If you aren’t familiar with naturally fermented beverages, you might be asking what the heck a Ginger Bug is and why you should make one…
A ginger bug is a culture of beneficial bacteria made from fresh ginger root and sugar. It is similar to a sourdough starter for bread or a kombucha scoby for making kombucha. The ginger imparts its flavor and as it naturally ferments, creates a mixture of beneficial bacteria.
Though not overly tasty by itself, the Ginger Bug is the base for many homemade sodas and tonics. We use it to make Root Beer, Ginger Ale, Fruit “sodas” and more.
The recipe we use is an adaption of the recipe in Nourishing Traditions (p. 591) and is the culture we use for all homemade sodas. There is also an easier way to make soda that doesn’t require a ginger bug if you prefer to skip this step, but to make an authentic soda, the bug is needed.
Once this ginger bug is made, it can be kept alive and used continuously to make healthy soda at any time.
How to Make a Ginger Bug
How to create a ginger bug to use as the beneficial culture to make healthy fermented homemade sodas like old fashioned ginger ale or root beer.
Ingredients
- 1-2 fresh ginger roots
- 1/2 cup white sugar (important for starting the culture. Honey, stevia or other sweeteners will not work)
- 2 cups of water
- Quart size mason jar
Instructions
- Cut a piece of ginger root about 1.5 inches long to make 2-3 tablespoons of grated ginger. You can also finely chop instead of grating. There is some debate about if it is better to peel the root or not. My genera rule is that non-organic ginger gets peeled and organic just gets rinsed before grating.
- Place the ginger in a quart size mason jar and add an equal amount of white sugar (2-3 tablespoons). Nourishing Traditions insists that white sugar is needed to create the bug and I've had the best success with this, but a local friend claims that unrefined sugar or sugar with 1 tsp of molasses added works better. Try what you have and adapt as needed.
- Add 2 cups of filtered water to the mason jar. Make sure that the water has been filtered so that it does not contain chlorine which can affect the culturing process.
- Stir with a non-metal spoon and lightly cover. I cover with a coffee filter and rubber band.
- Each day for the next five days, stir the mixture at least once and add 1 tablespoon of grated ginger root and 1 tablespoon of sugar. (note: depending on temperature, it may take up to eight days of adding sugar and ginger to create the desired culture).
- You can tell if culture is active if there are bubbles forming around the top of the mixture, it "fizzes" when stirred and it takes on a sweet and mildly yeasty smell. It will also become somewhat cloudy and opaque. If mold appears on the top, scrape it off if it can be removed. It this happens more than once, you will need to start again. If the mixture hasn't taken on these characteristics by the 7-8th day, you need to discard it and start again.
- Keep the culture away from other cultures like sauerkraut and kombucha or it can cross culture.
- Once the ginger bug has cultured, it can be used to create fermented sodas and drinks at the ratio of 1/4 cup ginger bug starter per quart of sweetened herbal mixtures (for ginger ale or root beer) or diluted fruit juice (for fruit flavored sodas).
Notes
To keep the bug alive and continue growing it, you will need to feed it regularly. Add 1 teaspoon of minced ginger and 1 teaspoon sugar per day if kept at room temperature. You can also "rest" it in the fridge and feed it 1 tablespoon each of ginger and sugar once a week. To reactivate it, remove and let it reach room temperature and begin feeding it again.
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Do you have a pet ginger “bug” sitting on your counter? Will you make one?
How do you keep it alive though? In the fridge? To use all the time and not start over again
My question is… Do you need to add water to keep it alive…. Since you will be drinking it.
yes, when you remove some of the bug, how do you know how much of each component to add to keep a stellar bug on your counter.
Personally, I use 1 T each of water, ginger, and sugar every time I feed my bug. When I restart it after I use it, I put 1 T of old bug mash, 1 T of fresh ginger, 2 T water (1 T for the old, 1 T for the new), , and 1 T sugar to start the new bug.
I have been making my ginger bug for 7 days and I have no bubbles and no yeasty smell
Me too. Wonder if it’s just a late bloomer?
Me too! I’m at day 6. I have a tiny amt of bubbles when I stir it. I used organic cane sugar. I think I may start another one and go buy white sugar.
I had this problem too but then I added yeast energizer and yeast nutrient. You can find them on beer brewing sites. They provide minerals and nutrients that ale yeasts to thrive. Follow the instructions on the bottle. Remember a little goes a long way. Dint underestimate the small amount of energizer and nutrient it takes for yeast to kick start your ginger bug.
Maybe it’s an issue of temperature? My kitchen is typically pretty cold so I’m culturing the bug inside the oven with just the oven light on. That keeps the bug nice and warm but not hot, with the result that after only two days I’m seeing lots of bubbling.
My worked well, and my kitchen was a bit cool. I keep it on stove under the light and for 10 days. Also it didn’t bubble or smell a lot but the ginger ale turned out great!
Debra
Did you use filtered water? you want to make sure their is no chlorine in the water which could kill the yeast.
Try adding TJ Clark’s colloidal mineral sup. to absolutely pure water, NO hydrochloride at all! also make sure pH is 6.5 or above. test strip should be available at most health conscious retailers.
I as well …have had it going for 8 days and nothing…:(
What do I need to do ?
I have the same issue. I see Mamma did not address this question though. I’m on day 8 and I dont see any visible bubbles and I’m not sure it’s “yeasty”. there is not off-smell or any weird color or mold. It looks cloudy like the description but no real fizz when stirred…at least not like the fizz of a carbonated drink or anything. I’ll hold it to the light and try as well as sample a bit to see what it tastes like.
I have very clean well water, not hard at all and definitely no chlorine. I make Kim-chi so I know what fermenting tastes like. Maybe I should sit it outside in the shade….it’s hot outside these days.
Hopefully it will work like Debra. I have followed the directions exactly. dumping and making another is like the definition of insanity, doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result!
Hi to All with problems getting the bug to start!
For me, non-organic ginger is a (pardon the pun) non-starter. For those wondering, “non-organic ginger” are generally very large ginger roots (more than 1 inch diameter) found virtually in every grocery store. and the issue is not that they aren’t organic. Rather, non organic ginger usually come from China, and has been pasteurized — treated to kill of any bad stuff. But, of course, that kills of all the good yeast that you need to start the bug.
True, untreated ginger (usually much smaller at max 1 inch diametre pieces) will start bubbling within 2 days, and rarely any longer. If it takes a week then either the temperature must very cold, Or the ginger you bought was treated and has no live yeast left in it. If you leave your bug out uncovered long enough, it’ll catch yeast from the air, and start fermenting from that, but otherwise it’s just a sign that your ginger is very much dead and contains none of the good probiotics which once in your ginger beer will bring you the same goodness as Kombocha.
Good luck sourcing the real, untreated ginger. Once you do, not only will it ferment quickly, but it’ll taste a whole lot better than that treated stuff as well,
Charlie
That makes ALOT of sense!! I started mine with organic and it was bubbling and fizzing, looking wonderful. I ran out of organic and bought a big root from Walmart (non organic) and now day 7 I have no more bubbling or fizzing 🙁 what a waste of time :(.
Does it do better in dark or light – I keep my kombucha Scooby in cabinet and thought I should do this with ginger too,?
according to the “nouidhing traditions” cookbook that ti think wellness mama uses u can do w/ ground ginger? is my first time so idk if i should use ground or fresh ginger? if i use fresh ginger it may not be organic but i could get organic ginger, even un-irradiated and maybe that may be better? has anyone used ground ginger?
By day 3 put the lid on the mason jar and shake every time you walk by the jar. Remove the lid and listen. The more you shake the more oxygen you add to the water. This is similar to making compost tea for your garden. You are growing bacteria and it needs oxygen and food (sugar).
Interesting concept Billy! Thanks for sharing. Of course, not all bacteria are grown aerobically. I find I can ferment water kefir in an anaerobic vessel as well. I guess the same wouldn’t be true for ginger ale?
I had the same problem – the bug would actually go well for about three days and then lose the bubbles. The reason for this was too much ginger and not enough sugar. So as soon as you see your bug losing bubbles stop adding ginger and just add sugar for the next couple of days. You can start adding ginger again after the bubbles start to appear but I’ve find that sometimes all I have to add is the sugar until I am ready to use it.
That sounds good, I’ll try that today. I’m on my third failed ginger bug now. The first I made with plain sugar but the last one I added the tsp of molasses and left it to ferment in a different area. Still didn’t work. I’m on my 4th day of feeding it and this this morning I stirred and my bubbles are disappearing. Thanks for the advice. I’m about to give up
I have done this with other things besides ginger. It is actually formed from the yeasts and microbes that are in the air. A coffee filter does little more than prevent insects, debris, and other large organisms from getting in, however anything that is in the air can and will get in. If you do this in an environment where you have made cheese, it will taste cheesy. If you make it in an environment where you brew beer or wine it will eventually become alcoholic.
This is also a method that they use in some Belgian breweries. They are called open fermenters, typically used in farmhouse ales. These have been brewed in the same facilities for years, so there is a lot of yeasts in the air that like the malty wort.
I have been home brewing my own mead for nearly 20 years now, and often times use the same yeast over and over for a number of years.
The same results could be achieved by using a good fruit wine yeast.
