Ginger bug sodas are full of sweet, refreshing natural carbonation. The flavors you can craft with ginger cultured homebrews are endless. Plus, beneficial probiotics are a happy bonus in these homemade ginger bug soda recipes.
You've got your trusty ginger culture on hand, right? If not, you will want to read all about Making A Ginger Bug first.
There you will learn everything you need to know about the starter that is key to making bubbly, probiotic-rich soda pop right in your own kitchen.
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🥤Why brew soda pop?
- No artificial colors, flavors, or additives
- Natural sugar in place of high fructose corn syrup
- No preservatives
- All-natural carbonation
- Fun and rewarding project
Top Tip
Chill your finished sodas well before opening. That way, your effervescent home-brewed soda will end up in your glass and not all over your counter or table!
There is something so magical to me about creating over-the-top carbonation out of everyday ingredients. This sparkling beverage is ready in as little as 24 hours plus chilling time in a tropical climate.
Colder climates give varying times, and there is a learning curve. That's a good deal of the fun though with live, fermented foods.
Whether it's sourdough bread, kimchee, yogurt, or kombucha, living foods are unique to your environment and ingredients.
📋 Ingredients
- Filtered water - pure water without chlorine is a must.
- Ginger bug - the ingredient that makes it all possible.
- Lemons - to squeeze fresh lemon juice.
- Ginger root - Organic fresh ginger with the skin on is best.
- Raw cane sugar - clean support for the healthy bacteria in ginger bug.
- Sea salt - a pinch brings out the sweetness of other flavors.
🥣 Equipment
Because we are talking about geyser-spilling, lid-popping soda, you'll want to have strong glass bottles with reliable lids to ferment and store your brews.
Swing top bottles are available online and at local homebrew supply stores.
- Grolsch bottles are ideal.
🔪 Steps
Have you started dreaming yet about what soda flavors you would like to have? I recommend starting with straight ginger ale. Trust me, there isn't anything plain about it.
You get to choose whether it's mildly sharp or tongue-burning spicy. You can also adjust the amount of sweetener to your taste. You'll be amazed by your own creation.
- Chop ginger and squeeze lemon juice.
- Measure out water, sugar, and chopped ginger. Boil together.
- Strain boiled mixture and combine with lemon juice, ginger bug, and water.
- Bottle ginger soda and ferment until bubbly.
🍇 How to flavor ginger soda
I've had the best results using fresh or frozen concentrated fruit juices and homemade syrups for flavoring and carbonation.
Whole fruits and spices can occasionally yield off-flavors. But coming up with new flavors is so much fun I won't try to stop you from experimenting with your own combinations!
🧾 Variations
Once you have the hang of the process of making homemade ginger ale, you can branch out to endless variations.
The recipe card below has all the instructions on how to make six unique, sparkling sodas. These are the tried and true tested flavors we enjoy most at our house:
- Extra Ginger
- Tamarind
- Pineapple
- Elderberry
- Sarsparilla
- Grape
- Jamaica
👩🏻🍳 Expert tips
- Use organic ingredients whenever possible and inspect for mold before including them.
- Always add your ginger bug to a cooled mixture. Heat above room temperature can kill the beneficial bacteria that make fizzy soda.
- Use a minimum of ¼ cup of sugar per recipe if reducing the sugar.
- Make sure your starter is alive and active. If in doubt, check out How To Make Ginger Bug for tips on storage and maintenance.
- Use bottles with tight swing-top lids that seal well.
- You can "burp" your sodas every 12 hours to release CO2 and gauge fermentation.
- Soda is ready to refrigerate when a noticeable stream of bubbles rush up the side of the bottle from bottom to top. You don't need to wait until it spills over to chill it.
- Chill soda for at least 12 hours before trying to open and serve it.
- Some flavors like Sarsparilla can gain carbonation if stored for several days. Be sure to open sodas slowly over a sink until you see how powerful the bottle is.
- Homebrew soda loses sweetness and becomes more tart over time. We've made some fun alternative "champagne" by letting pineapple ginger soda age for one to two months in the refrigerator.
