I started making my first ginger bug a week ago and it finally produced a bubble on the 7 th day! I’m planning to brew a big batch of ginger beer in a 5 gallon carboy and I’m need 7 cups ginger bug in the recipe. My question is, can I speed up increasing my ginger bug quantity by giving it a big feed? I usually feed once a day with 2 tbsp water 2 tbsp ginger and 1 tbsp …

I am just starting my ginger bug. On day three and it has started growing light green mold on some of the ginger pieces at the top. I have it in a 1 L jar with an airlock. This exact thing happened the last time I tried to start a ginger bug just a couple weeks ago. Any ideas for how to keep the ginger pieces below the water?

I've been attempting to use a ginger bug to make non-alcoholic ginger beer, but I manage to kill the bug each time, either while it is cultivating or after I add it to the ginger syrup. Overview of my process: Put cup of distilled water in a jar or glass bowl. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and two teaspoons of fresh ginger with peel. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of ginger at the same time each day, …

I was just wondering if anyone could tell me whether or not I should keep feeding my ginger bug or start over. It was bubbling nicely the first three days, but now it seems to have gone flat. It still has a pleasant smell and doesn't appear to have any mold on it, so I'm kinda tempted to drink it/make a de-carbonated soda, and start over again fresh. Do you think it will recover if I just keep feeding it/burping …

I've made a new ginger bug from some pretty old ginger. The ginger has been sitting on my counter long enough for some of it to actually sprout new shoots, but it smells fine and doesn't show any signs of having gone bad. I got great fermenation, plenty of bubbles, etc. However, I'm told that a ginger bug should smell like "fresh ginger" which this one decidedly doesn't. It smells slightly medicinal and very alcoholic. Not sure if it is …

I am using the following recipe to grow an active ginger bug: 2 cups bottled water 2 tbsp grated organic ginger 2 tbs refined sugar Each day I add 2 tbsp ginger and 2 tbsp sugar to the mix. I wash all my utensils with bottled water before using. I use a plastic spoon for stirring. Temperature ranges between 22 C and 28 C. After 24h the bug is showing signs of fizziness, but only small bubbles. This doesn’t change …

I've made tons of ginger beer (often just like this http://ieatfood.net/2009/12/18/real-ginger-ale/ ), I've tried various different recipes, and they all come out quite nicely. But I want a ginger beer that's SHARP. Everything I make has a nice ground gingery mouth feel, where as ginger beer I buy (like Fentimans, Bundaberg) tends to be a lot sharper for a better "Dark and Stormy" taste. It's not lemon. It's not pineapple. How do I make it sharp?

My ginger bug had been 3 days bubbling and fizzing, but now it's stopped bubbling and smells too much of fermented ginger, can somebody help me? please? I need help urgently.

This is the first time I will make a ginger bug and the process seems very simple but my question is. How long can I keep feeding my ginger bug and if I will be using that bug to make ginger beer what happens when I run out of the culture, can I add more water? Thank you everyone.

I'm very new to brewing and also fermentation and I'm really confused when I start fermenting my ginger bug. I don't know when to screw my bottle tight and when to put a cheese cloth on top of the bottle and when to use airlock during the brewing process. I guess.. To put cheese cloth during first fermentation so I can capture more wild yeast into the bottle? But then if it start bubbling, the bubble will go away. Also …

I've been dabbling with simple ciders in the past few years. I've been particularly enjoying those made with honey as an adjunct - I'm not sure whether it should be classified as a honey cider or a cyser, but to my uneducated palette, it's delicious. Big honey aroma, with just a hint of sweetness. What I'd like to do is introduce some spice character to it, specifically ginger. Is there a "preferred" method of adding ginger or other spices to …

I have been making ginger soda. But after fermenting, the soda was very viscous and slimy in some of the batches. It usually turns out fine but this happened multiple times inconsistently with different starts. Does anybody know what may be causing this? Recipe used: Ginger Bug (ginger, sugar, and water) Strong ginger tea dilute with water and add sugar to 6-7 brix sweetness i usually ferment until ~5 brix before putting in the fridge. so really the only things …

I've made ginger bug before and it makes really good sodas, etc, but how do you expand the bug? I've look all over online and they show how to start and maintain a bug but not how to expand it. I'm guessing that I just basically redo the start procedures with the remaining ginger bug, adding some more water, sugar, and ginger.

I had a healthy ginger bug for the first 4 days which was bubbling away nicely until it all stopped for no apparent reason. I kept feeding it as per normal and it didn't do anything for another 4 days. I decided that I would give it a "kick start" and feed it some yeast to get it back into life which has worked along with regular feeding. My question is will this be fine to use and is it …

I have set up a 1 gallon brew using brewers yeast. I have also made my own bug starter and also purchased one. After 4 days my own starter is going well and smells very strongly of yeast. The purchased one however shows no sign of bubbling but has developed a strong sour/yeast smell plus something else which may be alcohol. I am not sure what is going on. My gut feeling is to go with the purchased one as …

I'm doing some experiments with ginger beer (this is a alcoholic beer, not a soda). I'm use brown sugar as the sugar source for now, but may experiment with other sugars including malt as I go along. I'm just using a nottingham dry brewers yeast to start, but I'd like to experiment with some different yeasts and see what tastes good. Any ideas of what kind of yeast would be good? I was thinking to try something belgian to get …

Recipes for spontaneous (wild) ginger ale sometimes refer to the starter as the "ginger bug". What is the ginger bug? Is it just an ordinary lactobacillus; is it a type of yeast? Is it something that is all around us, or something that is found specifically on the ginger? What role does the ginger play: is it simply a flavouring agent, does it act as a preservative, or is it something special (for instance, a carrier of important microörganisms that …

I just tried my first batch of root beer. I used a recipe from Wellness Mama. I don't drink but I think it tasted alcoholic and gingery at best. I let the ginger bug ferment for 2 weeks (I waited an extra week looking for bottles), making sure to feed it sugar, ginger and stir daily. I followed all the steps with all the ingredients. It was carbonated (big pop when opened) but somewhat clear. Like I said it was …

I have started my first ginger bug and so far, not so good. I followed the recipe from Wellness Mama but I'll explain what I personally did to see if I made a mistake. I boiled a pot of water and soaked a mason jar in it. I then boiled another pot of water and put that aside to cool. I bought some fresh organic ginger root and tried using a cheese grater. It got mushy so I sliced up …

I occasionally use a juicer to make Ginger root juice (which is quite strong) but lately I've also considered lacto-fermenting this juice. Which leads me to my question:How fermentable is juiced Ginger really? I'm aware of how ginger bug is sometimes used to kick start ferments but juiced Ginger is something else entirely. Also, I've read quite a bit about Ginger's antiseptic and antibacterial properties. Wouldn't those same properties render a starter culture useless?