The Easiest Fermented Ginger Bug Sodas You'll Ever Make!

I love fresh made sodas but I skip the first fermentation as it just makes it more alcoholic and taste worse. Just mix up the room temp fruit juice with the gingerbug and then bottle them. Have one bottle that is plastic so you can tell when pressure has built up and then refrigerate. No burping. You will end up with a carbonated juice that does not taste like booze or cider.

The second I saw this I fermented all the juice in my house. Made it so much better! Didn't even think to use store bought juice

I made a ginger bug a few months ago and have been using it my switchel. After watching this vid and having pineapple juice on hand I decided to try this. I just used it yesterday in a margarita, it was good.

Somebody already mentioned here the ph of the juices. It is well known for home brewers that any yeast has its own ph tollerance and there is way to controll it. Usually the lower the ph the less activity for the yeast to the point that it goes dormant. However as soon as the ph raises it will resume its activity. Lemon juice has the lowest ph which is equivalent to the highest acidity of all juices and that is because lemon juice is basically citric acid. Yeast like the ph around 5 -5.5 while lemon juice could be as low as 2. The remedy? You have to neutralize a bit that acidity and the most available method is to add a bit of baking soda, stirr it, let it react with the acid until calms down, it will be an efervescent reaction but won't take long. When the ph rises the yeast will start working. Another thing worth mentioning is that any yeast fermentation consume sugar and releases alcohol and CO2. The bubbles are the CO2 released and it will come up as long there is still sugar for the yeast to eat and if you bottle it will build preassure. That is how beer is preassurized in the bottles in home brewing, however you need to add a bit of sugar. As sugar being consumed the juice becomes... more sour at taste. About the alcohol content. The hydrometer, an important tool in wine and beer making, measures the sugar content. So when you measured in your drink the 1.020 it means that there is still sugar left in your drink and that 3% ABV is the potential than can be made if all sugar left is consumed, untill the measurement goes down to 1.000. In order to measure the alcohol present in a liquid you have to use the hydrometer to measure sugar content BEFORE and AFTER the fermentation. You subtract the numbers and that will tell you the alcohol percentage. The fruit juices that you used have a sugar content of around 1.050 on the hydrometer scale. You measured after the fermentation 1.020 so the difference is 0.030. That will give you a 3.9 ABV with the potential to go up to 6.5 if the rest of sugar is consumed. https://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

I juiced plums from my Santa Rosa plum tree a few months ago - just straight up juice (no sugar or water added) then hot water bath canned it all. After watching your how to make a ginger bug video about 8 days ago and successfully making it, and after watching this video, I decided to give my home canned juice a try. I used 1 cup purified water, 1 cup strained plum juice, 2 TBSP of cane (white) sugar, and 1/8 cup of ginger bug in a pint sized canning jar. I placed a canning lid on top loosely. This sat overnight and had a nice layer of bubbles on top today. I decided to go ahead and bottle it in empty and thick plastic water bottle this morning and it's carbonating nicely! After about 8 hours carbonating in the water bottle, I tried a taste and it's a nice tart sweet flavor with a kombucha like flavor and very nice effervescent bubbles! Very enjoyable. Will let it go another 6 hours or so either drink up or put in fridge tonight. Thanks for your videos!

You guys are quickly becoming a fixture in my fermentation kitchen! I absolutely LOVE the content and the sense of wellness and joy that you both exude.

This is insane I can't wait for my ginger bug to be ready, first timer😉

Just discovered your channel and I love you guys!... Not just the amazing content but the positive uplifting energy your videos are packed with. I've got some catching up to do. Thank you

Hey there! I always enjoy your videos. I wanted to share that I have been making ginger ale with my ginger bug for some time now. I wanted to see if I could use honey to make my ginger bug. I made a new ginger bug with honey instead of granulated sugar. I have used honey instead of granulated sugar in the fermentation mix as well as in the ginger bug with great success. I have made several gallons of ginger ale successfully with this recipe modification. I have even flavored it with pomegranate juice from my pomegranate tree. I love the method demonstrated in this video of just using the bug to ferment other juices quickly. I am juicing grapefruits from my tree this week and will be trying the method in the video with that fresh juice soon. I will let you know how it turns out. Thank you for the continued inspiration!

All the juice in the house are getting fizzy! I quit buying beers anymore! Started making my own flavored beer! Thank you guys! Love lots

Made a bunch of these this past couple of weeks! Thank you! I also made some with real fruit -- Rhubarb (and pineapple) is awesome! Would never have thought to use Rhubarb but I had some in the freezer. Thanks for all your great ideas!

I've made a ginger bug using your method and it turned out perfect then I made ginger ale also very good. Now I have to try this..thank you.

Get Fizzy With It! You two crack me up.

Wow! I made a ginger bug a few weeks ago, it's been in the fridge (I actually made 2 as I knew I wouldn't be able to not-drink it). Usually I make mead out of honey from my hives, and I decided to use the ginger bug, sugar and organic ground ginger and add champagne yeast. Within 6 hours my mead was looking relatively quiet, while my ginger bug wine was going nuts! The ginger was not just floating, it was careening around inside the jar! Three days have passed and the ginger is still moving, and, after a small taste test, I could tell that it has quite a kick to it already! Thank you for the inspiration and all the information :)

I’ve just come across your videos and I just love watching y’all. I’ve been making sourdough bread for about 4 months and love working with my starter. I’ve decided to go further with making kombucha and to get some ginger and make some ginger bug then sodas. Thanks so much for all the ideas and keep the videos coming.

Just found your channel searching for homemade soda recipes. Glad I did! The one I was most excited about was the lemon... So glad you hung in there with it. I can't wait to try that one. Thanks again! Grady

So one of the problems you where having with the lemonade is that the High ph stresses the yeast out causing it to take quite a bit longer. I make lemon wine and what you do is make a sugar water with just a little bit of lemon juice and some yeast nutrient to start. You slowly add more and more overtime to finally reach that high pH that’s is desired

Ooo Cherry juice would be yummy I bet!

What a fun couple! Going to create a ginger bug this week. Can't wait!

I’ve been wanting to make a ginger bug for a while now and I’ve been making kombucha for 5 to 7 years on and off. After flavoring my kombucha a lot I decided to go ahead and look up a video on Ginger bugs process. It seems pretty easy just reading information, but I tend to do better with videos, so I really appreciate you making yours. I subscribe because they appreciate the effort and information that you guys give. I do have some questions on making it bigger batches and maybe doing a continual brew just like kombucha would do a continual brew