Make your own probiotic fermented soda’s

Make Your Own Probiotic Fermented Wild Soda’s…

I’ve been making, selling and teaching everything wild soda for many years now and every season I find a new ‘favourite’ one.  I am always amazing by the many different things that work turned into probiotic wild soda’s as well as they liveliness of the good bacteria in them.

Unlike kombucha or kefir with wild soda’s you don’t have to keep something (the starter) alive between batches, as you can just make from scratch if you like.  However, I choose to keep mine alive as I am making new batches every week.

They are crazy fizzy, refreshing, packed full of millions of probiotics and unlike supermarket soda’s or even supermarket fermented drinks, they drinks are alive, low or no sugar and not nasty colourings or other things added.

You need to start with a ginger bug or yeasty starter.  Most people make this by adding 5cm grated ginger and 3 tbsp. of sugar to 250ml of water in a glass jar and cover with some cotton and an elastic band.  Each day for 3 days add another 1-2cm of ginger and 1 tbsp.. of sugar.  After 3 days this will be bubbling and ready to use (if not bubbling add more ginger and sugar until it is).

You can however make a starter in exactly the same way but with other things with a lot of natural wild yeasts.  I’ve had great success using plums and also pine needles instead of the ginger.

Once you have your starter ready you can make your wild soda.  For this you’ll need a plastic bucket (with lid), a saucepan, fruit/herb/tree of your choosing, 375g of sugar, 2 lemons and 6L of water, plus of course your starter.

Some of my favourite flavours are.. Rhubarb, Elderflower, Pine, Juniper, Lemon(ade), Blackberry, Rose & Plum.

Put 1L of water in the saucepan with your chosen flavouring and bring to boil.  Once boiling leave to simmer for 20-30mins.  Then add the sugar and stir until dissolved.

Put the other 5L of water in your plastic bucket, juice your lemons and add to the bucket and add all of your starter (if you do not intend to keep it going to make more, but if you do keep a little back and add more to it afterwards).

Add the contents of the saucepan to the bucket, put the lid on and leave for 48hrs (until you see bubbles).

Then stain and put into plastic bottles.  You can use glass, BUT beware these wild ferments are dangerously living and can easily go boom.  So I reuse fizzy water or soda bottles as you can see these expanding and burp them before they ‘burp’ themselves.

Leave a little space at the top of the bottle and put the lids on.  Leave on the kitchen side until the bottle feels rock hard and then put into the fridge.  Be very careful opening them as they are alive in the bottles and like to try to escape.

Note:  I’ve had my wild soda’s tested and if left to ferment for 1 month they have no sugar left in them at all!