3 Ingredient Homemade Fermented Ginger Beer 

Hey guys I must have forgotten to mention in the video. In order to keep your ginger bug alive you just continue to feed it the same proportion of sugar and ginger. Once it get’s too full or it won’t dissolve anymore sugar: just pour out about half of the liquid (leaving half behind) and adding some fresh water, and then go back to replenishing with the same amount of JUST ginger and sugar. Rinse and repeat to keep it alive forever! Also, once it’s active you can place it in the fridge and feed it once a week. Hope this helps! :)

In South Africa we like to make ginger beer but we add a few raisins in the bottles which sink to the bottom and once the raisins are raising you know its ready.

just want to say i appericiate you using grams also ! makes everything much easier to follow

Hey all, user report here: I have been making this ginger beer weekly for about 6 months. I love it. I have gone through a few ginger bugs and have since created a 'super-bug'. With this bug my ginger beer is ready in less than 24hours! As Josh mentions, you need to feed your ginger bug daily whilst it is at room temp, and weekly once in the fridge. i found that the older the bug gets, the more culture it is producing (experiencing?), the faster the ginger beer is created. I started a new bug and fed daily for 3-4weeks at room temperature. Replace 70-80% of the water every 5 days (approximately). I used it for many bacthes of delicious ginger fizz during this period. First batches were taking 5 days, and now as mentioned it is making sizzling soda in less than 24 hours. I tend to keep my bottles close to a wall radiator which is on a low setting, or atop the fridge. Also for about 3.5L of liquid I add only 3-4 tablespoons of sugar and I'd say this is about the minimum necessary for a tasty batch. Other flavour options is to steep a herb into the tea once you have turned off the heat. Sometimes I like to use pine needles instead of lemon as a vitamin C boost and subtle flavour. Thanks so much to you Josh Weissman for this recipe. It is a great gift and I will forever share this video. P.S. He's not joking about explosions. Burp your bottles or else you'll be cleaning the walls and ceiling...

i have fond childhood memories of bottles of ginger beer exploding in our pantry when my mum & dad used to make it in the 70's

Discovered after failing the first time that much of the ginger grown in the United States is irradiated after harvest. Of course, this kills the yeast we're trying to cultivate. Made it the second time with organic ginger, and WHAM! :) Thanks, Joshua! Love your stuff!

Bro, I totally tried this and my wife loved it, she is from St. Thomas VI, so you gave me much brownie points. Also, I created a citrus bug by using grapefruit peals. I was attempting to make an orange and grapefruit soda. IT TOTALLY WORKED!!! you are the man bro! thanks for being you!!

I've mad a LOT of ginger beer. I highly recommend only using 2 Tbsp of ginger bug per gallon of water. Yes, that's right, 2 Tbsp. Anything more than this is unnecessary for carbonation, and will leave you with an overly-yeasty final product (IMO). As a result, you can also maintain a smaller volume of ginger bug. Additionally, it is possible to have a ginger bug that's too sugary. If I notice my ginger bug becoming sluggish, I'll often adjust with more/less sugar, based on how it smells/tastes. Give it a taste in the evening! If it's overly sweet and fermentation seems dead, just feed it with some ginger only for a day or two. When bottling, I find it helpful to bottle a single plastic water bottle, in addition to the other glass bottles. This "tester" bottle will make it easy to know when the batch is done. If it's rock hard, put them all in the fridge. No guess work! For me, this is 2-3 days with an active starter (and, yes, with only 2 Tbsp ginger bug / gallon of water). Finally, try squeezing in a lemon and/or lime, and tossing in the peels after the boil is done. I don't always do it, but it adds a depth of flavor that is often refreshing.

Simple and direct. This is the best ginger beer recipe ever. I grew up on this stuff and I love playing around with it. IN the Caribbean we also add pineapple to the second ferment and you get a very lovely refreshing drink.

This formula is very good because he kept it simple. Im a retired baker and all the very best recipes are always the basic simple ones. I highly recommend this version over the convoluted ones. Keep it simple, you can't beat success.

I started the bug 3 days ago and opened it this morning and it was fizzy!! Such a cool feeling to see it all working. Like a delicious science experiment

Dude, flawless victory on this. I just changed the normal sugar to brown and it added more depth, but the first two batches with normal sugar were also amazing. Thanks for sharing! :D

I used help make this with my mum when I was a kid 2 dozen bottles at a time, never had one explode (constantly burped them) but 24 bottles never lasted more than 2 days Lol. One of the best memories of my childhood.

Awesome recipe, and as usual super well explained and entertaining. I would suggest to freely adjust the amount of ginger to your taste. For me 10% of the water weight is good, it depends how gingery you like it. Also, if you have a juicer, I’d juice the ginger first, reserve the ginger juice to add at the end, together with the lemons, so you don’t loose any of the ginger flavors and aromas, and cook the pulp to extract the remaining flavor from it. In my opinion, using fresh ginger juice makes the final result a bit richter.

