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Fizzy Fermented Ginger Beer With A Ginger Bug

This healthier homemade ginger beer is perfectly fizzy, has an excellent kick of ginger, and is packed with probiotics. It’s a ginger beer that’s naturally fermented. The fizziness and the probiotics come from a ginger bug. The ginger bug is made up of water, fresh ginger, and sugar.

Healthier Homemade Ginger Beer

That’s the first thing that needs to be set up when making homemade ginger beer. Once the fermentation process is well underway and you’ve got it bubbling, you can make your own ginger beer whenever you like!

What is a ginger bug?

It is a jar of Lacto-fermented ginger and water. All you do is feed a bit of fresh ginger and sugar every day to a jar of water at room temperature until it starts bubbling away.

The bubbling in the bug is due to natural yeasts and the Lactobacillus bacteria which break down the sugars. The bacteria convert them into lactic acid which in turn, is responsible for the probiotics and good digestive health.

It’s the same bacteria that are in sourdough starter!

Both the wild yeasts and the bacteria create carbon dioxide which means this ginger bug will also carbonate your fermented drink so it’s so fizzy and delicious. There is no need for any gadgets like a soda stream. The ginger bug works as a starter culture which will then ferment the ginger beer you make with it. Before you can make the fermented ginger beer recipe you need to make a ginger bug.

What you need for a ginger bug

  1. Water – Filtered water
  2. Real ginger – Fresh ginger root is the main ingredient. Using it with the skin on, is fine. Preferably organic ginger. This can be grated ginger, sliced or chopped.
  3. Sugar – Granulated white sugar. This is the food for the bacteria. You can use another full-calorie sugar if you like such as raw sugar or coconut sugar. Don’t use low-calorie sweeteners such as stevia.

Water for fermenting

What water to use in fermenting can be a hot topic amongst fermenters. Some water sources can contain amounts of chlorine and other elements that could affect the fermenting process. Filtered water or tap water that has been boiled and left to cool is best to use.

Personally, I just use tap water. My tap water doesn’t seem to affect my ferments or sourdough starter, however, if you feel your tap water may hinder the process, it’s better to be safe than sorry and use filtered water.

How to make a homemade ginger bug

To make the ginger bug, start with pouring 500ml filtered water (2 cups of water) into a clean glass jar.

Add to it 3cm of freshly grated or chopped ginger (about two tablespoons) and two tablespoons of sugar. Stir it will. Cover the jar with a cloth and keep it at room temperature but out of direct sunlight.

Every 24 hours, for the next 2-6 days, feed the jar another 2 tablespoons of ginger and 2 tablespoons of sugar and give it a good stir. After about 3 days you might see it start to bubble and the ginger will rise to the top. This is a good sign. How long the whole fermentation process takes can depend on the warmth of your environment plus many other factors.

Once your ginger starter is bubbling and active, it is ready to use. The next step is to make the ginger beer base.

Making fermented ginger beer

To make the fermented ginger beer you will need –

  • Water
  • Sugar – granulated sugar, raw sugar, or coconut sugar. Coconut sugar brings a lovely caramel color to ginger beer.
  • Fresh ginger
  • Lemon juice or lime juice
  • Ginger bug – the strained ginger bug liquid

Ove high heat, heat the water, ginger, salt, and sugar until a simmer and the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool to room temperature and let the ginger infuse in the water.

Strain the solids out of the liquid by pouring them through a fine mesh strainer. Add in the juice of the lemon or lime and the strained active ginger bug liquid. Pour into clean bottles, leaving at least 5cm (2 inches) of space between the ginger beer and the top of the bottle. Seal the bottles.

Check for carbonation after 3 days, especially in glass bottles to avoid them bursting. It might not be carbonated yet at this point though, it can take up to a week.

Once it is carbonated, store the bottles in the fridge to slow down further carbonation, but burp them daily.

