I call 'REAL ginger beer plant' the version that uses a gelatinous cluster similar to water kefir. Real GBP is made up of yeast and bacteria. Here is some background info taken from my website retro-culture dot com. I'm trying to post pictures / video but as this I'm new here I'm not allowed to post links / images / video.

Overview
Perhaps it's best to start by explaining what real ginger beer is not! Cans of ginger beer in shops are not real ginger beer. These are made fizzy by adding carbon dioxide, do not contain only pure, natural ingredients and there is no alcohol content. Some manufacturers sell 'botanical' ginger beer, or 'starter kits' for ginger beer. These are yeast-based products. Generally, if a description mentions brewers yeast, then you're not looking at real ginger beer plant, but a simulacrum.

Ginger beer plant is an organism which, when treated correctly, will help provide you with a lifetime's supply of real, old-fashioned ginger beer. Below we explain a little about the origins of the plant and describe the basic care.

Origins
Around in the UK from at least the 1700's, and passed from person to person, the ginger beer plant's origins were shrouded in mystery. To some extend they still are, but now at least we know what real ginger beer plant is. We have Harry Marshall Ward (a man with a singularly impressive moustache) to thank for solving some of the mysteries of the ginger beer plant. It took him many years, but he was able to determine that the plant is a "composite organism consisting of a fungus, the yeast Saccharomyces florentinus (formerly Saccharomyces pyriformis) and the bacterium Lactobacillus hilgardii (formerly Brevibacterium vermiforme)". It forms a gelatinous cluster which moves about within its jar rather like lava in a lava lamp! You can visit the gallery to see what the ginger beer plant looks like.

If we look back just one or two generations, most households had a ginger beer plant on their kitchen windowsill. Ask your older relatives and you'll often hear that spark of recognition as they remember that their great aunt always had a jar filled with a glorious golden liquid which would be tapped and drunk by the eager kids. As shop-bought fizzy pop increased in popularity, people forgot about the ginger beer plant and instead drank sugary chemical concoctions from multi-national corporations. Thankfully people are now realising that the old ways had merit and are thinking about brewing their own real ginger beer.