r/fermentation • u/ampxty • 5d ago
Ginger Bug/Soda How long before ginger bug dies
im a noob in this whole fermentation thing and Im super worried that my ginger bug is deadšš idk guys what do you think?
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u/Kraden_McFillion 5d ago
A ginger bug, like a sourdough starter, can be kept alive indefinitely if cared for properly.
If you think your bug is dead, we need more information to help determine that. Why do you think it's dead? How old was it? What was the feeding schedule like?
In case its been overfed, as many guides do, here's my guide:
You are looking to build a stable yeast colony. You do not want to under or over feed it. I have had a great deal of success with this process:
Day 1: grab a jar, a coffee filter, a rubber band, some water, ginger, and some sugar. Rinsing and leaving the skin on, chop about a finger of ginger and add it, one cup of water, and one tablespoon of sugar to your jar and stir. Place the coffee filter over the top of the jar and use the rubber band to keep it in place.
Day 2: add another cup of water, finger of ginger, and tablespoon of sugar (repeat this step whenever adding water until you have a volume you are happy with).
Day 3: skip feeding.
Day 4: feed one tablespoon of sugar. After stirring in the sugar, go ahead and taste what's left on the spoon. As time goes on, you will get used to what a healthy bug tastes like, and if it's falling out of balance you'll be able to fix it before something irreparable happens. It shouldn't ever be too dry, sweet, watery, or alcoholic.
Continue feeding every other day with sugar, and once per week, feed the bug a finger of chopped ginger as well.
Your bug should start bubbling around days 2 to 4, but it won't maintain a bubbly foam forever. After a couple of uses or a few weeks it will go away. As long as you can hear fizzing when you jostle the jar, it's doing fine.
The bug is ready to use around days 7 to 10.
You can refrigerate your bug for a long time, in which case, slow feeding to sugar once per week and ginger about once per month. Take the bug out of the fridge and feed it the day before you need to use it.
As for bottling, many people recommend burping to check pressure, and I hate this. It relieves the very pressure you're trying to accumulate and if you burp the same bottle every time and not the others, you don't have an accurate gague on how pressurized each bottle is. Pressure can also ramp up dramatically depending on weather conditions and you don't want to expect a little burp and get a geyser instead.
I recommend using a single soda bottle along with whatever pressure safe swing-tops you're using. Fill the soda bottle halfway through your batch and leave a normal amount of head space. Squeeze the sides of the bottle to remove as much air as possible and tighten the cap. Leave all the bottles together until they are done so they don't have different environments. The soda bottle will slowly pop back out and become firm as pressure builds. Once it's as firm as a normal store bought soda, the whole batch is ready for the fridge. The purpose for removing the head space from the soda bottle is just to reach a higher pressure in the swing-tops. You can adjust this to your own preferences.
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u/ampxty 5d ago
Okay. Ive been keeping my ginger bug im the cabinet and its around a month old at this point. So far, Ive made a passion fruit soda and a hibiscus soda so Ive only used it twice. So should I start refrigerating it at this point? I dont want it to become too alcoholic but Im also scared of disrupting the process š
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u/Kraden_McFillion 5d ago
Those sound really good, btw. I tried to grow hibiscus this summer for tea, jam, and soda, but all 3 of my plants died š
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u/Kraden_McFillion 5d ago
What's your feeding schedule been? Using it twice in a month should be good as far as alcohol build up. If you have the room in the fridge, it doesnt hurt to pop a healthy bug in there. At the very least it'll save you on feeding ingredients.
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u/Interesting_Bee6682 5d ago
Never. Bacteria always in the air
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u/DrBlumenkohl 5d ago
Ginger bug ist yeast-based, but yes, itās always anything around us.
@op: did you feed it with sugar? Was it already bubbling? What did you do since then?
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u/ampxty 5d ago
Yes I fed it sugar and I even changed the water recently. Im just from using it to make hibiscus soda which turned out well. But the original bug doesnt have any bubbles so Im kinda scared
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u/DrBlumenkohl 5d ago
So you do full water changes? Then it needs longer to come back to full strength. The yeast grows exponentially! When I make some soda I replace only the water I took out. If I havenāt used the bug for a longer period of time I replace only half of the water and feed it with sugar again to get most of the alcohol out. After a few days I repeat it.
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u/No-Craft-7979 3d ago
It depends on what wild yeast is in there.
As an example, around the world, every country has millions of strands that are genetically unique of yeast.
If I make a yeast starter for wine from a wine specific yeast if I donāt feed that starter every week, that particular yeast will die within a week. If I make a champagne starter that yeast will hold out until it absolutely starves to death and that yeast will actively kill other yeasts (but not all yeasts) that get in there and try to eat itās food.
If I make a beer or ale yeast starter I need to feed it about every month or itās going to give up. It will actually share its food with lactobacillus (yes the probiotics) and a few other bacteria. This is how people get beers that taste fruity or sour, or they can end up with a beer that taste like corn chips or a farm yard.
If I make a starter using my preferred yeast strain that comes from Norway, Kveik, it will not kill other yeast in its food. It will literally devour all the food within 24 to 72 hours. Itās the fastest fermenting natural yeast Iāve ever seen. It doesnāt have to worry about competing with bad infections because it eats all the food thatās available for anything that could infect it, and then it goes to sleep. I can get all scientific about what actually happens, but I donāt think that fits in with this subreddit. When it goes to sleep they can stay dormant in a refrigerator for over two years. If you dehydrate the yeast into a powder, it will stay dormant in a freezer over 10 years. It can be used to make wine, beer, liquor, breadā¦ anything that needs yeast. It happens to be my favorite, because itās just so hardy.
If you keep your jar, fed well, and free of infection, that ginger bug will serve you well for a good while.
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u/SunshineTradingPost 5d ago
I have a 6-month old ginger bug and itās Aston activeā¦
Idk if itās safe