Healthier Homemade Ginger Beer

Best bottles for ginger beer

If you’re only making small amounts of fermented ginger beer at a time, and you keep an eye on them, then glass flip-top bottles are great. They have a good airtight seal and this helps carbonate the drinks quicker.

However, they run the risk of bursting if they’re not burped (opening the top to let the gas out) as the gases have no place to escape.

If you think you might forget to check your bottles or you plan to make a bulk amount, then plastic soda bottles are a safer bet. A plastic bottle will also need to be burped to avoid bursting, but at least if they burst they won’t smash.

Maintaining a Ginger Bug

Once you have used your bug, top it up with however much water as what you took to use for the ginger beer. Add in 2 tablespoons ginger and 2 tablespoons sugar. Stir it well. Now you can store it in the fridge in a sealed jar until you next use it.

Every week you can feed it 1 teaspoon of ginger and 1 teaspoon of sugar to keep it active, however, the ginger bug is pretty robust once made. I left mine in the fridge for 3 months before feeding it again a couple of times and it was just fine. It’s quite normal for the ginger sediment to accumulate at the bottom of the jar.

If you want to use it again, take it out of the fridge and feed it 2 tablespoons ginger and 2 tablespoons sugar at least 6 hours before you need it, so it is bubbling and active. If it has been dormant for a long it may need 2-3 feeds to become very active again.

Is there alcohol in fermented ginger beer?

There is a small amount of alcohol in this fermented ginger beer but not much at all. If you really want to know how much you can use a brewing hydrometer to test it.

How long does it take to get a fizzy ginger beer?

How long they take to carbonate depends on the strength of your bug, the amount of sugar added to the ginger beer base, the seal of the bottles, and the temperature of your environment. It can take 2-3 days or up to a week (sometimes even longer)

Once it is carbonated, store the bottles of probiotic ginger beer in the fridge to slow down further carbonation, and burp them daily.

a bottle of yellow ginger beer being poured into a glass on a wooden board

Healthier Ginger Beer

Yield: 4
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Additional Time: 3 days
Total Time: 3 days 30 minutes

It’s perfectly fizzy, has an awesome kick of ginger and packed with probiotics.

Ingredients

Ginger bug - Day 1

  • 500ml (2 cups) filtered water
  • 2 Tablespooons fresh ginger
  • 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Ginger bug feedings days 2-6

  • 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger
  • 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Ginger beer

  • 1.4 litres (1 1/2 quarts) water
  • 150g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar or coconut sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
  • 60ml fresh lemon juice
  • Pinch of salt (optional)
  • 80ml (1/3 cup) strained ginger bug

Instructions

Making the ginger bug

  1. Pour 500ml of filtered water (2 cups) into a clean glass jar. Add two tablespoons of freshly grated or chopped ginger and two tablespoons of sugar. Stir it well. Cover the jar with a cloth and keep it at room temperature but out of direct sunlight.
  2. Every 24 hours, for the next 2-6 days, feed the jar another two tablespoons of ginger and two tablespoons of sugar and give it a good stir. After about three days, you might see it bubble, and the ginger will rise to the top. This is a good sign. How long the whole fermentation process takes can depend on the warmth of your environment, plus many other factors.
  3. Once your ginger starter is fizzy and bubbling, it is ready to use. The next step is to make the ginger beer.

Ginger beer

  1. Heat the water, ginger, salt, and sugar until a simmer and the sugar dissolves. Leave to cool to room temperature and let the ginger infuse in the water. Strain out the ginger. Add in the lemon juice and active ginger bug liquid.
  2. Pour the liquid into plastic or glass bottles, leaving a 5cm (2 inches) space between the ginger beer and the top. Seal them airtight. Check for carbonation after three days, especially in glass bottles, to avoid bursting. It might not be carbonated yet; it can take up to a week.
  3. Once it is carbonated, store the bottles in the fridge to slow down further carbonation, but burp them daily.

Notes

Ginger beer bottles

If you're only making small amounts of fermented ginger beer at a time, and you keep an eye on them, then glass flip-top bottles are great. They have a good airtight seal and this helps carbonate the drinks quicker.

