Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby Christopher Weeks on Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:36 am

First, I'm not sure about the color of the bubbles. It's been a year since I managed a ginger bug and I just don't recall. But it's sort of a murky mixture anyway, with the turbinado sugar I use and shredded ginger.

Second, regarding the use of commercial wine yeast, I may have not provided enough information. What I have done (though I am quite far from an authoritative expert), is to add most of a good-sized jar of ginger-bug to a carboy of pre-soda mix (flavored sugar water, usually a ginger (or other root) beer, but also fruit juice) and wait, stirring and shaking a couple times each day to help aerate. Sometimes that works and I get a totally-wild fermented soda. But sometimes my ginger-bug just wasn't healthy enough or maybe I did something wrong (adding it to the mix at the wrong temperature?) and it never takes off. And at that point, my options are to dump and have failed, or to pitch in a packet of wine yeast. Since we make wine every 6-24 months, we just keep a few different types of Lalvin in our extra fridge and I pick one of those, dump it in and shake it up. That stuff takes off like a rocket. I haven't ever tried to add yeast to the bug. I would expect it to take over the colony, so at that point, what's the point?

Also, there's a great hint that I learned here. When I'm bottling soda (or kombucha) to gather carbonation, I bottle in one pint bail-top bottles but I always also fill up a plastic soda or water bottle and screw the lid on tight. Then I use the plastic bottle, squeezing it every day, as a gauge for how much pressure is building up. When the plastic bottle gets hard, I put everything in the fridge and once it's cold, I'll taste what's in the plastic bottle to be sure. But it avoids most the dangers of exploding glass.

Great to hear that your current bug is thriving. One risk in my kitchen is that it'll be acting like that and I'll be watching it grow and grow and then I'll wake up one morning and the foam will be all gone and nothing I do will wake it back up. I don't know if it's just me, but I've taken to just using it right then, when it's at good foam.
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby yeaitsme07 on Thu Jul 16, 2015 1:04 pm

Alright. Im making my new batch today so im going to use the plastic bottle method so i don't burp so often and lose my carbonation. I was burping them every 4 to 6 hours. Is that too often?

Next I wanted to ask about when adding the bug, do I need to worry about just the liquid or should i get some of the ginger as well? My first batch i tried to get equal amounts of ginger that was floating around, the liquid itself, and some of the yeasty goodness on the bottom. Is all of that worrying about getting it all equal worth it or can i just measure out my half cup of liquid and be done with it? I just figured the floating foamy ginger would be best part of the bug to make sure to incorporate in the next ferment.
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby Christopher Weeks on Fri Jul 17, 2015 8:40 am

I've just decanted off the top of the bug when culturing a batch of soda. I don't know if there's a better way.

I don't burp my soda at all. I let it build pressure until it's appropriately fizzy and put it in the fridge and drink/gift it.
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby Ash_Asana on Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:50 am

I managed a very healthy active frothy ginger bug (temperamental little buggers) and decided to make ginger beer with it. I used organic ginger for the bug and nonorganic ginger to boil for the beer. Bottled it in flip top glass and waited 5 days, refridgerated and opened to a pleasant fizzy pop. However the sulphur smell and feety taste were very off-putting ! I have ready how awesome these bugs are for sodas but after that I just don't know what went wrong and I am scared to try to make anything with it again ! Any thoughts or comments ?
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby Christopher Weeks on Fri Sep 25, 2015 9:07 am

When you have a situation like this, I suggest making a batch and before adding culture, split it in half. Culture one half with your ginger bug and the other with some commercial wine yeast. Compare the flavors that develop. That'll help you to understand where the flavors are coming from. Is it something in your herbal decoction? Or something in the bug?
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby Ash_Asana on Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:34 pm

I never thought it could be the bug. What would cause such a thing? Also, what is an herbal decoction?
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby Christopher Weeks on Fri Sep 25, 2015 3:32 pm

I'm not 100% sure that herbal decoction is the right term, but what I really meant was the stuff to which you add your culture. Sugar-water and herbal flavorings, typically; or juice or whatever.

And what causes it? Each ginger bug is a slightly different ecology of wild microorganisms sometimes you get some yeast that smell feety, sometimes you get bacteria that make a sulfur smell.

One thing worth nothing, in high-onion kimchis (etc.) people often report a funky sulfurous stink and get discouraged, but it goes away. I don't know if that'd happen with your soda, but it might -- either by letting it ferment longer or by letting it air for half an hour opened before you drink it. It's worth a try, anyway.
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby marinazurkow on Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:34 am

I'm new at fermenting, and not sure about time frames and patience needed!

I made a ginger bug in a mason jar w/cheesecloth, feeding it every day. It’s been 8 days, and mine looks like this photo on Jennifer McGruther's blog — minus the foam and yeasty smell:
http://nourishedkitchen.com/wp-content/ ... 1-of-2.jpg

I used non-organic ginger, some peeled, some not
raw cane sugar
britta filtered water
I’m in Brooklyn NY, it’s about 70º
every day I feed it 2 tsp each of grated ginger, raw sugar and water

Can the bug go bad, or do I just keep feeding it? why wouldn’t it develop good biota?
My house is certainly open to the elements…

THANKS for any advice, everybody!
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby Christopher Weeks on Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:28 pm

I wish we had more experts around here. I'd love more authoritative answers to your questions. Hopefully someone will swing by who knows.

In my experience (maybe starting 20-25 bugs over 5-6 years), about a third of time, my ginger bug just doesn't work. I have no idea why. I don't treat the good ones in any obvious way different than the bad ones. Which probably just means I haven't observed variables carefully enough. Sometimes, I'll have two on the counter at the exact same time and one works and the other doesn't. I prefer to use organic ginger, but I use conventionally grown stuff that's what's available and I'm *certain* that that doesn't correlate strongly to success.

Further, I have had bugs that succeeded, developed a nice foam, stayed alive for a while, but didn't line up with when I had free time to make a batch of soda and then died back by the following weekend. So my policy now is to pounce when it has a good head of foam, even if that means bottling after a long day at work when I'd rather loaf.

And I've never once succeeded at getting one to come back to life once it went off. I've done that with sourdough starters but ginger bugs are much less robust, in my experience.

The good news is that I've had a bug take longer than eight days to wake up. If you're adding a little ginger and sugar every day and giving it a good stirring, I'd keep it going until it starts to smell foul.

Good luck!
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Re: Ginger bug / ginger ale troubleshooting

Postby marinazurkow on Tue Oct 13, 2015 8:00 pm

Christopher -- Ginger bugs sound temperamental!
It tastes really good anyway... as long as it smells "far from foul," do you think I can add it to tea or water and just drink it?
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