What is a Ginger Bug?
Have you ever heard of a ginger bug? No? I hadn’t either, that is, until just a few weeks ago. But once I read about it, I couldn’t wait to give it a try.
A ginger bug is a natural lacto-fermented ‘soda’ starter. Lacto-fermentation is an anaerobic process (meaning without oxygen) by which friendly bacteria and yeast break down sugar to form lactic acid.
Another amazing fermented drink that is similar to ginger bug soda is kombucha soda. You can read more about kombucha here.
Today we are going to dive into making ginger bug soda, I mean really, how great is that name right?
How Do You Make a Ginger Bug?
To make a ginger bug all you need is ginger root, unrefined sugar, and non-chlorinated water (chlorine kills bacteria). Similar to a sourdough starter, the ginger bug traps wild yeast and beneficial microorganisms, which in turn break down the sugar to produce lactic acid and carbon dioxide.
The production of carbon dioxide produces the fizz or effervescence in the finished ginger bug ‘soda.’ Alcohol is also a byproduct of the lacto-fermentation process, but don’t worry, the ginger bug isn’t fermented long enough to produce anything beyond negligible amounts of alcohol.
You might expect the ginger bug soda to be sweet, with the addition of sugar over several days, but it’s surprisingly not. Remember, the sugar is for the bacteria, and not for you.
Health Benefits of Fermented Foods
While I’m generally skeptical about most health food claims, there appears to be a consensus that fermented foods are all-around good for you. Heck, people have been fermenting food for hundreds of years. It’s how they were able to preserve food before refrigeration.
In the words of Sandor Katz (who has written several books on fermentation): “Fermented foods are alive. Industrially processed food is dead.”
Here are just a few benefits of fermented foods.
- Fermentation not only preserves nutrients but breaks them down into more digestible forms.
- Fermentation creates new nutrients; microbial cultures create B vitamins (including folic acid, riboblavin, niacin, etc.).
- Fermentation removes toxins in food.
- Some ferments function as antioxidants, scavenging harmful free radicals from the body.
- Fermented foods are rich in lactobacilli (aka health enhancing probiotics like those found in yogurt); they promote the growth of healthy flora in the intestine which helps with digestion.
Watch Out For Commercially Fermented Foods
Now that I’ve told you about some of the health benefits of fermented food, I must also warn you that most commercially available fermented foods (found in stores) have been pasteurized, which kills off all the good microorganisms such that you lose all of the aforementioned benefits.
So best to ferment foods at home yourself. Plus it’s fun and easy. The microorganisms essentially do all the work. You just need to sit there and wait patiently while the microorganisms do their thing.
You can see that after a couple of days in the bottle, the ginger bug soda is nice and fizzy and bubbly.
It really helps to have these flip top bottles! I love mine and use them all the time! In fact, I am getting ready to buy a second case!
Customizing Ginger Bug Soda With Tea or Juice
You can use any type of fruit juice, tea, or herb for your ginger bug ‘soda.’ I made a couple of batches so far: The first batch with a combination of watermelon juice (you’ll need a juicer for that) and hibiscus tea, and the second with black cherry juice.
To make hibiscus tea…
Bring 48 ounces of water to a boil. Turn off the heat and add 3 tablespoons organic hibiscus flowers and 2 cinnamon sticks, and let it steep for 20 minutes. Strain. You can sweeten with a little sugar or honey if you like (about 2 tablespoons, more or less to taste).
You can even make your own fermented root beer ‘soda’ with an assortment of herbs and roots (including sassafras and sarsaparilla). I definitely want to try this next. You can order all sorts of interesting roots and herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs.
PrintFermented Ginger Bug ‘Soda’
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeIngredients
For the Ginger Bug:
- ginger root
- unrefined sugar
- unchlorinated water (chlorine in water will kill off or inhibit some of the beneficial bacteria)
For the Ginger Bug ‘Soda’:
- 1/4 cup ginger bug liquid (from above)
- 1 quart fruit juice and/or tea
Instructions
- For the Ginger Bug: Mix 2 tablespoons grated ginger, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 cups of unchlorinated water in a clean class jar. Cover with cheesecloth or coffee filter and secure with a rubberband.
- For the next 5 to 7 days, add 2 tablespoons grated ginger, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 tablespoons unchlorinated water. After 5 to 7 days, the ginger bug will begin to foam and bubble, and is ready to use.
- For the Ginger Bug ‘Soda’: Mix 1/4 cup of the ginger bug liquid and fruit juice/tea, and transfer to flip top bottles and allow to ferment for 3 days at room temperature. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill before opening.
- Note: Once you have your ginger bug, you can store in the fridge and feed 2 tablespoons grated ginger, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 tablespoons unchlorinated water once per week.