Ready to go? If the answer is yes, I'm delighted you've signed up for another new culinary adventure.
🍹More healthy beverages
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📖 Recipe
Ginger Bug Soda Recipes
Ingredients
Make ginger tea
- ½ cup chopped organic ginger
- ¼ tsp. sea salt
- ¾ cup raw sugar to taste
- 2 cups filtered water
Add ginger bug
- ¼ cup strained fresh lemon juice
- ½ cup strained ginger bug culture
- 6 cups filtered water
Instructions
BASIC GINGER ALE RECIPE
Make ginger tea
- Bring 2 cups filtered water to a boil. Add ½ cup chopped organic ginger, ¼ tsp. sea salt , and ¾ cup raw sugar. Stir for a few minutes to make sure dissolves completely, and cook gently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep until lukewarm.
Add Ginger Bug
- When the ginger and sugar mixture is lukewarm or cooler, strain it into a large pitcher or bowl that holds 8 ½ cups. Toss out the strained ginger.
- Add ¼ cup strained fresh lemon juice, ½ cup strained ginger bug culture, and 6 cups filtered water. Stir to mix.
Bottle Soda For Fermentation
- Use a funnel to pour soda into four 16 oz. swing-top bottles and cap tightly. Let ferment 24 hours at room temperature. You can "burp" the sodas every 12 hours to release CO2 and gauge fermentation.
- When a noticeable stream of bubbles rush from bottom of glass to top, your soda is ready to finish in the refrigerator. You don't need to wait until it actually spills over the top of the bottle.
- Place in refrigerator and chill completely before opening. Sodas last a couple weeks and then begin to lose sweetness gradually. Let your pineapple soda age for two months for a wild "champagne" alternative!
VARIATIONS
Extra Ginger
- Increase ginger to 1 cup and keep everything else the same.
Tamarind
- Make ginger tea with ¼ cup chopped ginger, ¼ tsp. salt, ½ cup coconut palm sugar, 4 tablespoons whole fruit tamarind, and 2 cups of filtered water. Cool and strain the mixture.
- Omit lemon juice. Add ½ cup ginger bug and 6 cups of filtered water. Bottle and ferment per the basic recipe.
Pineapple
- Make ginger tea with ¼ cup chopped ginger, ¼ tsp. salt, ⅓ cup raw sugar, and 2 cups of filtered water. Allow to cool and then strain the mixture.
- Add ½ can of frozen unsweetened concentrated pineapple juice, ¼ cup of lemon juice, ½ cup ginger bug, and 5 ½ cups of filtered water. Bottle and ferment per the basic recipe.
Elderberry
- Make ginger tea with ¼ cup chopped ginger, ¼ tsp. salt, ¾ cup raw sugar, 3 tablespoons dried elderberries, and 2 cups of filtered water. Allow to cool and then strain the mixture.
- Add ¼ cup of lemon juice, ½ cup ginger bug, and 5 ½ cups of filtered water. Bottle and ferment per the basic recipe.
Sarsparilla
- Make ginger tea with ½ cup chopped ginger, ¼ tsp. salt, ¾ cup coconut palm sugar, 2 tablespoons sassafras bark, 1 tablespoon dried wintergreen leaf, 1 vanilla bean split lengthwise and chopped, 1 tablespoon molasses, and 2 cups of water. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Cool and strain.
- Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, ½ cup ginger bug, ¼ tsp. natural rootbeer extract and 6 cups of filtered water. Bottle and ferment per the basic recipe.
Grape
- Make ginger tea with ¼ cup chopped ginger, ¼ tsp. salt, ⅓ cup raw sugar, and 2 cups of filtered water. Allow to cool and then strain the mixture.
- Add ½ can of frozen unsweetened concentrated grape juice, ¼ cup of lemon juice, ½ cup ginger bug, and 5 ½ cups of filtered water. Bottle and ferment per the basic recipe.
Jamaica
- Make ginger tea with ¼ cup chopped ginger, ¼ tsp. salt, ¾ cup raw sugar, ¼ cup dried Jamaica hibiscus flower, and 2 cups of filtered water. Allow to cool and then strain the mixture.