You feed it more ginger and sugar everyday to keep it alive.
ty I need to do this I make my own soda , but not this way would love to learn this.
my question is- do you strain it before putting in the next round of ginger and sugar? I’m thinking that if there’s a pause in how often you make the soda, then the ginger would build up, right? Even if kept in the fridge?
Yes, I occasionally thin out the ginger pieces when they start to build up and I strain out before using in soda recipes
thanks so much, I had the same question
If honey wont work then how did people back in medieval times and during the American migration west make carbonated beverages? Because we know they did. Does it have something to do with this being alcohol free and the medieval/migration recipes being lightly alcoholic?
Yeast + sugar => alcohol. The question is how much. There is also the possibility of bacteria eating the alcohol.
Honey is naturally anti-microbial. It _CAN_ be turned into alcohol but this requires using a fair amount of active yeast. The goal here is to encourage the existing yeast and bacteria (which the honey would also inhibit).
How did they do it in ye olde times? Grains are the likely option. This is where the yeast for bread and beer come from. Another option would be sweet/starchy roots like say beet or potato.
Potato is a new world product that didn’t exist in medieval times in Europe.
I hope you mean new to europe because potatoes have been around a lot longer than america has. It was first domesticated in around peru and bolivia before Christ.
“New world” is a fairly common way to refer to the Americas in when speaking of products in historical terms 🙂
This is, at the very least, highly misleading. Honey contains natural yeasts (in raw form) that will wake up once the honey is added to water. That’s how one makes a simple mead. My first mead was made with processed honey, water, and a cut-up peach, so even introduced yeasts (from the skin of the peach and/or the air in my case) can culture in the presence of honey. It may be that some bacteria are inhibited by something in honey, but I can say with confidence that at least some yeasts don’t mind it at all.
I would guess that the processed honey may have been laced with corn syrup, a very common occurence surprisingly. That combined with the sugars from the peach made it easy to ferment.
You can brew mead without adding yeast. So I’m not sure why you can’t use it in this recipe . I have fermented natural honey with wild cultures.
Processing honey kills the bacteria that would inhibit the yeast. Once you heat and process honey it turns into a sugar and little else. Raw honey eats yeast.
Just verify that your honey is organic. Too many honeys are actually corn syrup filler with honey to taste.
Yeast + sugar + oxygen (aerobic fermentation) => water and Co2. Co2+ water => carbonated water.
Yeast + sugar and no oxygen (anaerobic fermentation) => co2 and alcohol.
And the honey.. If honey contains more than 20% water it can begin to ferment. That’s why the bees wait until the honey is solid enough before they put a wax cap on the cell.
So you don’t need anything else than honey and water to make mead. I know this because I make mead, beer and now thanks to wellnesmama – also ginger ale 🙂 mine didn’t start to ferment though. Maybe because of the dry inhouse air. So I added a knifes tip of brewers yeast and now it’s bubbling away! First batch of ginger ale two one day away from straining and bottling.
I already have a jar of grated ginger with a touch of lemon juice in it. will this work to make the bug or do I need to use ginger alone?
Could you use this to flavor dry ice carbonated root beer as well? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but that’s the only kind of homemade soda I’ve ever made before but I REALLY want to try your fermented Ginger Ale recipe too!
I’ve never tried with lemon in it, but if it isn’t much it would probably work just fine as long as the ginger is really fresh
I am on day 6 of making the Ginger Bug.It has started to bubble but I think I will go the 8 days to get a better bubble.I am having fun with this.
i was worried because i used tap water and didnt dechlorinate it.., it would fizz on shake and then go away…sooo…i poured a little juice from my kombucha scoby hotel and by day 7..fizz!!!! and my first batch turned out great…but next time i will strain it before the second bottling!!! so fun!!
I used to make this many years ago. My starter used the dry ginger powder and sugar as a feeder each day.
would love the original recipe.
did it work ok as using dreid ginger seems so much more practical on a daily bases an would probebly not take as much space up over time?
I’ve successfully made one 9 these in my glass canister. Love it in OJ & fresh mint but, I stopped feeding it and put it on the shelf… It gas been months, I don’t know if it’s safe to drink without getting drunk or something worse? I’d like to use it, seems bubbly still and fermented for sure. Thanks for the recipe’s, I adore your healthy chocolate!
I’ve never let one sit that long, so I’m not sure it is still good… TO be safe, I probably would not use it
Do I have to strain the ginger bug before I add it to the ginger beer recipe, or can I stir it and use it with the chinks of ginger in it?
You could, but it will carbonate naturally without the need for dry ice…
I did try it with lemon and lime as a flavoring but with the citric acid it did not ferment. So I tried it again and heated the lemon when making the tea and it was just great and delicious.
Is there a way I can get the chlorine out of my water w/o a filter?
You can let it sit out overnight or boil it without a lid…
Thank you xx My mama does this each night, fills a jug, and leaves it open. I’ve been doing that for the water I’m going to add to the fishy tank too before adding their conditioner 😀
Many cities now use chloramine instead of chlorine. This cannot break down without chemical assistance. Check with your local water supplier to see if you have chlorine or chloramine. Also, there are many other chemicals in tap water that are dangerous besides chlorine/chloramine.
I was thinking the same thing, my city puts fluoride in our tap water, so I am not able to use it for my cultured foods, I would guess that would be the case here. I have been buying filtered water at the grocery store, but another thing I heard with the filtered water is that it takes away the minerals that the cultures need too, so I add Himalayan sea salt to my water kefir, wondering if I would want to do the same for this?
This will work, yes. But make sure they haven’t also added chloramine to your water. That will NOT evaporate. If you don’t know, ask at a fish store. They’ll know, because you have to treat chloraminated water or it will kill fish.
Kills fish, but the govt put it in drinking water. Hmmmmmmm……yeah, that sounds sensible?! NOT!!
It’s so terrifying! I’m horrified by the chemicals the government not only deems safe, but then ensures the American public is regularly consuming. ::shudder::
I agree. I leave a gallon jug of water sit overnight. I do this before adding water to my fish tank and have not lost a fish yet.
How “fizzy” should the bug be? Mine looks and smells great but does not seem very fizzy, just some slight bubbles on the edge before I feed it and very very slight fizz when I stir it, it’s getting up to 6 days olds now. I’m not sure how to tell if it’s ready or if it did not work.
It should work… the fizz will vary based on the natural bacteria but it sounds like it is good…
I’m on day 5 no fizz no yeasty smell. I used bottled arrowhead water, ginger, a teaspoon of molasses, and white sugar. Should I try yeast nutrient and energizer or just be patient? If it doesn’t take, is there any use for it or should it just be tossed out?
I had to give mine a little warmth and a little nutritional yeast to get it started. I used 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast to the standard beginning batch, and then put it in my dehydrator on the lowest setting overnight. by the next morning, I had fizz….
In your recipe you never add any water back to the culture. This is something that is obviously done when removing some for use. Your instructions also didn’t really mention straining the culture before adding it to a “soda” recipe which also would be a good addition to the instructions. What if you feed it everyday for 3 weeks but never use any? Your culture is now going to be pretty darn sweet and full of ginger particles. How do you manage this? Part of the feeding instructions should also include discarding some of the culture if it is used or not, maybe on a weekly basis? I havent manged one of these so I dont know exactly how to maintain it properly.
Thanks for adding the instructions about how to keep it alive! If it was there already and i missed it the 1st time, sorry!i have couple more questions, I’m making this now but i forgot to feed it on the third day, but when I checked it this morning, it did have the bubbles on the top and little fizzy when I stirred it, so I fed it again, do you think its okay still too use? Also for keeping it alive, how moloch water shop you add top it and when? Thanks for all your help and sorry for asking so many questions but this is my 1st real fermented thing I’m making tonight, hopefully 🙂
It should still be fine…I just add water as needed
My Ginger Bug is complete! With a nice fluffy layer of fine little bubbles across the entire top. Hmmmm……now to decide what to make with it. Thanks for the recipe!
I started my ginger bug tonight.I sure hope it takes off and ferments.
One question, when bug is done and you make you batch of ale, when you take out 1/4 cup, it says to add the sugar and ginger, don’t you add water at that time? I’m guess replace the 1/4 cup? If you do, can you take 1/2 cup for double batch, or do you only take 1/4 cup per time?
Yep, just replace the water and you can take out double if it is well established and fizzy…
Do you keep it in dark or on direct sunlight ?
I followed your directions, but my ginger bug never took off. I covered it with a coffee filter and dutifully added sugar and grated ginger every day. Now, weeks later, I still have a jar filled with a lot of sugary ginger, but no naturally-occuring yeasty action has taken place.
Should I add some yeast? Or take a bit of my Kombucha’s SCOBY and add it to the ginger bug?
Thanks!
You could try adding some SCOBy… haven’t tried it but it might work.
Do you have any other suggestions on how I could get the bug to start fermenting?
This method relies on yeast that is present in the air. If you bake bread fairly often or other things that use yeast, you will have a better chance of success. You should have a certain amount of yeast in the air regardless, but perhaps if you have an air filtration unit in your home this may be the problem? ….just a thought…and I would add some wine yeast (will not impart the “yeasty” flavour of bread yeast) to your bug, or just directly to your soda recipe….adding it to the bug will allow you to multiply it and not have to buy it every time, but in my area it would be cheaper to buy the yeast than to feed it sugar every day
Thanks for this advise. I’ve found my soda recipe hasn’t fermented, and was wondering if I should add yeast to it. How much wine yeast should I add to 8 liters of soda? Do I need to add more sugar with it? And will this make it alcoholic, or can it be non-alcoholic still if I refrigerate it soon enough? Thanks!
