How to Make Your Own (Non-Boozy!) Ginger Ale - Part 1

I must confess, I entered the world of home-fermenting with some hesitancy.  Starting off with sourdough was one thing; brewing homemade sodas was an entirely different animal.  But there’s just something about pulling a cold, fizzy soda from your fridge and sipping on that home-brewed goodness. 

In this 2-part post, we’re going to learn how to make homemade ginger ale, step by step.

There’s a lot of information on the internet about how to do this.  The problem is that when you’re working with homemade ginger sodas, you’re working with wild yeast—just like with sourdough.  Your results may vary based on location, local temperature, and other factors. 

As I began my soda-brewing journey, I found that the “standard” recipes didn’t work well for me.  Here in south Texas, I’m in an incredibly hot environment.  And during the summer—to save energy—my husband and I let the house get up to 78 degrees during the hours we’re at work.  This meant that my ginger ales got warmer than most people’s during the day, and so the wild yeasts and lactic acids were happily multiplying during those hours.  Because of this, my sodas fermented much faster… and much more intensely… than I’d intended.

If you keep your house warm or happen to live in a warmer environment, try out my recipe and see if it works for you. 

The Starter: Ginger Bug

Just like with sourdough bread, ginger soda requires a starter culture.  This is usually referred to as a “ginger bug,” and it’s super easy to make.  In order to develop your bug, you’ll need the following:

·       A glass jar

·       A spoon

·       Fresh organic ginger

·       Non-chlorinated water

·       Cane sugar

Simple, right?

I used a little pint mason jar to develop my bug, and it worked just fine.  This particular culture needs to be stirred (to incorporate oxygen) regularly while it’s being developed.

A quick note on materials: Some sources caution against using wooden spoons, as they may harbor other yeasts, bacteria, or spores.  Other sources warn against using metal, as the lactic acids in a starter culture can corrode metals and cause them to leach harmful materials into the starter.  And, of course, plastic is demonized as a non-renewable resource which may shed “microplastics” that are detrimental to human health.  In other words, any type of spoon you use—wood, metal, or plastic—has a downside.

Personally, I used a slotted metal spoon to stir my ginger bug.  It’s only dipped into the culture for a few seconds at a time, and most food-safe metal utensils shouldn’t be corroded by starters. 

For the ginger, I highly recommend buying organic, and here’s why.  You’ll need to scrub your ginger root, but you don’t want to peel it, as the peels contain nutrients and microorganisms that you want for your starter.  Non-organic ginger will likely carry pesticides and fungicides on the outer peel, some of which may be difficult to remove even with vigorous scrubbing.  While those chemicals may keep pests off the produce, they will also make it difficult for the wild yeasts (a natural fungus) to do their thing.  Remember, you want to create a welcoming environment for yeast in your ginger bug.

With that in mind, you’ll also need to make sure you’re using non-chlorinated water.  Most city water is processed with trace amounts of bleach.  While this kills harmful bacteria, it will also kill (or, best case scenario, seriously impair) the beneficial yeasts and bacteria in your starter.  The water you use doesn’t need to be distilled; it just needs to be non-chlorinated.  For this reason, I buy bottled water by the gallon to use in my fermentation experiments.

Finally, the ingredient that makes the magic happen: sugar.  Ginger doesn’t contain enough sugar to support a wild yeast colony; therefore, you’ll need to supplement it with cane sugar (not a sugar substitute!).  This is what the yeasts will eat.  Without it, you won’t get those lovely bubbles that are necessary for a carbonated drink.

Okay, so now that we’ve got the ingredients covered, let’s take a look at the process of developing a ginger bug:

1. Scrub, but don’t peel, organic ginger root.  Grate or mince the root, being careful to save the juices (waste not, want not!)As a side note, I usually process the entire package of ginger if I’m buying from the store.  I’ve had bad luck with ginger getting moldy in the fridge, and I hate wasting such a delicious (and expensive!) food.  Once I’ve processed all the ginger, I pack it into a silicone candy mold (each candy mold holds about a half teaspoon of ginger).  Then, I freeze it.  The frozen ginger works just fine for developing a bug, but don’t try to freeze and thaw a developed ginger bug—the culture will die if you do.
   

2. Fill a glass pint jar ⅔ to ¾ full of non-chlorinated water.  Drop in about 3 tablespoons of grated ginger and 3 tablespoons of sugar (in other words, equal parts).  Stir, cover with a paper towel and rubber band, and set aside for 12-24 hours, keeping it out of direct sunlight.
   

3. Every 12-24 hours, drop in another teaspoon to tablespoon of ginger and an equal amount of sugar.  Stir and cover again.
   

4. Depending on the temperature you keep the culture at, the ginger bug should start producing bubbles after 3-7 days (as previously mentioned, my house gets hot, so mine got active early).  Once it starts producing bubbles (it may look like floating while mold, but you’ll hear them break as you stir the mixture), your ginger bug is ready to go!

Now that your ginger bug starter is ready, you can use it immediately or store it in the fridge.  Like sourdough starter, if kept in the fridge, the ginger bug will become less and less active, as the cold will force the wild yeast into a state of lethargy.  You’ll still need to feed it once a week with equal parts ginger and sugar, but after feeding and stirring, you can stick it back in the fridge again.

Alright, so are you ready to get into the actual ginger ale recipe?  Once you’ve got your ginger bug brewing, check out part two of this post.  See you there!