Notes
Equipment Needed For The Ginger Bug:
Clean class jar,
Cheese cloth or coffee filter,
rubberband
Equipment Needed For The Ginger Bug Soda:
Flip top bottles washed with vinegar and hot water, and rinsed (soap can kill the beneficial bacteria, so use white vinegar)
About Linda Schneider
Linda Schneider currently calls Washington, D.C. home after residing in Chicago for the past 10 years. Linda’s blog http://www.wildgreensandsardines.com focuses on seasonal recipes. Her cooking is largely based upon what she finds at local farmers’ markets and inspired by her travels near and far. Linda has a background in alternative medicine (chiropractic), exercise physiology, and nutrition. She often dreams about lazy days in the Mediterranean.
Thank you for sharing this recipe of Ginger Bug Soda. I liked it. I
will definitely make it.
Thank you for your instructions and recipe. Can this be done with vegetable juice, for example a carrot & beetroot juice?
How long will it keep in the fridge?
Many thanks
What about the sugar in this.. will that be eaten up in the fermantation process? I am concerned about the sugar.
@sudio Yep, the sugar is needed for the fermentation process, but you are correct…there is only a trace once the soda is ready!
@mamakichi I haven’t tried it with vegetable juice, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Carrot and beet juice sounds interesting. Now I’m curious to give it a try with vegetable juice. Let me know how it turns out it you give it a try. It will start to loose its fizz as it sits in the fridge, so best to consume within 3 to 4 days, a week tops.
It is not good to use honey because it is a natural anti-biotic. It will kill what you are growing.
Good to know. Thanks because I knew that about honey, but I would not have thought about it.
Wild yeast and bacteria will gladly eat the honey once it’s been diluted out in the water/juice. That’s how mead is made, and you can certainly lacto-ferment mead.
Mead 😇
So do I keep adding the sugar,water,and ginger each day until the foam and bubbling start?
Yes, I also have the same question as Dawn. Continue adding sugar, water, and ginger EVERYDAY for 5 – 7 days?
I added the sugar, water, and ginger everyday for 5 to 7 days. It got bubbly, but not super bubbly. But the soda still had a nice effervescence to it.
Add some yeast and suger and ferment a second time .to get to 10% takes 8\10 weeks!
Hi, A friend and I are into our 7th day with the ginger bug and nothing is happening. I used turbinado sugar and she used sugar and molassas. What are we doing wrong? Thanks in advance.
I toss in a few organic raisins (I do the same with water keifer). Grapes and grape plants that are not treated with chemicals always seem to have yeast on them. I’ve even made sourdough starter by laying leaves from the wild grape vine in my son’s backyard on top of the flour/water mixture. I swear by this ‘helper.’
I should have said ‘a few’ means 5 or 6 – not a handful.
Grapes \Apple’s ect have good yeasts on them! Plus are tasty!
Hi
what an exciting find! I make my own ginger and turmeric kombucha tea and was looking for an extra kick, this sounds like just the thing.
I have a question … when making up the actual soda with your choice of tea or juice, do we add to a bottle – 1/4 cup of ginger bug and then top up the bottle with our tea or juice. Thanks J
I mixed the ginger bug with the tea/juice together, stirred gently, and then transferred to the flip top bottles.
Hi Jacki, I’m interested in the ginger and turmeric kombucha. I make kombucha with ginger in the 2nd fermentation but had not heard of adding turmeric. Do you just use the fresh root for the 2nd fermentation? Thanks!
on 8th day no yeasty smell no bubbles smells fruity taste sweet but nothing
The only thing missing from this recipe is that it should be stirred vigorously with a plastic or wooden spoon a few times a day. That’s when you’ll really see the bubbles form on top.
It’s day 10 and absolutely nothing is happening. It’s so cold in our kitchen I wrapped a heating pad set on low around the jar thinking it might help. Nothing. I’m about to abandon this project.
My ginger bug wasn’t super bubbly, just a tiny bit of bubbles, but when I mixed with the juice/tea and let ferment a few more days, it did have a nice amount of effervescence/fizz, so there was CO2 production happening.
The first time I made a ginger bug it took about 12 or 13 days to actually have some foam on top. And it sure tasted good! I live up in southern BC, Canada. I wonder if the climate and weather changes effect the speed of fermentation. My temperature was about 75F on the top of my fridge, btw.
If your kitchen is very cold, the fermentation may be very slow. i gave a just prepared bottle to a friend, but he forgot what i said, and put it in the fridge. Then he forgot about the whole thing altogether. Found the bottle more than two weeks after, and apparently, fermentation had occurred, although slowly, and the drink was very good.
Soooo, when I ferment my juice/ginger bug on the counter top in flip top jars, they are closed? Yes? Then check everyday for taste and proper bubbles? 3 days or so? Then how long will the juice/ginger bug soda last in fridge for?