My first attempt at this didn’t do a thing except for some slight bubbles the third day, and nothing after that. Second attempt after reading some other articles on this I tried adding a little bread yeast. I activated the yeast according to packet directions and then used one teaspoon to start the bug. Has been doing great since, but I haven’t tried making soda from it yet (hopeully this weekend)
There’s been a few comments regarding straining the bug. Note this is only the bug recipe. In the actual ginger ale recipe she explains to strain before drinking.
I intend to start one this very evening! THANK YOU!
Mine is forming a white film on top – is that normal or is this the beginning of mold?
A film can be normal as long as it isn’t patchy or fuzzy like mold…
I know I’m late on the topic, but my ginger bug has been sitting in the cupboard for about 2 months. I just took it out and wow, it has a very thick, opague white layer on top. I make kombucha so I know it’s nothing scary (or moldy) but I wasn’t expecting to see it 🙂
Mine is also producing a scoby. is this a “ginger” scoby or a result of cross fermentation? do i use it when I make ginger beer?
how about making a ‘how to’ for you’r root beer 🙂
When you are keeping the ginger bug alive by adding more ginger/sugar every day, do you also at some point add more water? Since you are taking out water to make ginger ale/other sodas? I’m a little confused on that part.
Lucy…you should add 2 tbsp of each of water, sugar, ginger to the bug daily.
It’s ready to use after 3 to 5 days. Take out 1/4 cup of the stuff replace with 1/4 cup water, 2 tbsp ginger and 2 tbsp sugar.
And go from there. or put it in the fridge and add the 2 tbsp sugar, water, & ginger every 5 to 7 days.
Oh – the recipe above says to add a tbs sugar and ginger each day but not water. So I was only adding the sugar and ginger. Is that why it stopped fizzing after the 5th day?
Should the white sugar be organic?
It doesn’t really matter…sugar is sugar to the little guys.
Nice site and good info save for one little thing.
#7 in the instructions is a tad mistaken. The ginger bug is an
anaerobic bacterial culture not a pollinating flower. There are no
spores that float in the air…wild yeast does that. There is no danger
of sauerkraut, kombucha and ginger bug cross culturing…ever…it’s quite impossible. I keep all of them side by side…no problems.
Wellness Mama, do you know what the sugar content is of the final product? I’m really really trying to watch my sugar intake. If you could tell me the amount of sugar in about 8 oz. of ginger beer I’d appreciate it. Thank you.
My ginger bug looks great until day 5 and then when I wake up on day five ready to make ginger ale all the fizz is gone and it looks dead? 🙁 I feed it 1 table spoon of sugar and ginger each day and stir at the same time each day. Any suggestions?
I am having exactly the same problems -fizzed nicely for the second & third day but now has stopped. I read on another blog to leave it uncovered during the day so am trying that – fingers crossed!
Mine did the same thing! It was awesome, and so I went out and got more ginger, and found some bottles to make ginger ale, and now no fizzies. I fed mine each day at the same time too. This is the second time this happened to me. I may just give up.
Hi,
If the bug is just sugar, ginger and water, then wouldnt a ginger ale with just sugar, ginger and water ferment on its own anyway without the bug? (or am I missing the point)
You have peaked my curiosity! I have komboocha fermenting and want to start a ginger bug too. But now I want to know what would happen if they do cross culture? Lol. Must know.
The word you want is piqued …
Can you please tell me if you keep the ginger bug in a sealed container when resting in fridge?
Wondering same thing— do you keep the coffee filters on the bug in the fridge or go ahead and seal them when they are “resting”?
hi! I’m wondering the same. When resting the bug, do you cover or seal?
thanks
I doesn’t matter either way. The cold temperatures will drop microbial activity dramatically so they do not need nearly the amount of oxygen needed if it were fermented at room temperature. I put a cap on mine if I put it in the fridge just in case it spills or if there might be some funky stuff in the fridge. Just add a little bit of sugar every week and shake it up a bit. Also you can use that ginger bug to “inoculate” other jars that have not begun fermenting. Make sure though that after you add water to your ginger bug you add some lime and lemon. This will drop the pH to discourage molds from colonizing…also great flavor. I think lime and lemon take away from the spiciness ginger has. Cheers.
I’m so excited to find this recipe! I adore ginger ale but hate all the store bought options with corn syrup. Started my ginger bug last night and checked it this morning. We have bubbles! I hope it keeps it up! BTW, I used unrefined organic sugar (all I had on hand) and a tsp of black strap molasses. 😉
Would you recommend this for someone with multiple food allergies, GI issues, and a Candida allergy? I am considering making ginger syrup (no sugar added) and just adding it to seltzer water. What do you recommend?
There is a much easier way to make natural soda.
Fill one 2 liters soda bottle with 1/2 can 100% juice concentrate, 1/8 tsp champagne yeast, 1/4c sugar top it off with water. Seal and shake to mix. Wait 24 hours at room temp, check firmness of bottles. (time=firmer=more fizz) Then chill
Replace the concentrate with grated/chopped ginger if you want ginger ale (powder might work too)
I make four 2 litters bottles of Welch’s grape at a time take less than 5 min
If you put it in a cupboard and forget about it, it will blow up; don’t ask me how I know.
I was almost done with my bug… but then got too busy to feed my it for two days and now it has lost its fizzy-ness. How can I fix it to make my soda? Or do I have to start over fresh?
You do indeed need to use the plain white stuff. I tried using evaporated cane sugar and there were small bubbles, but it never really came together.
Is there a way to make such a ‘bug’ with dandelion root?
Can ginger be grown in Southeast Idaho?
My bug has a slight pink tinge to it, is that ok?
Yes
Hey! Will coconut sugar work? I’ve got molasses as well if needed.
What happens if things cross culture?
What is the difference between this and kombucha? is one more beneficial?
I created a bug with this recipe. I’m glad I read it again today — I’ve been overfeeding the bug, giving it a full tablespoon per day of both sugar and ginger. It hasn’t seemed to mind, it’s been making ginger ale just fine and is bubbling like a normal ferment should, but it’s good to know it will stay alive if I cut back to teaspoon amounts instead. I think that in reading it quickly I probably got confused with the “once a week” fridge feeding.
i have made this a couple times about 3 gallons now. I have used fresh home grown ginger and store bought because I ran out. I used a very small amount of distillers yeast (like 10 grains or less) in the wort. After the whole process as described in directions was complete I let it set in the refrigerator for 5-7 days and it was perfect. very fizzy like store bought. tastes better than store bought because I know it’s probiotic and contains no fluoride, HFC and not much refined sugar. I used molasses in one batch sorghum in another. Molasses was best for me. Fully intend to experiment with everything in the spice rack though. Thanks wellness mamma. I have been looking for this for awhile.
i don’t get how it makes a culture though, it is simply ginger with sugar water? where does it get the yeast and good bacteria from?
Vegetables all have (good) bacteria on them so the ginger will already have bacteria that will grow with the addition of the sugar and wild yeast is present in the air and the culture will pick that up (which is why you can’t seal it while it is starting).
This is Sally Fallon’s recipe, isn’t it?
I started a ginger bug, basically from the recipe that you mentioned above, but before reading yours here. However, mine’s doing great and actually I did not start mine with white sugar. I started it first with unrefined sugar, and because We’ve been trying to stay away from so much fructose (namely the syrups and all) we’ve started trying dextrose to sweeten when we want something sweetened. I also like honey. So, the ginger bug actually really likes both here. 🙂 The dextrose, which is pure glucose, it loves.. it just eats it up. My ginger bug is bubbly and has a beautiful smell and we like to use it for soda too. However, using the dextrose versus any other sugar it doesn’t get as sweet. So, I’ve also been using the dextrose with my water kefir, which again loves it and the grains multiply even faster with that than with the molasses added, however, again, it too is not as sweet as it would be when I’ve used other sugar. So, that actually makes me wonder if what it’s mostly eating up in the ginger bug or in the water kefir is glucose and the reason it remains sweet tasting or even slightly sweet later is because the fructose remains. It’s almost like it’s gobbling up all the glucose and leaving the fructose. Have any ideas? Thanks! 🙂
Do you think agave nectar would work? I got some to use in my iced tea, but don’t much like the flavor. Maybe it could be used here?
I use agave in my home made no bake granola bars. Check on Pinterest, they have lots of recipes for agave
Agave is basically fructose so it should work here
I tried this recipe step by step, but it didn’t work 🙁 Not only did it never start bubbling, it also grew mould after a few days. I’m a fermenting enthusiast and have made kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut and ginger bugs (according to Sandor Ellix Katz’ recipe) before, so I don’t know what went wrong. Any thoughts?
I started a ginger bug on sunday and it has already started to form bubbles. Is that ok?
FYI honey can be used. Sandor Katz’s ginger bug recipe in his latest book uses honey, ginger and water. And he stresses buying organic, preferably local ginger as most non-organic grocery store ginger has been irradiated & therefore might fail to ferment & carbonate. He also says you need to leave the skin on the ginger. I have had great success with his recipe using raw, local honey & organic ginger from my local farmer’s market. The sodas I make are perfectly fizzy & have lovely honey undertones.
