Gingerbug is one of the best way to start within the world of fermentation. It’s an easy drink that you can make with simple tools and have a compelling result in less then a week. It just need a bit of care taking for a couple of days straight and you will end up with a fizzy drink full with good gut bacteria. Follow the steps here to make your own gingerbug.

[PEOPLE WHO RECEIVED THE FLOWER & GINGERBUG SET CAN IMMIDIATLY START WITH STEP 3]


1. What do you need? 

Like with all fermentations, knowing from where your ingredients come from is essential in getting a good results. For Gingerbug, three main ingredients are needed: clean drinking water, non refined sugar and biological ginger. Why non-refined & biological ginger? Well we want to give the right bacteria the best environment to thrive. Having non processed sugar will easy the work of the bacteria, while having biological ginger assures us that the needed bacteria are still there on the root. Important side note: when grating we use the whole ginger with skin!

2. How to start your Gingerbug?

Some of you maybe already experimented with sourdough starter while under confinement. Well Gingerbug is not far off. You will need to feed it every day for a couple of days until the right activity is created. To make a starter for 1l of ginger limonade you will need:

20 gr of freshly grated ginger
20 gr of sugar
200ml of water
A jar with a airtight lit (this is to create a nice bubbly action through the yeasts)

And now you just need to add every day 10gr of sugar & 10 grams of freshly grated ginger to the batch every day for two to four days. Mix it well and you will have an active reaction after a couple of days.
Here you have an exemple of 5l of starter to make 50l of gingerbug that got active after three days.

3. How to make a limonade with it? 

So now you have your ginger bug starter or you received your already active starter pack from Fermenthings. It is time to mix it all up & make your pro-biotic drink out of it.

1. Take a bottle you can close off to create the sparkling effect. For this purpose we will use a 33cl bottle
2. Add 30 gr of filtered gingerbug & 10 gr of sugar in the bottle.
3. Fill it with filtered water
4. Let it rest for max two days in a dark but warm part of your kitchen (next or on top of your oven for exemple)
5. Set it in the fridge and let it cool
6. Poor it in a glass, add some of the edible flowers, a cube of ice and enjoy a great non-alcoholic drink!