LH 28: Fermenting Soda with a Ginger Bug
Welcome to Episode #28 of the Living Homegrown Podcast!
In this episode is all about how to ferment your own home brewed Ginger Ale using a ginger bug.
What is a ginger bug???
It is a wild yeast starter that helps you create your brew. Listen in for ALL the details or read the transcript below.
In this episode, you learn:
- The benefits of homemade soda
- What a ginger bug is & how it is used
- How to do a wild fermentation with 3 simple ingredients
- What organic sugar I recommend
- The exact steps to creating ginger ale
- How to create a fermentation rhythm
- Bonus tips for fermentation success
Resources & Links Mentioned:
Blog Post on Making Ginger Ale – with photos
For further Reading:
Wild Fermentation* by Sandor Katz
The Art of Fermentation* by Sandor Katz
True Brews* by Emma Christensen
Homemade Root Beer, Soda or Pop* by Stephen Cresswell
Transcript:
Click here for the full transcript for Episode #28
For More About This Podcast Series:
Check out podcast Episode 00 to get:
- The whole scoop on what this podcast series is all about
- My background, experience & training
- What to expect going forward
It’s like an audio “about” page for the podcast.
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About the Author:
I’m so exited to try this, Theresa! I’ve had success with making beet kvass and kombucha, but neither were popular with the rest of my family. Dare I ask, how would I make this an alcoholic beverage?
***excited
Hi Jodie – To get a true “beer”, it would be best to use a store bought yeast starter (like a champagne yeast for example) to get more consistent results. Then you would do a longer ferment so that the sugar has more time to turn into alcohol. If you really want to learn how to do this, I suggest the book I “True Brews” by Emma Christensen. {See the link above in recommended reading}
She has recipes for soda AND beer using commercial yeasts. It would help you understand the differences in brewing. 🙂
Interesting. I use a recipe for ginger syrup from Sara Moulton and make ginger ale with my Soda Streamer. I was very interested in your juicing techniques to make other homemade sodas, but have not tried this yet as I don’t have a juicer like yours. I also was considering using my counter top juicer to see if I could make flavored syrup to use for soda. Have you got any ideas for me on this? I feel there must be a resource some where for this that I have not found. Keep up the good work, Theresa. This was very interesting.
Well Craig, you should be able to make a standard syrup with any juice. Typically, it would be 50% juice and 50% sugar. (heated in a pan until sugar dissolves) I have never used a soda Streamer, so I don’t know how sugary the syrups are for them. But 50/50 is pretty standard for a mixed drink syrup – like for cocktails. So it may work for the streamer. I’m just not sure since I have never used one.
I started my ginger bug yesterday and was asking myself if I need to skin the ginger. I’m guess no for that is where the yeast is?
I do not peel the ginger Jeff. I should have said that in the recipe. I will go back and add that note. It is okay if you do peel it but I think you have better ferment with the skin on.
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