If you have elderflowers growing around where you live (when they're in season obvs; here in the UK they're abundant when their time comes) you could try elderflower cordial or elderflower champagne, in case you've never done it before. (also, on a very serious note, you need your own food entry somewhere (bbc good food, food network and the lot); you are quite masterful at everything you dol

Tip, put a couple of sultanas or raisins in the bug to seed it with some yeast to get it started.

Third time's a charm! First batch didn't carbonate. I used the minimum amount of sugar you recommend. Good flavor just flat. Second batch I used the full amount of sugar and got a Pediococcus bloom. Did some research and found out it may be drinkable in three to six months. We'll see. Third time I used 1/2 cup of sugar and an older bug. I let the bug ferment for a about a week instead of three days. I let it ferment about fives days in the bottles. It got very fizzy! Success! It's fully carbonated and has great flavor. It reminds me of Verner's Ginger Ale, which I loved as kid growing up in Michigan. It's harder to find here in SW Missouri. So glad I learned how to make this! Thanks for sharing your recipe with us.

I just made an easy bread using the ginger bug as yeast, and it turned out amazing, highly recommended!

Quick Tip: I used a Chemex coffee glass jug for this and it makes feeding so easy - just dump the sugar and ginger in and swirl to dissolve each day - simple.

My father used to make this when I was a boy in England of about 9yo or 10. ....I am now 73. He got the recipe from his grandmother. If you read Joshua's remark below about how to keep it alive you will see it is the same principle as keeping a sourdough yeast starter alive. We have made this stuff for many, many, generations. Sourdough, Ginger beer, wine, cheese they are all ancient crafts based on fermentation and passed down from generation to generation in the civilized world..... and.... as with Josh, even in America. And as he says at 1:00, "Because you know me....This is what I do. This how I be......Which I think is pretty dope....." Isn't he just the coolest guy? Be sure to freeze it at 1:03 to get the full effect.

Ginger Brewers - Most sources of bottles, the ones with the wire structure like Josh uses, usually want about $4 per, even in lots of 6 or 12. Grolsch beer comes in such bottles, same hardware, altho, it must be stainless steel, as after a year's use, not a blemish on them, and come with good ceramic caps with standard silicone gaskets. I can buy them 4 for $11 at my Beer Distributors, and, full of Grolsch beer, at that. It's a pretty tasty beer, so if Budweiser is your thing, you might want to give them to someone else to empty, but even if you pour the beer down the sink (don't you dare), at $2.25 rather than $4 or more, you're still saving money. As well, those bottles have already proven they are of a quality sufficient to do the job, they are of an attractive dark green glass, and they have slightly impressed sides, opposite each other (and with a raised glass Grolsch up and down the side), all of which make for a secure handling of something that might be cold and wet. I highly recommend you consider them, next time you are in need.

You can also use plastic soda bottles. They are rated for over 6 Bar (100 psi), and if they do burst, no broken glass. Their caps are designed to vent when you loosen them, so less chance of a mess. For home brewed beer, I used soda water or sparkling water bottles because they have no flavor from their original contents, but for this, I suppose old ginger ale bottles would be ok, too.

Did a couple of recipes already, everyone loves it. Here in Brazil there's not even any ginger ale, so it's really unique.

Ok this will be my first fermentation project, I love all things ginger

Josh, thank you for the guidelines! I halved the sugar and it came out perfectly in between ginger ale and ginger beer. I used mature ginger for the whole process as I read there's higher potential for yeast colonization. My next try I might use young ginger for the boil as the bite is quite strong. I love it but others may not as much. Again, thank you. This opened my eyes to natural carbonated beverages!

Ginger beer is the best, and after years of my wife driving my drunk ass around for 20 years, I now drink Ginger beer at social events, let others drink, and I still have a great time sober with a ginger beer in my hand, and I drive everyone home safely. Can’t wait to try this at home here in Italy during lockdown 2020.

We used to make this when I was a kid and back then- I'm old- fresh ginger was unheard of, so my mum used dried ginger 'powder'. Worked exactly the same :) and, yes, they do explode if you leave them to long !!

Hey Joshua! I am not currently following your recipes, but thanks for your detailed instructions! I'm an ESL teacher and using them for my students and that saved a lot of work for me! Thank you so much!

Ooof I'm doing this Update: it worked! Thanks man, I can't believe I made a carbonated drink SO easily. Used plastic soda bottles and they worked fine. I'll graduate to flip bottles when I find them near me and make other fruit drinks with the bug 😁

I followed instructions to the letter and this morning popped the top on some amazing Ginger Beer! Extremely delicious with a lovely light fizz. I had my doubts about adding the lemon, but it really is perfect. Thank you for a terrific experience!!!

