I've been on a new adventure lately. What is that? It's an adventure through the land of fermentation. And so far, I've really been enjoying it.
I used to love pop (or soda, or coke, or soda pop - whatever you might call it in your area. I'm in the MidWest, so that's pop for me.) and it was so addictive. But then I was doing some research and found some different recipes for fermented drinks that are healthy sodas. This is a recipe for the Ginger Bug ferment. It's amazing because you can get all sorts of pop from it. I've really only tried the ginger ale right now, but in the summer I'm going to try a blueberry rhubarb and some other flavors. It's got the perfect amount of ginger and fizz.
How To Make Your Own Ginger Bug
You'll have to try the recipe and let me know what you think of it too.
This makes 1 quart, which I've found to be just enough for what we drink. From this amount you could make 4 gallons of ginger pop, if you wanted. So you'll want a quart jar and a wooden spoon or glass straw to stir it. Not metal.
What you'll need:
Chop your ginger until you have 2-3 tsps (This is just for the first day) and put in jar
Put the same amount of sugar into the jar
Pour 2 cups of water (Make sure it's non-chlorinated water so it doesn't harm the bacteria.)
Put a cloth on top and place a rubber band around it to hold it in place.
The Next Day:
Put 1 tsp of sugar and chopped ginger into it to feed it. Then stir it.
For That Week:
Continue doing this for a week.
The moment you start seeing a ton of bubbles, you'll know it is ready. Another test to make sure it's ready is to stir it and you'll hear a fizz. That glorious fizz that we all love, right?
Other Notes:
When you keep it at room temperature, you'll need to feed it every day. So if you'd rather feed it once a week, you can do that and store it in the fridge. Our kitchen seems to be cool enough that I'm able to get away with feeding it every few days. But that depends on the temperature.
If you use any amount of the ginger bug, make sure you add water back and also feed it 1:1 ratio of ginger and sugar.