I would think several weeks or longer. My kombucha soda (which is fermented) gets fizzier with more time. It is never around long enough past 2 weeks so that is why I give you that answer…could be longer!
Just a quick question if using tea does it need to be sweeten with sugar or just plain black tea?
I read through most of the comments, but didn’t see my question.. When storing my “bug” in the fridge, does it need to be cloth covered or can I put a lid on it? Thank you for all the great info!
You will also need to be careful with citrus fruit because
they have a lot of citric acid in them. The quality of juice obtained from an orange juice extractor is not the same as what is mass-produced
and sold in stores. When compared to a centrifugal juicer, you will see that the juices
from this masticating juicer are much darker because of the way
it extracts all parts of the vegetable instead of just the juice.
I’ve been feeding my brand new ginger-bug for about a week. There is quite a build-up of grated ginger in the bottom of the jar. Does that ever get removed, or does it get eaten along with the sugar over time?
I have a similar question. My ginger bug is not really a “liquid” at all. It is more of a paste. For my first experiment with making soda, I strained it so I only had liquid but if you could clarify how this part of the process works, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
I have tried to make a ginger bug twice. Both times, my ginger bug gets bubbly for a couple days and then it just stops bubbling. Anyone else have this problem? I am using non-chlorinated distilled water and I feed it 2 tbs or ginger and sugar everyday. I am trying a third time, hoping for better results!! Thanks,
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Try playing with different sugars. I tried Sucanat and then the bug started to get nice and bubbly. Had been using raw crystallized cane sugar before that. And do add 2 Tablespoons of water along with your ginger and sugar.
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I realize some time has passed since you were trying this but I had the exact same problem. A master fermenter finally told me I was giving my bug too much sugar. A better amount is 1 – 2 teaspoons of sugar daily, matching same amt of ginger. Finally I had success with my 3rd batch and moved on to do a 2nd ferment with it before it could die.
Praise Yahshua for good ideas!
I have just started this week my ginger bug.
Hopefully I will be drinking soda here soon.
My boys are excited to try the finished product as well.
Jewsforjesus. Com!
This won’t work very well unless you use Organic Ginger. Non-organic ginger has been irradiated which kills all the good bacteria you need for fermentation. You should update the recipe. Also needs to be very warm 75-80 degrees, I put mine next to a lamp.
I made my ginger bug with NON organic ginger and regular tap water that had been sitting overnight. My Ginger Bug was amazing after 7 – 10 days, especially as the weather warmed up. I made my soda with fresh mango, kiwi and lemons. It was fantastic! I followed April Danann’s method as seen on The Happy Pear YouTube channel.
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I have noticed some people in making the ginger bug recipe add only the ginger and sugar everyday, others add ginger, sugar and water everyday, and still others add these things every other day! Which is it!?
Just out of curiosity, what is unchlorinated water? Definitely not tap water. Can I used distilled water?
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Distilled water may still have chlorine in it. I would recommend reverse osmosis water.
Distilled water does not retain chlorine and should be more than safe to use
I made the ginger bug with sugar and it looked good. However wasn’t thinking about the antibacterial properties of honey when I added honey to the boiled ginger tea. The nagged the bug to this. Do you think it will work?
I have been working on and using my ginger bug for several weeks, adding ginger and sugar. How long should I keep this bug? Should I throw it out at some point? Also, when boiling the ginger for the beer, should I throw out the boiled ginger or add it to the bug?
Hi,
I added my 1/4 cup of ginger bug liquid to a quart of orange juice but the juice looks curdled/separated. Is this normal?
Thanks
Can I drink this straight out of the jar? My kid has a cold, and I would love to add a bit of bug to his tea, but all I have ever heard of is using it for fermenting soda. Can it be used as is?!?
I am confused because the article talks about Lactofermentation. Lactofermentation produces Acid, which would be great for overall preservation, like in the case of sauerkraut. But I think that in the case of a drink like ginger ale it would not be what you want. I think that what you would want is some form of yeast ferment rather than a bacterium like lactofermentation.
In the article it says that:
“Alcohol is also a byproduct of the lacto-fermentation process, ”
But this is not true. Alcohol is not a byproduct of Lacto-fermentation. So it must be some other form of fermentation that is happening if alcohol is created.
This is the third ginger bug I have made, and all have been amazing and so carbonated that I have to open them in the sink because they blow up…even after being refrigerated! I have used straight tap water , white sugar and store bought ginger… I am not sure, but I put mine on the dinning room table and cover the jar with cheese cloth. I feed it severy 2-3 days with another teaspoon of ginger and sugar. Nature keeps my house around 65-75 degrees (no forced air in our home). This is a beautiful recipe! Thank you!!
When I make the ginger bug (not the ginger bug soda), could I use a glass bottle with a lid instead of cheese cloth to cover it? If not, why?
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Grapes \Apple’s ect have good yeasts on them! Plus are tasty!