Ginger Bug – Want To Make Homemade Soda Pop?
Ginger bug might be one of the culinary world’s best kept secrets. Holistic lifestyle enthusiasts who have not heard of it are also intrigued. It’s a fermented blend of ginger, sugar and water that carbonates your beverages. Additionally, your homemade soda is a lacto fermented creation, so it’s loaded with hungry probiotics your digestive health will love you for.
You make it by adding chopped or grated ginger to some water, along with sugar. You leave the skin on the ginger because it contains essential natural cultures that help with fermentation. You allow it to sit for several days, feeding it more ginger and sugar each day. By about one week there will be bubbles on the top. It will be fermented and ready to use.
You add some of this bubbly ginger bug to a sweet beverage of your choice, then replenish it by adding more water, ginger and sugar. If you want to make more soda tomorrow, leave it out to get bubbly again. If you don’t want to make soda for a while, store it in the fridge and feed it one teaspoon of ginger and sugar once a week. Back to the beverage, it gets sealed in a container. In a few days, it’s carbonated! The beverage has to be “burped” a few times during fermentation (every eight hours) to release the gas that builds up inside.
The recipe for ginger bug is down below. It is important that your water is chlorine free. You can dechlorinate tap water by simply letting it sit out in a container for 24 hours. Or you can use bottled water. Do not make a ginger bug in anything metal because it causes a reaction that will kill it.
Keep it covered, but do not tighten the lid. Ginger bugs like oxygen just like we do. Some people place a coffee filter over the jar and fasten it with an elastic band, but I find my ginger bug is alive and well with just a loose lid.
Once you see bubbles forming on the surface, your ginger bug is ready! When it’s very warm and the ginger bug’s been sitting out, sometimes it makes a fizzing sound. You can also see the bubbles rising to the top. And it smells like pungent, syrupy ginger ale—an aroma you’re going to fall in love with!
Ginger Bug Soda Starter
Notes
Ginger bug takes about five to eight days before it starts working.
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 - 2 cups water, chlorine free
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped or grated with the skin left on
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Combine water, ginger and sugar in a very clean mason jar.
- Stir to dissolve the sugar using a plastic or rubber utensil. Do not use metal.
- Allow to sit in a warm place, with the lid loosely covered, for five to eight days. Feed ginger bug another teaspoon of ginger and sugar each day.
- When ginger bug is bubbly at the top, it's ready!
- After using, replenish with another teaspoon of ginger, sugar and more water to top up.
Watch my friend Dani and I make a ginger bug!
An important thing to note is that many (too many!) municipalities are using chloramine in their tap water these days, which is bonded chlorine and ammonia. It doesn’t evaporate off, like plain chlorine, so unless you know the composition of your water or have a high-quality RO unit it may be best to use bottled water.
Good recepies
Thank you 🙂
Love this, thanks so much. I made some yummy quince soda in December and it has lasted until now!
Thank you! Quince sounds delicious. Happy Soda!