How much honey do you use?
SO when you strain it into a juice to second ferment it, I dont want to have pieces of ginger in a juice, is it just the liquid you can strain or are you supposed to put 1/4 cup with the actual grated pieces of ginger in the liquid.?
just the liquid
How can I use the bug to make alcoholic ginger beer?
The bug smells fantastic, great recipe
I made a bug 2 days ago. I did it in a regular quart mason jar… which gave me 2c Ginger Bug so far… & covered it with a coffee filter & elastic. Was I supposed to cover it with it’s real cover? It is fizzing a little on it’s own. How much should it fizz before it’s ready? Also, when it is done, I would like to double the recie, how do I do that? Just add water and sugar & ginger & continue like I did before? Thanks in advance 🙂
Can culture starter (Caldwells) be used to give the bug a boost?
You could try it…
How long after I remove the bug from refrigerator storage do I have to wait before I can use it in my root beer or ginger ale?
Hmm, just posted a comment and it didn’t appear (so apologies if this posts twice).
I’d also like to know how long to wait after taking it out of the fridge before making a new batch of soda. It’s been on the counter about a day and smells a little yeasty but when I shake it there’s basically no bubbles. Thanks!
Doesn’t really matter. It will still work even if you put it in right out of the fridge. Provided what ever you put it in to isn’t too hot!!!
Ooooohhhh, shoot, i just made this today, but put in the jar the whole 1-2 ginger roots and the 1/2c of sugar. it appears, after re-reading it, that the ingredients are the total amount I’ll need by the time it’s finished? Lol, what would you do now? I have my jar with 2C water, 1/2c sugar, and a large hunk of grated ginger in it….. ?
Try adding more sugar and a little more water and see if it works 🙂
Thanks for the recipe, I love your site! I am currently making this at home, however I forgot about the ginger bug for a bit and left it uncovered and out for 2 days. It still is fizzy and opaque and doesn’t have mold, however it smells a bit alcoholic, can I still use it?
Thanks
It should still be ok…
Hello there –
I had a ginger bug going strong for a few days, and stopped bubbling like some others say.
I’m wondering if the METAL SPOON I was using was bad for it? Do you know why the metal stirring device is bad?
Great Blog!
I’m a beginner root-beer-brewer. Your info is great 🙂
So I made the bug but I missed the part about feeding it everyday. It was doing great, forming bubbles and rising ginger. Now it is day 7 and all the bubbles are gone and the ginger has fallen to the bottom. I added a teaspoon of ginger and sugar today. Do you think I might need to start over?
I was so excited to find this recipe. I got right to it however; by day 4 my bug died. I believe it fermented within 2-3 days so…round 2. Let’s see what happens.
This is so cool! I just finished making ginger ale and am about to put the ginger bug in the fridge. Do I still put a breathable lid (like a coffee filter) on it? Or a regular lid?
breathable in the fridge
Just wondering, many posts have said that this bug produces some alcohol. Does the final soda product have alcohol in it as my brother is an alcoholic and on meds that make him sick if he drinks anything with alcohol. I do not want to make him sick with my soda. thanx
Once I use the liquid to make ginger ale do I have to replace it with water in my starter to keep it going, or do I just add the ginger and sugar daily?
When you take liquid out, add more plus the sugar and ginger
Aloha, Katie, thank you for your great posts! Loving them! I got it all finished, then decided to add molasses to my mixture to in essence make the white granulated sugar already in the mixture to become as nutritious as “brown sugar” & by then, just like Jake, had completely forgot about the warning to NOT use METAL SPOON. But it was too late. What harm have I done? Should I throw the whole batch out & start over? Can’t wait for a successful outcome & all the benefits for my family! Thank you for your response! Blessings to you & all!
It may still be ok… try it and see if it bubbles.
Shudders! I realized I used a metal spoon to mix the ginger + sugar + water mixture & dumped the whole thing out to start over. But HORRORS! I realized my grater, AND ALL my measuring spoons are also metal! So the ginger (all by itself) has been in contact with metal from the very beginning of this process, UGH! I PRAY it is only after mixing the sugar + ginger + water TOGETHER, that THIS phase & this phase ONLY is when metal cannot touch the MIXTURE, otherwise, I am sunk. Is it ONLY the phase where those two or three ingredients are COMBINED?
I was thinking about this as I was cutting it. There is no way I can think of to chop or grate ginger without metal so it would have to be ok.
I have a socby for my kambucha. Can I use this, or part of it, for the bug to make the ginger ale?
An important comment. White sugar is usually genetically modified beet sugar. I won’t use white sugar for anything. I’m going to try it with organic cane sugar.
Not all countries use beet sugar but I still wouldn’t use white sugar.
Let us know how it went. Thanks.
This is my second try on making a ginger bug. My first try didn’t go so well. On the 8th day nothing was happening and it began to grow mold. I was wondering if the way I store my ginger could have anything to do with it? After I grate it I put it in a zip lock bag and put it in the refrigerator until the next day when I grate some more. Should I be doing something different?
Aloha, Again, Katie – WellnessMama,
As I stated earlier, I dumped out the first batch of Ginger Bug because I forgot & had mixed it with a metal spoon.
I started over again. I have a metal grater & metal measuring spoons which I DO USE, however, I DID NOT USE METAL, ever, after I had combined the water, ginger, & sugar + molasses. From the directions it specified to avoid using metal, seemingly specifying only after these ingredients are combined. It is day 9-1/2 days old, and it is not fizzing yet. I haven’t given up yet, as it still smells fine & no mold is growing on it.
I’ve read elsewhere a statement that the Ginger Bug is so acidic it even reacts with plastic (utensils?) Sigh!
Please tell me what type of kitchen tools YOU have used for guaranteed success. Thank you so much to any who respond! Aloha & Mahalo!
I use wooden ones typically.
Aloha, Again, Katie – WellnessMama,
P. S. I have been “feeding it” 1 TBSP of grated ginger + 1 TBSP of sugar premixed with molasses every night. Again with the metal grater & metal measuring spoons, mixed only with a wooden spoon.
Aloha & Mahalo!
Aloha, Katie – Wellness Mama ,
Thank you again for your wonderful articles.
I posted a comment at day 9-1/2 of my Ginger Bug, but it is gone, lost somewhere in space while it is being determined whether to post it, or not, I guess. It is now day 11 (eleven) for my Ginger Bug attempt. I have only a metal grater, metal measuring spoons, so I used those. BUT I did NOT use metal spoon for mixing the Ginger + Sugar + Molasses + Water mixture. I used ONLY a wooden spoon to mix the Ginger Bug mixture once the ingredients where combined. There is no, nor has every been, fizzing. It still smells good & there was never any mold growing. It has been 80-100 degrees outside these 11 (eleven) days. We have no air conditioner. It is on top of my range, not too near the heat elements, and not in the dark, but not in direct sunlight, either. Should I put the jar in (a) brown plastic bag(s), or brown paper bag to give it dark? Does it help to be in the dark?
I sure hope I haven’t wasted all this time. Can’t wait for a successful outcome.
Thank you, again!
What is going on? And, if I start over, what have I done wrong?
I know this is an old post but you were super concerned about using metal and is really nothing to worry about. All professional food companies(organic and otherwise) use metal all the time. Go into any brewery or winery and I guarantee you’ll find metal. This disdain for metal among the fermenting community is puzzling because it is really no big deal. The ONLY time you may have a problem is using cast iron or other reactive but most all kitchen utensils are stainless, so rest easy, you’ll be fine. If you’re not having success,I would put my money on something else besides using a metal spoon or grater. In your case, with the temps you had I would guess it may have gotten too hot.
Yeah, I thought the no-metal-stirring-element restriction was a bit ridiculous, given that most people will be using metal tools to peel and grate the ginger. I’ve been using stainless steel spoons to stir and have no issues with my bug. In fact, it’s bubbling quite actively at day five.
Using stainless steel is ok.
Hi all. A lot of people seem to be wondering what’s happened if the already-started-bubbling ceases after a couple of days. The problem seems to be the water, or lack of it: the recipe doesn’t mention anything about adding more water. The thing with strengthening sugar solutions (as this one) is that after a certain point, there is no more “free water” for the micro-organisms to live. So as jam or marmalade rarely gets mould or microbe-growth in it (that’s teh point of jam), this too strong sugar solution inhibits the growth of the “bug”. After I figured this out, I just added a couple of cups of water in to the mix and the next day the bug was fizzing once more.
Also, I find it very hard to believe that stirring the bug with anything metallic would be a problem. The only thing that is important is that everything you touch the bug with – the jar, spoon, cups etc – are absolutely clean. Desinfected with boiling water preferably.
I’m wondering if it’s necessary to wait 5 days to use for making ginger ale if it’s already nice & fizzy? Thanks!
Nope. It can go faster, especially in warmer months
yeast ? bacteria. an important distinction.
with this ginger mixture, the brewer is using ginger (which is a natural antibacterial) to cultivate wild yeast.
