Proper fermented ginger beer does involve a ginger beer plant, but it's not the sort you grow in the garden. It's basically yeast - you start off with a sort of sludgy mess in the bottom of a pot, and over a few days you add sugar and ginger and other stuff, and the sludgy mess grows.
Eventually, you strain the sludgy mess out, and you find it has doubled in size, so you can make twice as much next time, or give half away to your friends and relations. This is, in effect, an organic chain letter that keeps multipying every time it is used. You will soon find you have lost all your friends and your relations disown you.
In the 80s we had a similar "organic chain letter" in the shape of a cake starter (kind of sourdough with fruit in it!). For whatever unfathomable reason this was called Hermann. We were all thoroughly sick of Hermann after a few months....
we did the ginger beer plant thing the year before last.You stick some fresh yeast,water sugar and ground ginger in a container.every day for about a week,add 1 tsp sugar,1 tsp ginger.When its been a week,add a gallon of water to the liquid from the first potion and seal it in a container.The sludge thats left is the plant and you can start a new batch with it.It freezes too for later starting.You can drink the ginger beer after about 3 weeks.
We ended up giving it to the slugs as everybody had had enough ginger beer to last a life time.
I have a ginger beer plant fizzing away on the windowsill nearly all the time,I had no idea that the sludge could be used to start the next batch,Ive been chucking it on the compost heap! DOH!
Yup, that's potcheen. You have to be very careful to exclude the methanol, which gives the drink its reputation for striking people blind. Sam used to do this by letting the start of the distillate dribble onto the ground, now and again letting a drop slide down the side of a glass and watching carefully for any mistiness when it hit the water. When that stopped, he was good to go. I'm not sure how reliable it was though!
Ginger beer plants, rye leavens, poitin. Ah, the joys of yeast.
If you'd like something with a hint of ginger, but rather more kick then may I suggest treacle ale...
You will need
* 1 large tin golden syrup
* 1 medium tin black treacle
* 1lb sugar
* 16 pints of water
* 2oz yeast
* 1oz ground ginger
* Rinds of two lemons
Rehydrate the yeast in tepid water with a little sugar added.
Boil the water in a large pan and then stir in the syrup, treacle and sugar. When the syrup, treacle and sugar are dissolved, vigorously stir in the ginger and lemon rind. Cool to 25C, pitch the yeast and stir again.
Divide the wort equally between two 1 gallon demijohns (a funnel is recommended!), cover both with muslin secured with rubber bands and leave to stand in a warm room for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, replace the muslin with airlocks and leave for another three days.
Syphon off the ale without disturbing the sediment and bottle (again, use a capper if possible). Keep for at least a week before drinking and preferably a month. It can be a bit strong while the ginger leaves a nice warm afterglow...
As for poitin, a good starting point is a nice, strong barley wine made with bruised barley, potatoes and raisins. Not that I'd know myself.
Thanks for that... (was I the only one who didn't know that?!! 
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