- Omit the lemon juice. Add ½ cup ginger bug, and 6 cups of filtered water. Bottle and ferment per the basic recipe.
Serve
- Chill soda for at least 12 hours before trying to open and serve it. Serve over ice if desired or enjoy straight from the bottle.
Store
- Store sodas in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. After that, they will become increasingly less sweet and more tart. Some like Sarsparilla can get powerfully carbonated- be sure to open them slowly and over a sink if they have aged!
Jeff says
Here's my take on this. It needs warmth to get started. Canada = cooler conditions, so I put it in sinks of warm water as much as possible. Still didn't get fizzy but if I was diligent, could get it to get slightly bubbly, then it went flat again after 2 days. Then it went to vinegar. 🤬 So, I redid it, kept it warm in a big pot of water on the stove (glass top), and only partially onto the burner so it wouldn't cook or get too warm. Then I added some raisins (grapes, wine, get it?)but it didn't quite get going either. So I added 3 thin slices of apple (cider, right?), and *Bingo* it got bubbling really well. And once you get the bug started, it is pretty hard to screw it up.The apple gets mushy about 3 days later, throw it out.
And for as far as feeding it, I added 1tbsp. Of sugar, and 1 tbsp.of thinly sliced ginger, unpeeled (!). Then I realized you don't need to add ginger every day. I add 2 pieces, each about the size of 2 of your fingers, sliced super thin (more surface edge exposure) once a week. 1-2 tbsps. of brown sugar every day or two is good enough.
Basically, you strain all the old ginger slices out every week, add fresh water (My jar holds about 4-5 cups) feed it with brown/yellow sugar every day or two, and whenever I make a batch of drinking "soda" I use about 1 cup of the bug, which I then replace with 1 cup FILTERED water, and some sugar at the same time. Chlorinated tap water absolutely does not work! Brita filtered or filtered water from your fridge ice/water dispenser works. I've used both.
Bottles: get some 1 or 2 litre (quart) sized plastic pop bottles. Why? Because glass ones can break or explode. Plastic ones are designed to withstand enormous pressure. Ever seen one explode? Never! Years ago we put dry ice into 2 litre bottles, added a bit of water, then capped them immediately. They expand to about double their size before exploding. Like dynamite. Don't try this at home, kids! I am a professional! 😯 HaHaHa
Then, to make soda... Put 1 cup ginger bug in, 1/4 cup brown sugar, a nub of ginger cut into tiny little squares (2-3 tbsps.) so they will fit into the funnel in the neck of the bottle when dropped in, then some kind of flavored syrup (1/2 can of frozen juice concentrate or any flavour of fruit syrup, tea, etc. Use your imagination!), then fill the bottle up to about 2 inches from the top. Wait 2-3 days, bottle will get hard as a rock, then put into fridge to get cold. To drink, put a strainer over your cup, pour what you want, then turf the bits in the strainer and add a tablespoon or two of sugar to re-energize your soda while sitting in the fridge.
This "soda" has effervescence but will not be large bubbled like Coke or Pepsi, or any other pop is. It will taste only slightly sweet as the ginger bug bacteria will have eaten the sugar to live and proliferate, thus making healthy probiotics, which are good for your health!
Winner winner, chicken dinner! 👍😉
Poppy Hudson says
Bravo Jeff - what fun!
Pam says
I have started my ginger bug...so far, so good. Day 3 and I have some bubbles...
My question is...
How would you recommend using homemade / canned Cranberry Juice with the Ginger Ale?
I am currently using store bought ginger ale and a small amount CranApple Juice, about 3 parts ginger ale and 1 part CranApple) together to make a drink that helps with my nausea from chemo treatments. It does help, more than the prescription pill that taste like...well we won't go there.
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Poppy Hudson says
Aloha Pam, I think 100 percent unsweetened bottled cranberry juice would be excellent in the recipe. Its pure and concentrated. Of course add the amount of sweetening you desire. Ginger and cranberry are a natural combo! Good luck with the taste as well as a nausea remedy!