Hello,
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve made a ginger bug and have been using it successfully for many batches of ginger ale. I just tried making a rhubarb batch and it has gone moldy! I know you mention scraping the mold off the ginger bug, but what about when the soda gets mold? Toss it and start over?
not sure if someone asked yet, but when you use the bug to make the soda, is the bug the actual ginger, the ginger water stuff, or both? and do i need to take out the ginger after its built up before i add new ginger? thanks
The real concern with metal utensils is whether or not they’re made from non-reactive materials. Stainless steel is a non-reactive metal and will not have any adverse effects. Aluminum however IS reactive. Make sure your metal kitchen items: grater, spoon, funnel — WHATEVER — is stainless and all should be fine. Reactive metals will also give your recipes that awful “metallic” taste. When cooking up the soda syrups, use non-reactive pans. Aluminum and stainless look very similar. Most stainless utensils have a stamp on them indicating what they’re made of. If you’re unsure, don’t use it. Or, you can just use wood!
One more thing — hard anodized aluminum is considered non-reactive. Through the magic of physics and chemistry the properties have been altered so the material won’t wreak havoc on our foods and cultures. Hard anodized aluminum is usually a very dark gray — almost black — and is clearly marked.
So I started this bug lsst week and I started getting foam on the second day, then on the fourth day the foam and bubbling stopped. I remember reading this happened to alot of people but I didn’t want to restart. So I read another article on making a ginger bug so I combined recommendation to bring my bug back so I figured I would share.
I squeezed fresh lemon juice, put a lid on top and placed in my garage at this point it took 4 days but when I checked on it the nason lid was almost blown off it had tons of foam so when I removed the lid the foam rushed up and spilled over with bubbling and fizzing like its cooking. The Bug is ready!
Thanks for these great recipes I love ginger ale and to be able to make it myself is great.
Doing this project has given me a better understanding on culturing beneficial bacterial and alliw me to tranfer this knowledge to the garden for worm tea.
Thanks
Cyril
Sorry for the typos here I typed this on my cell and I have large hands.
I made this about four days ago and it’s look perfect! it’s bubbly, creamy and smells just like ginger beer. i am beyond excited to try this bug out on some sodas! as for the people leaving comments about how this recipe doesn’t tell you what to do with it, this is a basic bug that Wellness Mama even states that she uses this specific bug for all her sodas… so why don’t you take a look at her soda recipes?
https://wellnessmama.com/8945/ginger-ale/
https://wellnessmama.com/11392/homemade-root-beer/
a BIG TIP; MAKE SURE YOU’RE USING THE RIGHT KIND OF WATER
I’ve tried this …… it’s been a week and a half, no ‘fizzing’, no bubbles, no Ginger bug! I don’t have fermentation at all!
I don’t use white sugar, I used natural brown cane sugar, I used the same coffee filters that my wife uses for Kombuscha, but I forgot the spoon (I used a stainless measuring spoon), so I don’t understand why this isn’t working. Any advice?
I started my ginger bug yesterday. It’s been going a little over a day now and it’s blowing up! It’s very fizzy with lots of bubbles now. Excited to see where it goes.
This recipe does not tell you that you also need to add 1 tbs water every time you add 1 tbs ginger and 1 tbs sugar, otherwise you would be removing the liquid in the ginger bug to make ale and soon the liquid in the ginger bug would be gone. Otherwise a good recipe.
My ginger bug was looking great on the 4th day with a good aroma and lots of fizz. On the 5th morning it looked dead. I did dehydrate 5 pounds of mushrooms overnight and was wondering if those spores could have impacted the ginger bug? They were in separate rooms.
I started one of these a few days ago (5 if you want to be technical) with tap water left out for a night first, ginger from Mal-Wart (cause that’s what I can get) peeled, and organic Turbinado raw cane sugar (cause I never use white sugar). My room temp is spastic (between 90 and 50, depending on whether my AC works) and I’m using a plastic disposable spoon, a glass bowl and plastic measuring stuff. I started it at 5 am, then fed it 3 days at midnight, until today, when I forgot and didn’t feed it til 7 am. The 1st day, it has some bubbles, and continued to have bubbles until this morning, when it had nothing. After reading the comments here (particularly the one about too much sugar making making it so there was no room for the yeast), I added some more of my room tempurature water, and now I’m getting tiny bubbles again. So, despite the fact that I apparently did everything wrong (except use an aluminum spoon, since I don’t use aluminum for anything) I have a lovely Ginger Bug, but there does need to be something mentioned in the original recipe about adding water at some point.
Anyway, thanks for the great recipe and the comments that kept me from thinking I killed it and giving up.
Has anyone tried using the molasses method? Am I suppose to add a teaspoon of molasses every day after along with sugar and ginger?
I used organic raw sugar and a teaspoon of molasses and only add the molasses once a week. I had bubbles in four days and full on fizzy in two weeks. 🙂
Can anone explain to me exactly what fizzy means? I don’t get it.
It means the ginger bug is actively producing tiny bubbles (of CO2). “Fizz” is what gives soda or beer the tingly feel when you drink it; in that case, it’s the CO2 coming out of dissolution. In the case of the ginger bug, it means the natural yeast fermentation has multiplied to such a great extent that you can readily see the CO2 gas being released as it’s produced.
Thank you, Aaron
My ginger bug worked great, but I don’t want to use it yet, and would like to transfer it to the fridge. Should I continue with the cheesecloth cover in the fridge, or can I cap it?
breathable cloth in the fridge.
My bug, after three days is gelatinous. Is that normal? The color is cloudy and opaque and the mixture is bubbly but when I look at bug making on youtube, it looks liquid, not gelatinous…Thanks!
My ginger bug became gelatinous on the third day too. I don’t see where you ever got a reply as to whether that is okay or not. Some time has passed since your post. What happened?
It should be ok as long as it doesn’t have an off smell or taste.
I started a ginger bug on Saturday afternoon (It’s monday evening now) and it’s already got a 1/4 inch of foam on the top, is cloudy, and is clearly fermenting very well. How do I know when it’s ready? I’ve been adding sugar and ginger and stirring the jar every day. Should I just wait the week to be sure it’s fully fermented, or can I use it to make rootbeer earlier since it seems to be working so quickly?
Looking forward to trying this recipe. I make kombucha as well and since you say this shouldn’t be too close to other live cultures, I am wondering what is an optimal distance to grow this culture away from the kombucha brews?
Hey Katie! I’ve been eyeing this for sometime & I’m ready to get started. I’m curious about something though. I make a drink called Switchel. It’s a very old recipe that has ACV(w/ the mother), molasses, sugar/honey(depends on the pantry), ginger, & water. There is a sharpness to it already, but could use a carbonation umph. Could I give my drink more sparkle with this? The ACV is something I don’t see mentioned in many drinks across the internet, & none that fizz, so I wonder if there is an unwanted affect?
i read the instructions wrong. I only fed it sugar for 7 days. I did not add more ginger. Did I lll it? I made 8 jars. I would hate to through them all out. I just added ginger today. No sugar. It’s kind of syrupy.
Followed your instructions and ginger bug is already bubbling and starting to fizz after 3 days! So excited 🙂
I started my ginger bug a while back, tried to make soda and it didn’t work (I don’t think I waited long enough before using the bug), then put it in the fridge for a bit. Took it back out and tried to get it started again. It has bubble on top now, but when I look at the bottom on the jar there are a few black dots… I can’t tell if this is mold or not (looks like mold to me). It seems that it would not be able to grow at the bottom of all that liquid, but it definitely doesn’t look like ginger bits. Is it still safe to use or not?
I’m DYING to try your homemade ginger ale, Katie. My first attempt at making my ginger bug did not work (peeled conventional ginger), but my second seems to be working (organic unpeeled). I found an article that I think explains why. Conventional ginger is often irradiated, which interferes with fermentation. I will ONLY use organic from now on. I will let you know how my ginger beer turns out. I’m sure it will be DELSH!
Once you have your ginger bug, could you feed it with ground ginger? This is all very new to me & I may have missed something. Please help to clarify : step 1: great bug according to above inst. step 2: Strain through Muslin cloth? drink? start again? sorry to be such a newbie and ask questions which may seem obvious, but I really want to try get this right as I want 2015 to be a year of optimal health rather than just trying to ” lose weight”
I would just like to say that you can indeed use honey. I have done so myself…it just takes longer for it to begin fermenting….
I’m just starting to look into making homemade sodas by scratch and making a Ginger bug sounds like a great way to start.. though my house is quite cold at most times. will that affect the ginger bug?
Depends water that temperature of “cold” is. Yeasts thrive in environments around 68 degrees. If you get into beer brewing and winemaking you will find some yeasts like it hotter and some yeasts like it colder. Lager would be an example of this because they are brewed around 50 degrees. Worst case scenario, if it is too cold your yeasts will become dormant. Too hot and they die. find a place in you house that keep the water in your ginger bug at that nice 68 degrees. Cheers
Hi!
I love this recipe and I’ve used it to make apple beer, ginger ale (also from this site), and a melon soda that ended up exploding but smelled really good as I cleaned it off the walls 🙂
I recently acquired a 5 gallon dumped whiskey barrel and I want to make large batches of soda using this culture. Up to this point I’ve only made 1 liter batches in swing top glass bottles. Does anyone have any suggestions for scaling the recipe? I also see challenges in determining an appropriate amount of time to let the soda stand after adding the culture and how to “burp” the soda. Finally, what is the best way to stop the culture from fermenting so that I can use my soda over a long period of time without worrying about it getting more alcoholic but also not going flat?
