Cultivating a Ginger Bug in Winter

Your newest pet doesn’t need a litter box, but does need love

We’re heading into winter now, and that means hundreds of fermenters groaning and shaking their heads with dismay.

Where once there were rows of ferments sitting on their counters bubbling away, now sit empty jars…and empty dreams.

Fermenters love the summer time. During summer, the bacteria that lives and breeds inside of our delicious concoctions go wild with glee. They breed quickly, fermenting all manner of foods in a snap.

But oh the winter.

During winter, it can feel impossible to make anything go our way. Your life feels like it’s eternally on the edge of bacterial arrested development.

Bacterial arrested development

This is my term for the amount of time it takes bacteria to come to life before it’s too late and the whole thing needs to be thrown away.

The general consensus is that it takes a week.

If you’ve cut up your produce, added the fermenting ingredients, then thrown it all into your designated ferment waiting area; it’s got about a week to come alive. If it doesn’t come to life in that time, it’s not happening. Even if it does eventually come to life perhaps 10 days later, it wouldn’t come to life in a good way.

In summer it’s no problem. Ferments come alive by the next morning! But in winter it’s a race against the clock. You’re feeding that damn thing, stirring it, praying to ferment-Jesus. Anything to bring that damn thing to life.

I gave up trying to ferment a lot of things during winter. But I haven’t given up on my ginger bug.

Making my Ginger Bug

So what’s a ginger bug anyway?

A ginger bug is a jar of fermenting ginger that you regularly feed and take care of. The recipe I usually follow in the summer time calls for 2 tablespoons of fresh grated ginger and white sugar every day.

The ginger provides additional bacteria in its flesh and skin, the white sugar provides the food. The bacteria eats the sugar and passes carbon dioxide, eventually growing stronger and even alcoholic.

Once you have a strong bug, you can add a splash of it to anything and make a carbonated drink.

For example, sick of drinking boring ol’ apple juice? Add a splash of ginger bug and leave it to sit in a bottle for 3 days on a kitchen bench. When you next open it it’ll be fizzy, delicious, and full of natural probiotics. Yum!

Winter Bug

The summer bug isn’t cutting it. Daily portions of grated ginger and sugar are achieving nothing. I’ve made two attempts so far and both have failed, and it’s not even technically winter yet!

It’s time to get serious.

I’ve heard tell that grating ginger finely allows the bacteria to escape more easily, so that’s why I was doing it. But recently I’ve heard that the ginger doesn’t need it. That bacteria likes to pass inside and out of the ginger. I heard that grating it might not be so crash hot after all.

Varied sizes

My new plan was varying the sizes of the ginger inside the bug, so the cheese-grater has been put away.

I cut some of the ginger into very small pieces, some into medium sized, and some large. The large pieces I deeply score all the way down with a knife. This allows bacteria to get in and out easily.

Remember, you’ll want very juicy ginger. You should be able to squeeze it and have it well-up with juices. Also, when you score it, it should bleed a bit of juice.

Also, make sure the ginger hasn’t been treated with pesticides and the like. Those chemicals kill the bacteria in the bug, so nothing will happen.

In my most recent bug, I added 800 grams of ginger cut up this way.

Sugar

I’m done with daily feedings of sugar. I now throw in enough for an entire week.

I’m sick of oxygenating the bug whenever I feed it, then finding it covered in yeast the next day.

The bacteria in the oxygen reacts with the bug and forms a web of white cobwebs over the top, which then needs to be scooped out.

Instead, I throw 500 grams of sugar into the bug weekly. No more spiderwebs.

Shake and Burp

Once the ginger, sugar and a decent amount of water have been added, I seal the jar and shake it like crazy. The sugar needs to be fully dissolved.

Then it’s time to wait.

Twice a day I shake it up again, just to reactivate anything that’s sleeping inside. I will also burp it morning and night.

Burping means to slightly open the jar to let out the carbon dioxide, just to make sure it doesn’t build up so much that the jar shatters from the pressure.

Results

So far, the results are very good. The bug is alive and bubbling like crazy. I’m waiting on some bottles I ordered online, then once they come I’ll make something fizzy and delicious out of it.

My plan for this bug is to try to keep it alive indefinitely, so I’ll keep you posted on it’s lifecycle as it develops. Who knows?! We could be celebrating it’s birthday a year from now!

If that’s the case, I’ll need a name for my bug…

…

… suggestions are welcome..