However, they run the risk of bursting if they're not burped (opening the top to let the gas out) as the gases have no place to escape.

If you think you might forget to check your bottles or you plan to make a bulk amount, then plastic soda bottles are a safer bet. A plastic bottle will also need to be burped to avoid bursting, but at least if they burst they won't smash.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 99Unsaturated Fat: 0gSodium: 11mgCarbohydrates: 26.5gSugar: 25.4gProtein: 0.2g


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51 Comments

  1. lol i left mine a bit to long and it fizzed everywhere when i opened it. real yum though

    1. Oh no! It’s happened to me before too, especially as the days are getting warmer! Glad you still enjoyed it 🙂

  2. Hi, just started my bug! Do you need to peel the ginger? And do you mean a 2cm cube?

    1. Hey 🙂 if it’s organic ginger I don’t bother peeling but non organic I would. Yup a 2cm cube is good, or round abouts that. It doesn’t have to be super exact

  3. Elien. If I were to bottle it/cap it, could I use less of the bug and leave it longer in the capped bottles?

  4. I’m starting this today. So excited. My daughter is in New Zealand working and I’m looking forward to serving her this when she comes back to Canada. We enjoyed ginger beer when I visited her.
    Is it okay to grate a few days worth of ginger and store it in a jar? When I grate a bit, the exposed end always dries out and then I have to chop off and discard some.

  5. We drank our ginger beer today. Delicious! Thank you! I’m wondering if you ever have to refresh the ginger bug to strain off the old ginger, or can you keep using it indefinitely and just top up as you use it?

    1. Hey I think it’s best to drink it within the first week as it tastes the sweetest but it can store for many weeks, months even. I would release the gases every so often though if leaving it for a long period of time, even in the fridge.

  6. Hi Elien! Thank you for the recipe. I love ginger beer! I am in the middle of making my ginger bug right now. I have a few questions…do I need to stir when I add the ginger and sugar to the bug or just add and that’s it? Also…how soon can I use the bug again to make more ginger beer? Like if I wanted to double the amount or make more the next day? Also do you put the sifted ginger back in the bug or discard? Thanks!

  7. Hi Elien, I am originally from Wellington, New Zealand myself, but now live in Omaha, Nebraska. Do you feed your ginger bug the same amount of liquid that you take from it? Like a third a cup of water? Am excited to have another pet to keep alive. Absolutely love having a sourdough starter and very excited to do some yummy beverages with the ginger bug! 😀

    1. It can be kept in the fridge for many weeks, though the longer it is stored the less sweet it gets. If storing it for a long time, even in the fridge, I would open it every so often to release the gases that build up.

  8. Hey thank you for this, verry neat.
    just wondering is there a way to have them not as sweet and more dry?
    sounds too easy but is it less sugar the answer?

    1. Hey it will become less sweet the longer it ferments. If it’s already fizzy, open it to let some of the gases out, but then close and let it ferment longer to use up more of the sugar

  9. I taste tested my first batch made with white sugar and it went down a treat with all, it was beautiful. So now just bottling a batch with Coconut Sugar to try.
    Thanks so much for sharing your fabulous recipes.

  10. Hi I’ve been feeding the bug from scratch for 11 days now but still no sign of fermentation I have a sourdough starter on the go so understand the process.Temperature in the kitchen is pretty good so is there something else I can do to help fermentation.Thanks Thirsty Terry

    1. Hey Terry, if it is taking that long I would start again, a new batch. Not sure what is going on with your current one, but 11 days is a bit long! If you can, use organic unpeeled ginger.

