I'm digging up some old photos to share. I'm partial to ginger beers, and experimented with other flavours available here (in Taiwan). Roselle is our favourite (with lemon, of course), and always carbonated quickly. Turmeric by itself was too much flavour-wise, but half and half with ginger was tasty.
No yeast, no. Organic ginger, regular white sugar, and water, feed it daily and stir twice a day. After a few days it will hiss. No I don't get any gelatinous nothing. The ginger beer does get lees at the bottom of the bottle but no, nothing slimy.