I absolutely love homemade pro-biotic sodas. For me personally, they improve my digestion. It is my goal to get as many foods rich in beneficial bacteria into my families diet.
These are a hit! My kids gave the Cranberry Blueberry Soda two thumbs up! The funny thing is…I offered these to them about 6 months ago but they were not interested. Today, they said these were so yummy!
It is a good idea to offer things to kids several times because they do tend to change their minds about food often. These are full of beneficial bacteria and the fruit sugars have been broken down by those hungry little helpers…we call them the “Good Bugs”!
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Homemade Ginger Bug
- Total Time: 72 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 1 pint 1x
Description
I absolutely love homemade pro-biotic sodas. For me personally, they improve my digestion. It is my goal to get as many foods rich in beneficial bacteria into my families diet.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of filtered water
- 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of freshly chopped organic ginger root
- 2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of organic evaporated cane sugar
- One pint sized mason jar with lid
- One seedling mat (optional, can purchase at local nursery)
Instructions
- Add filtered water, 2 Tablespoons of chopped ginger root and 2 Tablespoons of cane sugar to mason jar. Stir well until sugar is dissolved.
- Seal jar with lid and place in a warm place or on a seedling mat.
- After 24 hours, you will feed your starter by adding 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger root and 1 teaspoon of cane sugar. Stir well, seal jar and place back in warm location.
- In another 24 hours, day 2, feed starter again by adding 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger root and 1 teaspoon of cane sugar. Stir well, seal jar and place back in warm location.
- In 24 hours, day 3, your starter should be very fizzy when opening jar. This means your starter is active and ready to use for making pro-biotic sodas. (Follow Recipe for Pro-biotic Sodas). If starter is not fizzy yet, repeat above step 3 for another day or two. If starter is still not active, the ginger was too old. Look for fresh ginger root, where the skin is not wrinkled, but smooth and ginger root is firm.
Notes
When you use ginger bug for your pro-biotic sodas, always leave 1/2 cup of ginger bug in jar, refil with water, add 1 teaspoon of chopped ginger root and 1 teaspoon of unrefined cane sugar and repeat daily. Place ginger bug in refrigerator when not in use.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 72 hours
Homemade Pro-biotic Sodas
- Total Time: 24 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 1x
Description
Feel free to make several jars.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup of homemade ginger bug
- 1 1/2 cups of Organic Cranberrry Blueberry Juice or Apple Juice
- 12 ounce glass bottle with lid (can re-use kombucha bottle or salad jar bottles)
- small funnel
Instructions
- Using a small funnel, add ginger bug to glass bottle
- Add Cranberry Blueberry Juice or apple juice to bottle.
- Seal bottle with lid. Move jar around a bit to mix juice and ginger bug.
- Place bottle in a warm location or on a seedling mat for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, open lid and if it makes a strong fizz and you see bubbles rising. Pro-biotic soda is ready. If it is not, let is ferment a few more hours until you see little bubbles rising to the top.
- Refrigerate soda a few hours and serve cold.
- Repeat recipe to make more bottles of pro-biotic sodas.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 24 hours
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I wrote to you about exploding soda but need to add that I used bottles with flip tops
I have also used flip-tops in this recipe. I have found that some fruit juices get fizzier than others and ferment faster. Pomegranate juice is one of them that uses less fermentation time. Also, the weather affects how fast they ferment. A warmer environment will cause them to ferment faster and get fizzier. Let me know if I can be of any help.
Warmly,
Ester
This recipe looks delicious. But…I’m doing THM so I can’t have sugar. Is it possible to make these with stevia, erythritol, or xylitol? Thanks for your help!
Hi Abbey,
The ginger bug starter needs sugar but it will not be sweet once the bacteria eats the sugars. You can try using maple syrup if that is a better choice for you, even try coconut sugar.
Warmly,
Ester
This recipe looked great but will these be alcoholic?
It depends on how long you ferment the sodas. If you let them go too long, they will get slightly alcoholic. You must test different hours of fermentation to find what you are looking for. Xoxo, Ester