I have posted pics of my ginger bug on Instagram a couple of times but without directions. When people then ask how to actually make the ginger bug, theyprobably want more guidance than “mix some ginger, sugar and water together and add more daily for about five days.” But really, that’s about all you do.
Like a sourdough starter, to make a ginger bug, you transform basic ingredients—rather microbes covering the ginger and floating around in your kitchen transform them—into wonderful yeasty goodness that you can then use to ferment your recipe. Also like a sourdough starter, your ginger bug needs regular feeding. I would love to take on more starters but I have hit my limit at four. They are like pets. I don’t want to wind up the crazy cat lady of fermentation.
If you have been yearning to concoct some fermented, probiotic drinks but can’t find a SCOBY to make kombucha—oryou find the sight of a SCOBY utterly repulsive—ginger bug might be for you.
Once you have made a lively ginger bug, you can use it to ferment natural sodas like ginger ale and slightly alcoholic drinks like ginger beer. I have also used it to ferment sweetened tea or to make grown-up fizzy lemonade.
WARNING/NON-WARNING:After you have tasted natural soda, you will be unable to drink commercial soda ever again. I makeginger beer for my kids’ dad and he loves it so much, he has broken his 20-year soda addiction. It’s a miracle.
Ingredients
To make your ginger bug,you need only three ingredients:
1. Ginger
Use organic ginger. In the US, non-organic (I refuse to call it conventional) ginger may be irradiated. Irradiation kills the naturally occurring yeasts and lactic-acid bacteria on the ginger which ferment it. Only once have I made a ferment that showed zero signs of life after several days: pickled ginger. I read about irradiated ginger later and realized I must not have used organic ginger. (We almost always eat organic.)
2. Sugar
I use organic cane sugar, rapadura or sucanat. Jaggery should work too. Do not use stevia. You need real sugar. If you want to experiment with things like honey or maple syrup, I would wait until you have successfully made a bug with sugar. Sugar works and you’ll learn how your bug should smell and look.
The sugar feeds the bacteria and yeasts in the bug. The amount of sugar you add to your bug and to drinks may horrify you. I know sugar is terrible. I have read Fat Chance and have watched the documentary Fed Up. But the bug consumes the sugar—not you—and emits carbon dioxide as a result, which adds that sought-after fizz. Once your drinks have fermented, they will contain much less sugar.
3. Water
I use filtered water. If you have highly chlorinated water,fill a vessel and leave it open to the air for several hours or even a day before you’ll use it and the chlorine will dissipate. I haven’t had trouble with chlorine but I do know that too much of it will kill your microbes.
Directions
Online and in books, you’ll find varying instructions for making a ginger bug, just as you will for sourdough starter. Everyone seems to do it a bit differently. This is just how I do it.
1. In a glass jar, combine about 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger and1 tbsp sugar.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stirvigorously. Cover your jar with a small breathable cloth to let air in and keep nasties out. I find cheesecloth too flimsy and loosely woven for this purpose.
3. Feed your bug 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 tbsp sugar daily. Stir vigorously.
4. Your bug should be ready to use in about 5 days. It will bubble and smell yeasty, have a cloudy yellow color with sludgy-looking white stuff at the bottom of the jar and the ginger will float to the top. My mature ginger bug in the pic above—I named her Mary-Ann because Ginger got all the attention onGilligan’s Island—is three or four months old.
How to maintain your bug
Once you have established a vigorous ginger bug, you can keep it out on the kitchen counter but you will have to feed it daily—and you will end up with a lot of it. I sometimes keep mine in the fridge and feed it the usual meal once a week: about 1 tablespoon ginger, 1 tablespoon sugar. First I bring it to room temperature, feed it, let it sit for a few hours and put it back in the refrigerator, unless I want to make a drink!
I compost a little ginger occasionally. Otherwise your pile will grow to huge proportions. You can also regularly strain off the liquid, compost half the ginger-sugar mixture and start fresh—add 1 1/2 cups water and feed daily until it bubbles up again.
The basic recipe for ginger bug drinks
Stir up your bug to get the good white yeasty stuff off the bottom of the jar and strain off 1/4 cup of the liquid. Add that to sweetened tea, lemonade or water in which you simmered a lot of ginger and then sweetened.You can try adding it to juice also. I haven’t tried juice because I don’t buy juice. I would need to make it myself. DO NOT ADD YOUR BUG TO HOT LIQUIDS. You will kill the microbes.
Fill some flip-top bottles with your drink and let them sit at room temperature for three days max. Ferments with sugar can explode (I have never had it happen) so you may want to put yours in a cupboard or closet or in a box in the garage.Don’t let your bottles ferment for more than a couple of days without opening.
Once you get the hang of making this, you’ll have a feel for when yours has fermented enough. Fermentations go quickly in my kitchen. Yours may go more slowly or more quickly, depending on your environment.
- Here is the full recipe for ginger beer.
- Go here for hibiscus soda, made with a ginger bug.
- Go here for carbonated lemonade, also made with a ginger bug.
Ginger Bug
Ingredients
To start
- 1tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups water
To feed daily
- 1tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
Directions
1. In a glass jar, combine about 1 tbsp grated unpeeled organic ginger and1 tbsp sugar.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stirvigorously. Cover your jar with a small breathable cloth.
3. Feed your bug 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 tbsp sugar daily. Stir vigorously.
4. Your bug should be ready to use in about 5 days. It will bubble and smell yeasty, have a cloudy yellow color with sludgy-looking white sediment at the bottom of the jar and some of the ginger will float to the top.
- Here is the full recipe for ginger beer.
- Go here for hibiscus soda, made with a ginger bug.
- Go here for carbonated lemonade, also made with a ginger bug.
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