Probiotic Wild Fermented Soda’s

Alternative Seasonal Soda’s using a Ginger Bug Starter

Ingredients:

Choose a base from one of the below items

375ml sugar

2 lemons, juiced

6L of water

1x ginger bug

 

Directions:

1. Put chosen base and 2L of water into a large pan and bring to the boil. Once boiling simmer for 30mins.
2. Take off the heat and add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
3. Strain your chosen base from the liquid and then add the other 4L of cold water.
4. The liquid should be cool now, add the ginger bug & lemon juice and stir. Pour this all into a large plastic bucket or glass jar (not metal).  Put lid on and leave for 24hrs in a warm place.
5. After 24hrs it should smell like ginger beer and after some bubbles. If not leave it for another 24hrs.
6. Put into plastic bottles but leave 2 inches at least empty at the top.
7. Leave bottles for 5-7 days for them to get fizzy and then put somewhere cool for storing (be careful when opening as it may be lively).
8. All or most of the sugar will be eaten up by the fermentation process.

 

 

Optional Soda Base’s

Dried lavender flowers, 5-6 handfuls, roughly 500g (I usually add the juice of two more lemons with this option)

Rhubarb waste (all the stringy bits and ends you cut off when preparing rhubarb for something else), roughly 500-600g

Mashed blackberries/raspberries/blueberries, roughly 500-600g

Pine needles (I use as many as I can fit, covered in the 2L of water at the beginning and I cut them up a little to release more flavour)

Turmeric root (I sometimes like to take out half the ginger and put in half turmeric instead)

Lemons, the juice and zest of 2 lemons per 1L, so 12 lemons in total

Please note: that the amount of chosen base you use is up to you, it really depends how strongly flavoured you would like your soda to be.

How to make your Ginger Bug (or you can switch out the ginger for turmeric root or even chopped up pine needles)

Ingredients:

5 cm of ginger grated

3 tbsp. of sugar

250ml of water

 

Directions:

1. Put half the grated ginger, 2 tbsp. of the sugar and the water into a medium sized sterilised jar and shake well. Take lid off and cover with muslin or cotton and an elastic band.
2. Put in a warm place and shake the jar every time to look at it for 24hrs.
3. After 24hrs you should see bubbles. Add 1 tbsp of sugar and 2-3cm of grated ginger every day for 3 days and keep shaking the jar.
4. You ginger bug is ready to make ginger beer with, if you don’t want to use it right now then you can either continue feeding and shaking it every few days or put it in the fridge where it will go to sleep for a bit (it will need feeding again as soon as you remove it from the fridge).

 

Original recipe – Ginger Beer

Ingredients:

20cm of ginger grated

375ml sugar

2 lemons, juiced

6L of water

1x ginger bug

 

Directions:

1. Put grated ginger and 2L of water into a large pan and bring to the boil. Once boiling simmer for 30mins.
2. Take off the heat and add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
3. Strain the grated ginger from the liquid and then add the other 4L of cold water and the juice of the two lemons.
4. The liquid should be cool now, add the ginger bug and stir. Pour this all into a large plastic bucket or glass jar (not metal).  Put lid on and leave for 24hrs in a warm place.
5. After 24hrs it should smell like ginger beer and be bubbling. If not give it a little more ginger and sugar and leave another 24hrs.
6. Sieve again as you pour it into plastic bottles but leave at least 3/4 inches empty at the top.
7. Leave in a cool place until you wish to drink, which should be a minimum of 5 days later (be careful when opening as it may be lively).
8. All or most of the sugar will be eaten up by the fermentation process.

 

NOTE:  You can use the ginger bug to start all sorts of fermented drinks.  I have made a healthy probiotic version of Fanta and an Elderflower Beer with the bug, by adding it in the same way as above, just with swapping out the ginger in the second stage with something else.

 

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