A few years ago, I had lost a significant amount of weight and developed a lot of acid issues. It was torturous to eat anything at all and I began needing to take acid reducers on a daily basis, sometimes numerous times a day. Then I met Alexandra from HomesteadOnTheRise.com and she educated me on the benefits of a ginger bug and taking control of my gut health. She taught me how to make a ginger bug and how to turn that ginger bug into homemade soda. After drinking this for a single week, it completely changed my gut flora and allowed me to completely stop taking acid reducers. I do not drink this daily anymore, however, I have still not needed to take any acid reducing medication at all since that first week of drinking this! Regardless of what I eat! Now, I get to enjoy all of my favorite foods again and not have to worry about waking up nauseas, with severe heart burn or acid reflux, or vomiting, in the middle of the night.

I owe a huge thank you to Alexandra for sharing her vast amount of knowledge about how to heal your body from the inside out, in a natural way, because if it wasn’t for her, I would still be miserable and not able to enjoy garlic, tomatoes, lemons or any of the foods I absolutely adore.

Check her out on instagram @HomesteadOnTheRise , on TikTok @GrassfedGirliee and check out her absolutely life altering beef tallow products and more on HomesteadOnTheRise.com

What is a ginger bug and what are the benefits of it?
A ginger bug is a lacto-fermented starter that relies on naturally occurring yeast and bacteria found in the air and on the skin of ginger that allows the fermentation process to occur. Naturally occurring yeast can be found on an array of different vegetables, roots and fruits.
Lacto-fermentation thrives in the absence of oxygen, which is achieved by depriving the vegetable, fruit or root of air by submerging it in a brine and closing a lid on your vessel (your mason jar, fermentation crock and so on) and creating and anaerobic environment.
The lactobacillus bacteria converts the sugars into lactic acid and carbon dioxide, which yields a beneficial probiotic liquid that is naturally carbonated due to the build of good bacteria and gasses.

Fermentation and ginger bugs increase the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals and create beneficial enzymes and probiotics.
Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that improve gut health, aid digestion and boost your immune system.
Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties that reduce inflammation throughout the body and is a well known remedy for nausea relief.

INGREDIENTS :

For the Ginger Bug:

• Mason Jar, with lid.
• Ginger root.
• Brown sugar.

For the homemade soda:

• Pop top cap bottle or bottle with lid.
• 100% Fruit Juice (Apple, Grape, ect)
• Active Ginger Bug.

STEPS :

1. Start by making your ginger bug. Take your clean mason jar and add roughly 1.5 cups of water. Cut up a knob of ginger roughly 1-1.5″ in size, skin left on, and add it to your water. Add in roughly 1 TB (Tablespoon) of brown sugar and give it a good stir. Close your mason jar with a lid and leave on your counter until the next day.
2. For the next few days, you will be feeding your ginger bug with 1-1.5″ knob of cut up ginger, skin on and roughly 1 TB of brown sugar. Stirring and closing and leaving on the counter again until the next day. Once your ginger bug begins forming small bubbles inside the jar, you will know you’re getting close to your ginger bug being active enough to use to make soda. This can take anywhere from 3-7 or even more days. There are many factors that come into play here, weather/surrounding temp being one of the main ones.
3. DO NOT FORGET TO BURP YOUR GINGER BUG AT LEAST ONCE A DAY. Burping your ferments just means that you open the lid and allow the naturally occurring gasses to escape. Since this is kept in a closed environment, if you forget about it, it could pop your lid off. As much as we love ginger bugs, we don’t want to be cleaning off of our walls. Once your ginger bug is foamy and fizzy, you’re ready to make soda!

TO MAKE NATURALLY CARBONATED SODA :

1. Find a bottle that you want to make your soda in, make sure it has either a flip top cap or a screw on cap, and is air tight. Strain your active ginger bug liquid into the bottle with the ratio of 1/4 ginger bug to 3/4 fruit juice OR 1/3 ginger bug to 2/3 fruit juice. Make sure to leave enough space in your bottle for your soda to have space to foam/expand into, as you’re burping it, once it carbonates. I prefer to leave a few inches of neck space available.
2. After adding in your ginger bug liquid and topping it with fruit juice, close your lid and leave on your counter for 2-3 days without opening the lid, or until you see small foam/bubbles forming in your bottle. Once you see small bubbles/foam forming in your bottle, its time to start burping your bottle. Once again, that just means you are opening the lid to allow the gasses to escape. Keep doing this, at least once per day, until it reaches your desired level of carbonation. I like my sodas to be very carbonated, so I let them ferment for about 3-5 days, once again, depending on surrounding temperatures.
3. Once you are happy with the level of carbonation, you can set your bottle with your naturally carbonated soda into the fridge and you do not have to continue burping it at this stage. The temperature in the fridge will drastically slow down the fermentation rate.
4. Enjoy!