide that forms the "grains".

[1][2] As with milk kefir "grains", the microbes present in tibicos act in symbiosis to maintain a stable culture.

[3] The grains called ginger beer plant, which according to Martinus Beijerinck[4] were brought by the British soldiers while returning to their country from the Crimean War in 1855 (although this was dismissed as an unsubstantiated myth by Harry Marshall Ward as early as 1892 [5] and its real origins remain a mystery).

[2] Different ingredients or hygienic conditions might also change the bacteriological composition possibly leading to the different names found in scientific literature.

Kebler attests that they were used in Kentucky circa 1859 to brew a "home drink" and were referred to as "Japanese beer seeds.

[13] Some ingredients will inhibit fermentation, such as chlorine in tap water or preservatives in dried fruit (sulfites).

Brown sugar promoted the greatest antimicrobial activities, against the microorganisms Candida albicans, Salmonella typhi, Shigella sonnei, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.