If anyone has any expertise to lend on Thai it would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks!
This is a lambic style fermentation. It uses wild yeasts and bacteria. As a beer and wine brewer I would say that it’s inferior to pitching a good strain of ale or wine yeast, there will be more off flavors. Yeasts invert their own sugar, so refined cane sugar is the easiest and most inexpensive food for them. They convert sucrose to glucose, and dextrose is basically glucose, but you don’t taste the sweetness. Fructose is very sweet but yeast can’t ferment it. It would be good for flavouring the soda without adding alcohol or having it ferment into ginger beer. I would puree the ginger, add it to purified water and enough sugar to bring the specific gravity to 1.010 or so, and perhaps use Camden tablets to sanitize it (which takes a day to clear out), then activate some good yeast, champagne yeast was an excellent suggestion, and pitch it in, let ferment two or three days, and try it. The reason so many are failing to start is the random availability of a healthy strain of yeast and the presence of bacteria. And if you continue adding so much sugar each day you are either feeding the yeast until the alcohol concentration reaches %13-%14 at which point yeasts die, or raising the sugar level to where the yeast cannot survive the osmotic pressure and go dormant. Sugar is an excellent way of preserving food for that reason.
I’m just about to combine my bug with my ginger beer mixture and I’ve noticed some tiny white round things on the top and edges of my ginger bug. Is this mold?
How far apart should the ginger bug and the kombucha be located?
This recipe and instructions are exactly what I wanted. Easy, precise and fully loaded.
Today is day 4 of my Ginger Bug and the bubbles are so happy. They are actually trying to make their way up to the top of my jar! 🙂
Wish I could post a photo on her to show you. You would be so proud!
Thanks so much for a mighty fine recipe!
Penny
Have used gingerale recipe with great success, but have some questions:
1. After I strain the gingerale, what do I do with the ginger? The first time, I re-used it, but then the second time I threw it out. Could it be re-used to “feed the bug”?
2. When I take some liquid/ ginger pieces out of the ginger bug, do I replace same amount of liquid?
3. How long do I let the ginger pieces build up in the ginger bug. Could I “thin” it out and used some pieces for the gingerale?
I apologize if some of these questions have already been answered, but I am getting a friend into this as well and want to be able to answer all her questios/ let her know all the tips ahead of her first attempt.
I don’t reuse the ginger, but just compost it after it is strained. Yes, replace the same amount of liquid. and yes you could thin it out 🙂
I have a question about flavoring any fermented drink. I make kombucha and am now in the process of starting a ginger bug. All along with kombucha I have always wondered… does flavoring the drink afterwards kill off the good bacteria in the drink? ie: kombucha must not be made with herbal teas such as ginger, cinnamon etc because these herbs kill the scoby due to their antibacterial properties. Instructions always say to add these flavors after the brew. But how does adding these herbs after a brew not kill the bacteria remaining in the brewed product?
In your instructions, for continuing the process you didn’t mention replacing the water after you take some out to use. You do have to replace the water right? and in what ratios? I know for Water Kefir, it’s 1:1:1 (1 cup water, 1 tbsp. sugar, 1 tbsp. Kefir grains) and made in any amount as long as you follow the ratio. Also, do you add any water during the first week process? or just stay with the original 2 cups? Thanks so much for the recipe…I had to quit drinking soda for health reasons and really miss it. Please let me know…
I have been making this root beer recipe for at least 6 months now, and I have also been making the ginger bug on a regular basis. Today, I noticed there was mold on top of the liquid in my ginger bug. I am wondering if I should scoop it out or if I should toss the whole thing. What do you think?
I noticed many have difficulties getting their bug up & bubbling. It is a particilar yeat element in the SKIN of the ginger root that promotes fermentation.! Therefore do not remove skin and obviously use only organic root and bottled spring water. Not tap water, not distilled or demineralised. I use organic blond sugar, sometimes with rapadura (dried cane juice). Lovely stuff!
I think part of my problem is I stuck the ginger root in the fridge after breaking off a peice. Last few days I’ve been putting my finger bug in a warm place, keeping the ginger root at room temp and bubbles are slowly rising to the top. I added just a lil bit of yeast energizer to speed it up.
I started a ginger bug with honey about 2 weeks ago. It smells OK, but has never had any bubbles. Is it still good, or should I throw it out?
Thanks,
Paula
I just made three batches of different kinds of soda – ginger ale, tamarind, and raspberry. All were great. Do we always have to make a “wort” of fruits? Can’t we just put the ginger bug in fruit juice?
Can my bug be ready in two days? I’m in a warm climate and it’s already very bubbly.
From what I’ve read, yes. Mine bubbled like crazy then stopped and won’t resume. I put fresh ginger and sugar everyday and nada. Wonder if mine is dead.
I started my ginger bug two days ago. When I added my tablespoon of sugar and ginger and started to stir this morning the mixture now has a gooey texture. Other than that, there is no bad smell. What is going on? Do I need to start over?
There seems to be some controversy about the instructions. If it needs water added as well then can you please edit the instructions? It would be nice to know what to do when you take some out.
Hello,
I apologize if this question has already been asked and answered, but after I took some of my ginger bug out to make ginger ale my ginger bug stopped ‘fizzing’! It has been five days and it still isn’t doing anything. What should I do? Do I need to toss it and begin all over again?
Most bacteria thrive in a temperature of around 37C. Is this true for this culture of bacteria? If not, what is the optimal temperature for its growth?
I have tried to read all comments for the answer to my question but have given up: I am an alcoholic in recovery for 10 years now. I am fanatic about making sure I never go down that road again so please tell me : is there any danger in drinking these sodas and could I give it to my grandchildren?
I give it to my kids and am not concerned about any extremely low alcohol percentage, but in your case, I’d probably avoid just in case.
Love you Mama ! Thank you for your always brief, passionate and educational recipes & posts..
Samuel -Switzerland
I don’t know if this has been addressed above, but why do you have to keep adding to the bug daily, and not just add all the sugar and ginger all at once?
Bacteria colonies quickly but also dies quickly. It will eat up all the sugar and soon die if the sugar supply is not routinely added. Our you could refrigerate after a few days of fermentation and the cold temp will slow the sugar consumption-you will still have to add sugar but not as often. Also too much sugar could give you a foaming mess. Ask anyone that has bottled beer and added too much sugar…exploding bottles from built up co2
I have followed the instructions and my ginger bug has come out smelling really bad. I thought it was to smell that way so I made a drink, tasted it and it was horrid. What is the ginger bug suppose to smell like? Is the drink that you make afterward suppose to taste like ginger beer or ginger ale? I prefer the ginger beer. I drank it when I lived in Ireland, can’t find it here and found your site. Thank you for any help that you can give me.
Does anyone have an idea of the probiotic difference and/or similarity of soda made from the ginger bug to kombucha?
I made the ginger bug. It smells funny. Isn’t suppose to have a yeasty smell. I followed the directions on how to make it and the drink. In fact i went to 3 different sites and made them almost the same way. There might be a winner in one. I’ll know in a few days.
I am new to fermenting. My Ginger Bug turned out great. I make a quart jar of my
home grown scuppernongs that I juice and can.
It was fizzy in 1 day, unlike my blackberry juice. So I put it in the fridge but it is still
fermenting. How do I stop the fermentation?
THIS IS FANTASTIC! LOVE LOVE LOVE! THANK YOU 🙂
So quick question: My ginger bug was bubbly and fizzy within the first couple of days. Should I keep letting it ferment longer or is it ready to use? Also if it ferments longer does this make it have a higher alcoholic content?
Thanks in advance!
Blessings!
Cierra
I had the same question. It was bubbly and fizzy the first couple of days. I kept adding 1 tbsp sugar to ginger and it’s not longer fizzy. Not sure if it is no longer active or not. I will continue and then make another batch to compare. Should I discard this now? There’s no mold but it’s just not fizzy anymore.
I started mine on Sunday- it’s already bubbling. Really excited to make our own beverages!
Hi Mama, as I was making this I noticed a discrepancy for this starter…in the ingredients list it says 1/2 cup of sugar, and in the instructions it says 2-3 tablespoons. I put 1/2 cup and now am hoping I didn’t overwhelm it with sugar! Please clarify, thank you! Looking forward to some spicy uplifting gingery fizz!
Never mind, I realize you meant 2-3 Tablespoons OF that 1/2 cup, the rest to be used as feed the following days!
Is this safe to consume when pregnant?
I’m so excited! This is my first fermentation project. It’s only been 24 hours and I’m already seeing little bubbles around the edges! Thank you for these instructions. I can’t wait to try my own ginger ale!
Is it possible to make the ginger bug too warm when fermenting? I have mine a few inches from a lightbulb, the mason jar is warm but not hot. It is bubbling some but not a lot of fizzy bubbles moving upward like they say will happen in Mastering Fermentation book. I am on day 4.
I haven’t had it that close to a light bulb, but it is possible for it to get too warm
THis is my second batch I am making of Ginger Ale, (with the ginger bug). My first batch had the bubbles the 2 or third day, I continued it til the 5th day, by then the bubbles had gone. I make my ginger ale, did the second fermentation, and no fizz. 🙁
Now on this second batch, I started a new ginger bug. I started it Tuesday, its now Thurs and there are bubbles around the edges. Should I keep going to day 5 then make the ginger ale? I really want it to be fizzy. WHat should I do?