  11. hi! I just started my ginger bug today and I am very excited and hopeful. before I get to the stage of making the ginger beer itself, I am wondering if there is a reason you choose to separate into two bottles? I have a 64 oz beer growler and I am wondering if I can use that?

    kindly,
    patti

    1. Hey Patti, you can definitely make one large bottle instead of 2 🙂

  12. hello again, patti here. I opened the bottle of ginger beer and it bubbled excitedly (well, maybe I was the one excited) but after straining out the ginger and rebottling it, I think I defizzed it all. did I kill it, or should I leave it out another day? it has been fermenting for about a week. should I feed it more sugar and let it build up again?
    thanks for your help!

    1. Hey Patti, I’ve not rebottled mine before after the initial bottling so I can’t be sure, but I’d say a little more sugar and another ferment could be the way to go!

  13. Would love to try this but I am uncertain where to get NZ grown organic ginger, as I understand imported ginger to be irradiated. Can you help with this? Thank you.

    1. Hey I’ve successfully used ginger from the supermarket for this 🙂

  14. So excited to try to make.
    Can I make it in bulk ie.12 bottles at a time.
    After I made to ginger bug, how much water can I use to make this.
    Thanking you
    dAZ

    1. Sorry! There was meant to be an optional pinch of salt in there to :). It’s been updated

  15. Hi HGH,
    Love the blog! trying to make the bug myself now. Just a question.. what happens if you skip a feeding in the “bug” fase? I sadly had to skip two (fed her asap) but we are at day 8 and I see no clear bubbling. Smell is still okay.. but I have a lot of sugar on the bottom.

    Should i continue?

    Thanks in advance

    Mx

  16. Hi there,

    In the paragraph about making the bug it states 2 tbs of each sugar and ginger day one and then a tbs of each the following day for feeding.
    In the recipe section it then states 2 tbs of each for the following days of feeding.
    I went of the paragraph and have used one tbs of ginger and sugar to feed bug for three days now, should I start again?

    1. Hey sorry about that, I have fixed that up. You don’t need to start again 🙂 there’s not a huge difference between 1-2 Tbsp. 2 tablespoons just makes fermentation a bit faster than 1.

  17. What happened to the old gingerbeer bug, which was made with yeast, warm water, sugar and ginger and then feed every day, one day feed sugar, next day feed ginger, so yeast used was cake yeast, but finding cake yeast is like finding a needle in a haystack, I now use dry yeast.

  18. Hi, i have been feeding my bug for 12 days now and there is still no sign of bubbles, why would this be? There is no sign of mould and it smells and tastes fine (yes, i dipped my finger in to try)
    Also, im wondering if the size of the grate used for the ginger would effect the success of the bug?

    1. Hey, the size shouldn’t affect it, but something in your water has. If it has been 12 days with nothing, I might be inclined to start a new bug from scratch.

  19. Hi you don’t say how long the ginger beer will last once bottled just wondering how long it would last if I kept it in the fridge
    Cheers Paul

  20. I have made ginger beer twice now: once started with whey and now from the ginger bug. Both times they have turned out very thick and viscous. Has this happened to you? Is there any way to address it? It seems leaving it longer in the bottle has helped.

    1. Hey Amy, Sorry that’s never happened to mine so i’m not sure what the issue is! Wish I could help!

  21. Help I need some advice:

    I started making a ginger bug roughly almost 10 days ago, my bug fizzles a little when I stir in te sugar and the grated ginger, but so far I haven’t noticed any bubbles. I have followed all the instructions precisely and my ginger is floating. I live in the Waikato of New Zealand and it is summer here; during the day outside it is around 27 to over 34 degrees Celsius. I have been leaving it on my kitchen bench, in a shallow plate with water in it to prevent the ants getting into my bug.

    1. heya, that’s too hot for the bug unfortunately! 30 degrees Celsius max is really the warmest it should go. I would store the bug in the fridge over these hot periods. You could try bottling some now, too, to store in the fridge as well. It might not work, since it has gotten so hot, but it’s worth a shot since you’ve had it going for 10 days.

  22. Hi! Im late to the party but just wondering when do I take the old ginger out? After a few bottling sessions surely there will be too much ginger to water?? Looking forward to my first batch
    Cheers Lottie
    From Katikati<3

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