So good man. What about a trouble shooting episode for fermenting? Yeast vs mold on top, gear, hard things to ferment vs the good ole boys. Also, cured meats maybe? Idk, I’m getting a beer..

I live in the midwest and started my sugar bug in the dead of winter - household temp approx. 68 deg. My sugar bug was SUPER fizzy on the 6th day. Incorporated it into the ginger beer and filled the bottles. Even with the little bit of sugar bug starter there is some carbonation visible on the top layer of the ginger beer. If you live in a cold place just keep going. Joshua is in Texas, so it might just go faster there due to the heat

Thank you for using the metric system, it's very much appreciated

It’s 40C here in Australia so the brewing took no time at all... ...Also one bottle exploded haha whoops.

A note for anyone attempting this. I followed the instructions as given about opening the glass bottle every 24 hours. Day one (aproximately 10 hours after putting the liquid in the glass bottles, I popped the 'cork' to relieve pressure. I did not see any pressure release as was kind of indicated in the video, where it overflowed. It was kind of disappointing. Day 2, I opened the glass bottle and received a very satisfying 'pop' that I was hoping for. 9 hours later, one of the two bottles I filled exploded. Glass and liquid went all across the room. I happened to be around at the time, so I quickly 'popped' the other botte, which caused that bottle to also shatter, only less dramatically. I'm not sure if there should be more pressure releases through out the day, but that was my experience. I'm not typing this to dissuade anyone from making the ginger beer, only to suggest that it might be better to pop the glasses more than every 24 hours.

This is still one of my all-time favourite recipes of yours. So easy and simple and so much cheaper than store-bought ginger beer. I leave mine to ferment for 2 weeks to ferment more of the sugar and get it more consistently carbonated.

I added like 10x more ginger to the tea to get it to the proper amount for a nice “burn” - amazing! And mine was ready in only 2 days because my bug is super strong

With nearly 2M subscribers, 47K likes I don't think you need my two cents but I will give it anyway. You are probably half my age and here I sit being taught by you. No not about ginger beer, that as well, but being such a great presenter. You know anyone can make anything sound complicated, the so called clever people do it all the time, but your way of presenting make me want to get up and go and do it NOW, not later, NOW! That takes a lot of talent! Well done! You taught me more than making a great beer!

Just a suggestion to avoid exploding glass bottles, I swapped to 2 liter soda bottles for home brews. You can feel the bottle when it is firmed up. Rarely dose a plastic bottle blow shrapnel when they blow, the side generally begins to bow out, and the caps seal several times. Thanks for all your great videos

easiest to understand after at least ten ginger beer recipes. thank you!!

Great info given in a concise way. I’ve been making ginger beer for 9 months or so and discovered that I no longer need to keep a ginger bug. Instead, I’ll use part of a soda from the last batch to inoculate the new one.

I love ginger beer, I tend to keep a bottle or two around in case I have a stomach bug ( since my best solution for the flu was Canada Dry) and it really soothes the stomach

So awesome! I use ginger regularly in cooking, and as a tea. It’s great to have another way to use it.

2:39 That pot will never fall apart. She’s a stately old lady, wearing her scars with pride. Lol

I just made this for the first time and it was killer good! I only used the juice of one lemon and it was perfection! Blessings!

Do yourself a favor and never place those f*****ng flip cap bottles anywhere near a window or any other sort of glas. Once one bottle of my home made ginger beer exploded and the porcelain cap flew right into a glas door (the cap reached nearly light speed, since than my cats are traumatized). It was a safety door, first an interesting spider web unfolded, afterwards lots of shedding of cubic glas shards occurred, found some even months later. Most expensive ginger beer of all times. And yes, I opened the bottle once in a while. Must have been one highly aggressive ginger bug.. Sadly I am not allowed to brew ginger beer or root beer at home anymore and yes fermentation is cool. Try Japanese style pickled vegetables, fermented in rice bran, very adventurous too.

I really like your videos Josh, this was the first video I watched from your channel.

damn i miss joshua's fermented recipes!

I started my ginger bug like 3 hours ago, and then opened youtube to see this piece recommended in my feed. What a coincidence 😆I intend to make ginger ale though 😉

Great videos. Rapidly becoming my fav foodie channel. Freshest music selections that I also begin to follow. Keep it coming Joshua ✌️

"You know me. This is what I do, this is how I be" Oh, I know. Which is what I love, which is why I'm here. Going to try this tomorrow!