Thanks,
RoAnna
Hi
I failed my first time trying to make a Ginger Bug. But succeeded after researching a little more. It is imperative that you use Organic Ginger, because non organic Ginger has been irradiated which kills all the good bacteria used to ferment. Also you cannot use filtered water, just use bottled water. Also you do need it to be very warm 75-80 degrees, I put my ginger bug next to a lamp. Please update your recipe to indicate Organic Ginger. Hope this helps.
I always recommend buying organic whenever possible…
I have a ginger root in my freezer- can I use that or should I buy fresh?
I’ve never tried frozen before, but I’d be afraid that freezing it would kill off the bacteria…
Frozen ginger root works great in my experience. I guess the active enzymes remain preserved…?
Can I use organic cane sugar instead of white sugar? I know they’re the same, but one is a little less refined?
Yes.
Made it for the first time and had delicious great results. For the bug I used sucanat (dehydrated cane juice) which worked out great. I made my own tea mix with ginger, cinnamon stick, whole cloves and allspice. I have been drinking that as my go to tea in the winter and figured that it should work to make the soda. I will have to try the bug with juices now too.
I put mine on top of the fridge. I would recommend this as the ideal storage spot as it maintains a temperature of around 80 degrees. It has lots of bubbles and a strong gingery smell after only 3 days.
Wow, thank you for this recipe! I am caring for a ginger bug that is so happy–a batch of apple-gingerale just fizzed up within the afternoon. Delightful. Everything lovely about kombucha but oh-so-much easier to maintain! Refined white sugar seems to not be necessary.
A friend of mine gave memea partial bottle of homemade ginger ale, and I used that to start my bug, and have made some FABULOUS ginger ale from it. I have been maintaining the bug as per this blog recommends. My question is: do you ever remove some of the ginger pieces, when it gets pretty full of them, or, when you take some of the bug out to use , are you supposed to just use the liquid portion, or are you supposed to scoop up both liquid and solid? Thank you! I feel healthier already, drinking it! 🙂
I occasionally reduce the ginger to keep room in the jar 🙂 Glad you are enjoying it!
Why did my bug stop fermenting when I added dextrose to it? Seam to kill it dead. New bug with Tornado sugars is going strong. Even a adding the new bug to the old ideal bug did not revive it.
I would like to make this. But I have 2 diabetics at home can I use a sugar substitute?
Thank you
Valerie
The sugar is the food for the “bug” so substitutes like stevia don’t work since they lack the simple sugars to feed the beneficial bacteria.
Thank you for this recipe, I’m excited to try it. I’ve started it 7 days ago and I saw bubbles after 3-4 days. At day 7 I don’t see much improvement but it is still healthy. It must be due to the temperature as it is around 14 degrees celsius. I’m planning to keep it alive for as long as possible so I was wondering what should I do with the grated ginger inside? Because if I keep adding it as some point it will be full of it. Or should I eat it?
Hi, I followed the recipe step by step using the raw sugar+molasses and it worked great, I had fizz day one and it was fizzier up until day four which had the most insane fizz. I had decided to add a little bit more molasses along with the sugar and ginger, since then day five and up I have had no fizz.
I have forgotten to feed it on time a few times, It doesn’t seem to matter what I do though..
Did I just kill it with the second treatment of molasses?
Hello! Thank you for this post. I have been brewing kombucha for several years, but have no experience with a ginger bug. I started mine a week ago and had bubbles in 2 days. Does that mean it’s ready to use, or do I need to let it ferment the full 8 days?
For maintaining the bug, do I add water each day or only the ginger and sugar?
Thank you so much for your time!
When do you admire water? I’m planning on doing the first batch, making a soda, then keeping in fridge and feeding weekly until another week or so. Would it make sense to add like a 1/4c or so when feeding weekly?
Question. Can I use a pinch of bread yeast to help the bug along?
I’ve tried a first batch but after a week+ I just had several bubbles at the surface. I’m now certain it was due to the low temperature. I went ahead anyway with the ginger ale recipe and it turned out nice, very tasty but no fizz.
So I made a new batch yesterday, the 31st of March, it’s been only 1 day. I exposed it under direct sunlight behind a window during the first afternoon and I realized it might have been too hot. But today afternoon when I checked it, it was full of bubbles, just like the picture of the article! So glad it is working this time.
As I want to keep it alive to make lots of ginger ale, I was wondering:
QUESTION: What should I do with the “old” grated ginger inside? Because if I keep adding some, at some point it will be full of ginger and I won’t have any more space.
I hope someone will answer me this time 🙂
Hi Julien!
Interesting about the sunlight!
I make a new batch of ginger ale about every 1-2 weeks (using Katie’s recipe, except I use coconut sugar). Believe it or not, I just scoop out and strain some of the fermented ginger to use for my ginger ale flavoring, rather than fresh. It is potent and flavorful (due to being fermented) and you only need a couple tablespoons (I like it really strong and use 3 or so!).
At this point, I add fresh ginger, water and sugar to my bug. I only add ginger to the bug once a week, and sugar every few days, and it couldn’t be happier 🙂
Hey Ana, thanks for your reply!
I’ll take your advice and use the ginger bug’s ginger to make my ginger ale.
Regarding my batch exposed in the sunlight, it died after 2 days without being fed. I guess the sunlight is boosting the activity and the bugs might have been out of food faster than expected. I’m going to restart again, using sunlight on the first day and from day 2 keeping it in the bright place with no direct sunlight. I’ll feed it every 2-3 days with sugar and water and once a week with fresh organic ginger. Looking forward!
BTW, I had time to make my ginger ale with the second bugs and it got fizz on the third day, that was really nice!
Do you have any advice to get it more fizzy? The article says that the bottle might explode but my result was far from it.
Hey Julien, my ginger ale is hardly fizzy at all when it is in the brewing stage. It isn’t until I bottle it air-tight, and after a day or so, it gets very fizzy. This is because it is feeding on the remaining sugars in the ale and the resulting carbon dioxide can no longer escape. If you want insure that it gets SUPER fizzy, add a little sugar before bottling 🙂
I find that you don’t have to keep adding water. Just replace the 1/2 cup that was used when you make the ginger ale recipe.
Thanks so much Ana for your advice which I’ll try as soon as the weather gets sunny again, this way everything is faster as I can’t wait to drink it 🙂
In your last comment, you said:
“… my ginger ale is hardly fizzy at all when it is in the brewing stage. It isn’t until I bottle it air-tight, and after a day or so, it gets very fizzy.”
When my ginger bug is ready, I boil my water + sugar + ginger then when cooled down, I bottle it in an air tight bottle along with the bugs and lemon juice. I wait for 2-3 days and I consume it. My question is that in your last comment I don’t understand your brewing stage, is it different from bottling in air tight bottle? For me brewing and air-tight is the same stage.
Sorry for my english, I hope my question makes sense 🙂
Anyway, that is my last question, I’m going to restart a new batch of bugs!
Thanks so much again for your comments
Your question makes perfect sense! I see the ginger ale process (NOT ginger bug) as divided into three steps:
1) Boiling all the ingredients together (except the 1/2 cup of ginger bug, which is added after it has cooled) and then allowing to steep and cool off for a few hours.
2) Pour mixture into large glass jars and allow to “brew” (my terminology) for 2-3 days, give or take. Note: These bugs prefer oxygen to do their thang! Don’t seal it air-tight in this phase.
3) Once step 2 is over, you can drink it like this (less fizzy but just as nutritious) OR you can transfer into air-tight bottles so that whatever sugars are left will continue to be fermented (as it will not air-tight), except that the resulting carbon dioxide remains trapped in the bottle–bubbles!
Thank you Ana!
I had no idea I had to let them “hang” for a while (phase 2).
It explains why I couldn’t get more fizz. With all the information you gave me I should be able to make an awesome batch this time!
Again thanks for your comments, I guess it’s going to help others as well.
I have been following the original recipe sealing the soda bottle tight and not letting them “hang” and I get a lot of fizz and have great soda in two or three days. Does that mean that without the oxygen hang I am not getting the probiotics? I love doing this and tastes great.
Started the ginger bug yesterday using organic ginger root and organic cane sugar. Very exiting. I hope the pet will behave and turn out well. I am aiming to make some of your root beer. Root beer is really exotic – at least in my country. Therefore Amazon is the only source for root beer, canned AW, no thanks but no.. I managed to find a !!!one!!! supplier for sassafras bark in my country (expensive but not as expensive as shipping a bag from the US) and wintergreen is actually growing in my garden (amazing, didn’t know the leaves can be used for flavoring). Thank you very much for your wonderful recipes.
I have had my bug going for a couple weeks, maybe more, and fizzing up like crazy. The ale also fizzes up in a day but I let it go for three. Took a sniff of the bug today and it had the smell of alcohol. Should that be? Not that its a bad thing. Not sure if there is alcohol in the end product but sure tastes great!
You have made ginger beer… ??
I’m doing an experiment. I have one batch started with your original recipe using grated ginger and one batch using ginger juice. I have a masticating juicer and have been making ginger ale using 2 T of ginger juice, 1 T lemon juice, a sweetener (honey or agave, organic sugar, etc.) and adding club soda too it. I can’t wait to make some REAL ginger ale. After I juice, I pour it into ice cube trays for later use. Juicing is a lot easier and faster than grating. Has anyone ever tried using ginger juice instead of grated ginger to make the bug?
