WILD FERMENTATION | HOW TO MAKE A GINGER BUG FOR HEALTHY HOMEMADE SODAS 👾 👾 👾
Fizzy, Healthy, Bubbly, & Fresh! If you are a soda lover, then read on as I am about the healthify your favorite drink!
If you are not a soda lover, well be ready to become one ;) Even your kids might go wild for it. Unlike store-bought fizzy drinks, this one is made with whole and healthy products and naturally fermented to add probiotic benefits and the fizz.
And what's more, even though you add sugar to your start product, the beneficial or friendly bacteria present on the ginger and turmeric will use almost if not all sugar to ferment your sugary drink into a healthy probiotic-rich, slightly tangy drink. Just wonderful on a hot tropical day as today!
Every day we have one glass of fizzy Kombucha tea and one glass my famous refreshing ginger-turmeric soda. Though it took me a while to get into Kombucha, brewing my own one did the trick, fermented turmeric soda was love at first sip.
Read my Kombucha instructions post HERE
Food offers us many opportunities to resist the culture of mass marketing and commodification
― Sandor Ellix Katz, Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods
This book, among many others, has inspired me on my fermenting journey. It's fun and so good for you. Although fermentation has been around for ages, through the mass production of convenient foods most of us have forgotten about this age-old practice. Let's spread the word about fermented foods BECAUSE......
OUR HEALTH STARTS IN OUR GUT
Though you will have to wait until tomorrow to make the actual ginger-turmeric soda I love so much (see pic above), today I'll show you how you can start to make this magic happen at your home.
A ginger bug is a culture of friendly bacteria who live from ginger and sugar. It is used as the base for ginger ale or other natural fizzy sodas or tonics. It is similar to the mother of raw apple cider vinegar, the scoby of kombucha or the sourdough starter for bread.
And what’s cool (or freaky), it lives its own life on your countertop or in the fridge. It can be kept “alive” for ages. As with any living thing just do not forget to give it some love and feed it every day!
Ingredients
- 1-2 fresh ginger roots (you can also use a mix of ginger and turmeric. I love to experiment with my bugs, feel free to do so too. Other roots like galangal might work too)
- ½ cup white or unrefined sugar (honey, stevia, agave, maple, molasses or other sweeteners will NOT work)
- 2 cups filtered water (chlorine-free, chlorine can harm the culture)
FYI: the friendly bacteria feed on the sugar. So no worries about drinking heaps of sugar, all the sugar will be converted, and your drink will not be sugary at all.
DIRECTIONS
- Grate or finely chop 3 tablespoons of ginger and place in a quart size jar (you can add fresh turmeric root too).
- Add 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 cups of water to the jar. Gently stir with a spoon and lightly cover with a coffee filter (or cheesecloth) and a rubber band.
- For the next 2 to 5 days (it may take 7 or 8 days depending on the temperature, but no longer), stir the mixture at least once a day and feed it 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger and 1 tablespoon sugar.
- You know you bug is coming to life when it forms bubbles, becomes cloudy, smells yeasty, and fizzes when stirred. If mold appears on the surface, scrape it off. When too much mold appears or the process takes longer than 7 to 8 days, start over.
- When the culture is alive and bubbling, you could keep it on the countertop and feed it daily with one tsp of sugar and one tsp grated ginger. Or if you are planning to let it rest in the fridge. When resting in the fridge don’t forget to feed it every week, 1 tbsp sugar and one tablespoon grated ginger. To reactivate the culture, bring it back to room temperature and daily feed it again.
FYI: Depending on the temperature, more bubbles may appear when you stir the bug. The more it bubbles, the faster the soda-making process will go.
Just one more day and the bug will be ready.
This ginger bug can now be used to create fermented fizzy sodas or tonics. I'll show you tomorrow how to make my favorite ginger turmeric soda (see pic below)! Stay tuned and have a happy and healthy day!
ALL CONTENT IS MINE AND ORIGINAL!
PICTURE(s) TAKEN WITH NIKON D5600
Very interesting article! I always wanted to do tibicos for myself, but those water kefir grains are hard to obtain. Do you know how rich the probiotic content of your bug is, is it comparable? Surely will try your recipe!
What also caught my attention is that obviously friendly bacteria feeds on sugar but a HF/HS diet decreases protective bacteria in the gut.
Since these bacteria feed on sugar there will be almost no left in the end product.... since the bacteria are mainly found in the last part of our intestines and sugar absorption happens in small intestines, prob not a lot of the actual sugar makes it to the colon but a lot of crap and waste materials from the unhealthy diet do... which may create a not-so-beneficial environment for the bacteria.... just my theory though and a wild guess. I should research this better. Interesting indeed. Thanks for your comment!
This is great! I am going to start mine today! My husband will love it.
Thank you! I'm excited to see how you actually make the soda.
Coming up today ;)
Ohhhh....sign me up. My wife and I are getting into Ginger Beer, so we'd love to try this. I'll be on the lookout for tomorrow's how to!
Ginger beer is so yum! It super easy to make. We turned it into a continuous system... always something brewing at our home. Love our Kombucha too. Have you tried that before?
It is! That sounds nice to always have it on hand.
I have tried a couple of Kombuchas from our local natural food store. I could drink small amounts, but it isn't my favorite. My favorite tea is still sweet, lol.
Lol... never liked sweet tea. You could try the flavored ones. Maybe one with cinnamon would taste kinda sweet... or if you make your own you could ferment a shorter time so there is still some sugar in there :) Or just stick to the ginger beer....
Maybe the flavored ones are better, hmm. I will have to give it a try. Can this bug be used for Kombucha, or no?
That isn't a bad idea either...lol. :D
Nope.. kombucha needs a mushroom-like culture of yeast and bacteria.
My boyfriend would love this. Ginger and kombucha are his two favorite things. I'm going to make it for him. I'll let you know how it goes!
Hehe.. same here. he will love you even more ;) Plus it is so easy and tastes better than storebought variations!
This is SO cool! I'm all about booch brewing but I had no idea about ginger bugs!! I love strong ginger beer/ale, and flavouring my booch with ginger, so I would looovvvve to try this! Looking forward to your next post! Cheers!
We always have both brewing at our home. So good! Thanks for stopping by!
I guess one should be able to use the sourdough starter or some yeast water to kickstart the process a bit. I'm planning to make kvass using yeast water one day.
I reckon you can but it is not needed. It goes so well and fast! I hope you share your kvass recipe with us ;)
This is it. I started my bug today. I added just a bit of dates yeast water to give it a bit of boost to begin with as it's a bit cold right now. We'll see how it goes.
Looking forward to the end result! Good luck ;)