How to Make a Soda Starter “Ginger Bug” (+ Video)

How to make a starter culture “ginger bug” for homemade soda with just three ingredients and a little love from Mother Nature!

Investigation of the culinary practices of Ancestral Societies from around the world reveals that nearly all of them utilized various types of fermented foods. This practice assisted digestion, maintaining a healthy balance of gut bacteria to keep immunity strong.

Of course, these cultures did not understand the science behind the benefits of fermented foods. They only observed anecdotally that by eating these foods regularly, vibrant health was more easily maintained and chronic disease avoided.

We now know that traditionally prepared fermented foods contain an abundance of beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and nutritional co-factors not present in the unfermented version of the same foods. Regular consumption of traditionally fermented foods makes it far more likely that you and your family will sail through flu season with nothing more than a mild sniffle or a brief fever if even that!

Tasty, traditional ethnic beverages are a fun way to begin the process of incorporating fermented foods into your home. Kombucha was the first traditionally fermented beverage I started with nearly 2 decades ago. It is still a regular feature in our refrigerator. In fact, I am using a descendant of the same culture I purchased in 2002. This demonstrates that once you have a quality starter culture for a particular fermented food, it can literally last a lifetime. You can even pass it on to your children!

What is a Ginger Bug?

Homemade sodas such as root beer, ginger beer, or ginger ale require a different type of starter culture. There is no need to buy one. You can easily create it yourself without a dime spent out of pocket.

You accomplish this by cultivating naturally occurring and highly beneficial lactobacilli and wild yeasts. Lactobacilli is present on the surface of all living organic matter and particularly abundant on the roots and leaves of plants.

These beneficial microbes easily grow in an appropriate fermenting medium at home. Then, you feed them over a period of a few days to achieve critical mass for a starter culture. You know that this “bug” is ready when bubbles appear. The inoculant is perfect for whatever soda recipe you wish to make.

Homemade Soda Starter Do’s and Don’ts

All you need is organic ginger powder (or fresh ginger), white organic sugar, and filtered water.

Do not use nonorganic ginger powder as this will likely have been irradiated. This destroys all beneficial microbes and will prevent the starter culture from “taking”.

Also, always use filtered tap water, because chemicals like chlorine and trihalomethanes in tap water will inhibit the growth of the beneficial microorganisms.

One more caution:  be sure to use organic white sugar! Manufacturers usually blend nonorganic refined white sugar at least partially with sugar from GMO beets. This is true in North America unless the package specifically states that it is 100% cane sugar.

Don’t worry that you are using white sugar, as this is feeding/growing the beneficial microbes, it’s not feeding you.

Learning to harness the environment around us for the betterment of our health is a skill practiced by healthy Traditional cultures. Our modern germaphobic society remains mostly in the dark about this valuable knowledge. Fortunately, more people are realizing and returning to the wisdom of these ancestral methods to regain their health.

The truth is not all “germs” are bad. Learning to harness the good ones, or probiotics, to fend off pathogenic strains that can easily take over in our gut is a wise practice through regular consumption of fermented foods and beverages.

The recipe below uses the traditional method from Nourishing Traditions Cookbook.

Need healthy homemade soda NOW? Try this easy soda recipe until your soda starter is ready!

Recipes to try with DIY Soda Culture

The video in the recipe below shows you exactly how to cultivate a “ginger bug” so that you have one ready to go when you decide to embark upon the adventure of homemade soda making. 

Refer to my recipes on homemade root beer and ginger ale once your DIY starter is ready to use!