Update: Both the juiced ginger and the grated ginger bubbled and smelled yeasty in each jar. I’ll let you know how the ginger ale turns out.
Hi there, When you remove a portion of the ginger bug to add into a soda recipe do you stir first or strain? Thanks.
My bug is fuzzing great, I can hear it, with non organic ginger also. But I started the ale 4 days ago and I’m not seeing any fizz can I add the 1/4 c of whey to it now to get the fizz going? Or just leave it sit longer? Sorry if this was asked already!
Also Does the ginger bug last forever just keep feeding daily or how often do you start a new one?
Is there a way to do this if you are on a sugar restriction? Can you use stevia with something other than sugar?
The yeast/bacteria needs the sugar for food so it can’t be made without sugar of some kind.
Most of the sugar will be used up during the fermentation and very little if any is left, unless you put in more that the bacteria can consume.
I need help! I’ve tried using a ginger bug to make a few things and only one time I have had success with a ginger brew. I’m always confused on how to do a first ferment (The ferment before you put it into bottles). Some people say to cover it tight and burp it every couple days and some people say to put a cheese cloth over it so it can breath on its own.
This past time I tried making a strawberry rhubarb soda. I made about half a gallon (boiled the strawberries and rhubarb with sugar and at the end when it was cooled added 1/2 cup of ginger bug and lemon juice). I ended up with a little over 2 quarts so I ended up putting it in two 8 cup ball jars and covering with a coffee filter and rubber band and putting it in the warmest room in my house (maybe 75 degrees tops). Well 5 days later it has this like white film over the top. It isn’t mold I don’t think and I think it has fermented slightly but I have no idea what the white film is. Also all of the jars I have were cleaned and sanitized. I’m not sure if I should strain this out when I put it in the jars or just toss it completely. I read its a type of yeast growing on top but I really can’t find much info on this.
I also tried to make an orange soda (because so many websites said you can use pretty much any juice). This I didn’t do a double ferment, I just mixed the juice (organic no sugar added store bought) with the ginger bug and bottled it up tight. I’ve been checking every few days and after over a week I might start to be getting the slightest amount of fermentation, and oddly it looks like I grew a scoby on top. And I’m completely sure that the ginger bug was very active and happy. Very bubbly.
I’ve read a million sites and I think I’m doing everything ok (everything says something a little different which is frustrating). Any help at all would be SO appreciated.
HI April, so when you make the bug you need to use the cheesecloth to lightly cover so that the natural “bugs’ that cause the first ferment over the first 5 days can get to it.
When you go to make the soda and add the bug to your chosen flavorings then you want to keep it closed tight to trap the gas the bug makes to give your soda its fizz for the next three days then after that you can refrigerate and enjoy!
WOOHOO = its only day three and I can already hear my bug fizzing – I have some ripe ruby red grapefruit on the tree I can’t wait to make into soda!
I’ve done this recipe a few times. The first time it came out awesome, and made some really tasty Ginger Ale. The next 3 or 4 times, i made it, it started out great – i had bubbles after the first night (same with first batch), however, around day 5 i wake up and see it looks to have died…nothing is floating at the top and all bubbles/fizz are completely gone.
Any idea why this happens? I usually grate 2T ginger and store the rest of the root in the fridge for tomorrow (trying to buy smaller roots, and of course adding the sugar). Would using cold ginger affect why this “dies” after a few days?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Hi there…
I started my 1st ever ginger bug mid-last week. My kitchen is crazy hot – esp. in summertime. As of yesterday it appeared to be ready to move forward with the ginger ale recipe. It smelled yeasty and sweet and had bubbles throughout.
However, I didn’t have all the ingredients so I figured I’d pick them up today and do it. For some reason I was worried about it over-fermenting so I fed it, and then removed the coffee filter / rubber band lid and put a regular mason jar lid on it. Then this evening when I finally got around to making my ginger ale my hubby pointed out that the bug no longer had bubbles…and then I also realized all of the shredded ginger had sank to the bottom. (It had previously been floating in the water.)
My question is… Did I accidentally kill it? ? Or can it be recovered somehow?? I appreciate any advice/feedback.
Thanks so much.
Kristina
Hi Kristina, you definitely did not kill it! Sometimes after feeding it a lot of sugar it just calms down a bit. You’ll learn as you go along what the ideal feeding dose is, and at what intervals. Mine is in a small jar, so I give it about a teaspoon of sweetener every few days (it likes sugar, coconut sugar, honey, molasses, etc–it gets a varied diet!), along with a bit of shredded ginger (sometimes less often than sugar) and it does great. However, I am always careful to feed it AFTER using some for a recipe like ginger ale, as I want those bugs to be hungry when they encounter the fresh sugar, insuring a delightfully fizzy drink!
Awesome!! Thank you so much for the feedback and tips!
Hi, thanks for the great explanation and recipe. I made two bugs, one with regular white sugar and one with coconut blossom sugar. Interestingly enough the latter started bubbling on day two already and both are now alive and kicking.
I also made some batches of ginger ale (I hope they will be fizzing soon) that are now on the kitchen counter.
Now I would like to pauze one of the bugs and would like to know if it still needs oxygen when in the fridge or can I just close it and feed it once a week?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Lucy
Hi, Is there a version of this for diabetics?
Hi Mickey, what makes ginger beer/ginger ale palatable is the leftover sugar that hasn’t been completely fermented out by the bug. I have tried this ginger ale that had fermented too long on the counter and it didn’t taste very good–had to add some coconut sugar back in. However, I imagine that after over-fermenting it you could add stevia or other sugar-free sweetener to add sweetness.
Just remember that if you can taste any sweetness at all in your fermented brew, even if it’s not much, that is still sugar!
There are a ton of comments here! This is apparently a very popular/growing in popularity topic!
I’m attempting to make my first ginger bug.
1. I am not using organic…I don’t think…my husband bought this batch of ginger so I can’t be sure.
2. I also have been using very diced up ginger with the skin on because with my busy schedule it’s the easiest way I could do this. So I thought I’d try first like this. I diced up the ginger ahead of time and put that in a little glass jar in the fridge.
3. The first 2-3 days I saw nothing but a yeast and strong ginger smell.
4. I was thinking that my home just may be too cool. We keep our house cool all year around. Florida. Too hot. AC is our best friend.
5. So, anyways, I was wondering if putting my jar with the coffee filter/rubber band on top would work in an old, smaller crockpot/slow cooker on the least heat setting. I’ve been keeping it in there for 2.5 days now. I’m approaching my 5th day total this Friday. Wondering if you think I’m going to see results. I put a kitchen towel on top of it but not completely covering it just so it will retain a little heat. I know I’ve read before that people put a heating pad around their kombuchas to keep it warm. I tried that but the one I have has an automatic shut off.
Thanks for your time.
I have never had a problem in cool weather it is just slower to “bug up”. I do peel mine and dice it up fine and put in equal amounts of ginger, sucanat sugar and water.
Hi thanks for the recipe. Make ginger beer/ ale for the first time. I decided to make the bug as it has more health benefits I believe.
So followed your instructions to the T day 1,2&3 were amazing, smell bubbles and fizz, day 4,5 not as promising but the ginger is moving around in the jar so guessed it is still working.
However I relocated the jar to a cupboard as it is winter time here in South Africa and the night time temps drop a lot. Please advise if I should continue or restart and what I should do differently.
Thanks
Marc
Hi,
My bugs were all working great (we’ve made about 5 successfully) and one day white mold began to form. Now it forms every time I start a bug. It is a bit hotter now, but I’m wondering if something could have gotten into the air. We also had trouble with saurkraut for the first time since this white mold began (we do keep them about 15 feet apart), it formed a strange brown mold and created a tremendous amount of excess water. any thoughts?
Sounds like kahm yeast (a whitish film that can develop on top of cultures), which is more likely to grow in warmer environments. This isn’t harmful to consume although it doesn’t seem to have beneficial properties either. I believe there are things you can do to try to prevent it but haven’t dealt with it much myself.
I have a very active starter. (Yeah) I made a gallon of blueberry soda and let it sit on the counter in a gallon jar for about 2 days. Then I transferred into liter bottles. I went to burp the bottle after 24 hours and all four were like purple geysers. I did have a bowl on top and bottom and was able to collect most of what over flowed. But, is there any way to avoid that? I am thrilled my started is so active.. but hoping I can find a way to avoid the geyser activity..
How do you flavor the soda? Do you blend up blueberries or buy juice…just curious.
Awesome! Sounds like too much Co2 was allowed to develop without getting burped. If you’re going to make such a prolific batch you’ll need to release the built up gasses more often, and maybe allow more room in the bottle so that the pressure doesn’t build so fast.
Are these conditions ever met before five days of feeding the ginger bug?
This is a wonderful recipe… The site is a truly great asset. Terrific to see so many people actively working at health and self empowerment. Thank you, wellness moma!
I accidentally put too much sugar in…. can I just keep adding the ginger and not adding more sugar over the next few days?
My ginger bug lost the fizzy after day 4! Should I start over? Also, after we take out 1/2 c to make ginger ale, how much water do we add back to the ginger bug while I keep it Alive?