Thanks for this! My absolute favorite cocktail is a huckleberry moscow mule made with fresh huckleberries of course, and now I can make it with real home made ginger beer as well! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

So easy!! I will be getting started next weekend! Thank you joshua :) you are amazing for these video’s don’t you ever stop please

A few things I've picked up over the years doing this. Do it in PLASTIC bottles, you can feel when they are fully carbonated (can't squeeze the bottle anymore), and a much lower risk of bottle bombs. Just an empty 2L soda bottle will do it (rated for the pressure already). You have a piece of glass lodge an inch into your drywall because you forgot to burp it and you'll go to plastic and never look back trust me.... Also, you don't need to keep the ginger bug going. Just use the last bit of a previous batch as the starter for the next. One less thing to keep track of and the culture is more reliable in my experience.

followed this recipe exactly like you asked and it turned out BEAUTIFULLY WELL thank you soo much. you're one of the chefs who I trust. wouldn't follow a recipe that takes a week worth of expectations if I didn't beleive for sure u wouldn't put out a fake recipe. thank you soo much

I make a lot of homemade ginger. If you want to step up the spice, I’ve used as much as 1lb of ginger in a gallon of water. Boil it hard, and that both concentrates it, and also carmelizes the ginger a bit (for more spice.) and if you want to go REAL spicy, boil some peppercorns in there too!

Josh, you never stated that it’s the skin on the ginger that holds the wild yeast. I cut it all off and wasted days and ingredients to have to throw it away 😭

I don't understand who you said, but I understood the recipe. Thanks a lot guy! ❤

I use the ginger bug with juices. Apple, apple and craberry, they are all marvelous!!!

If you want more ginger bite, put ginger juice in when the boiled mixture had cooled. Heat breaks down gingerol.

What bothers me is it would take 6-9 days to make just to be gone in a matter of minutes.

hi Joshua im a gastronomy student and i really enjoy watching your videos they are so relaxing and i learn a lot from them, sorry if i have mistakes on my english, greetings from mexico keep up the nice work dude!

I love love Josh 💗 everything I need to know he covers everything from the bedroom to the kitchen he's the man.

spoiler: the 3 ingredients are: (1) water, (2) sugar, (3) ginger and (3) lemon.

I really needed a good video after that RU-vid rewind.....thx

Wanted to note on the skins vs no skins argument: it depends a lot on how you source your ginger. Some people have good luck with peeling their ginger first, others say to leave the skins on. In my experience it's much more important to use filtered or distilled water that has no chlorine or chlorinamide in it. Tap water's often a good way to either have it not work at all, or have it working for a day or two then die for no reason.

We always add a few raisins. Gives it. A great taste try it next time u make more beer.

I've made this using your recipe, and boy does it taste delicious. I love the addition of lemon, it sure adds flavour to the beer. This beer makes your body warm through the day. My friends seems to love it too. I serve this beer to them whenever they come over. Ao thanks for sharing man.

I finished making this after 12 days of fermentation! it's lovely and delicious af One thing... I got impatient and added dry active yeast about 12hours ago, and left it by my windowsill where I usually fermented them. One of my bottles exploded and shattered across the floor, because the yeast produced so much gas than my ginger bug did in a week. It's super fizzy and the other bottle I managed to salvage and keep about 3/4 of the content, tastes great. TLDR: don't be impatient, keep releasing gas every day and one it's ready keep it in the fridge.

For the people asking whether or not you have to peel the ginger: If you're not using an organically sourced ginger it's better to peel to reduce the chance of contamination via pesticides and other no-no's. However, I used organic ginger for my ginger bug, I even peeled it, and it became noticeably fizzy after 3 days. My ginger beer is now bottled and awaiting the final fermentation results.

Finally. I've been searching for ginger beers in the store, but I can't seem to find it no matter where I go to. Now I can't wait for make my own. Thanks man!

In Russia we preparing "KVAS", a similar drink, made of bread, malt and yeast.

"This is what I do, this is how I be." Bruuuh that spoke to me

You say that you use ginger bug instead of brewers or champagne yeast so that it can ferment. Ginger bug is just a way of catching and feeding natural yeast in the air and allowing them to multiply enough that you can use them to ferment the sugars. That is what creates the alcohol and co2 for carbonating. The wild yeast will be the same species (though different strains) as the brewers' (ale) yeast or champagne yeast. The biggest difference is that the commercial yeast packets will be all the same single strain of yeast and you won't have any bacteria (or not enough to matter). Bacteria can cause the gusher bottles you mentioned as well as contributing sour flavors to the beverage (which may be desired - that is how sour beers are made)

Thanks so much ! I’m in the process of making some now with your help!!

next is ginger beer made with sourdough starter

i'm here because i can't buy alchohol during the covid19 lockdown

After ginger beer it’s finished for how long can I keep it in the fridge before it goes bad? Thank you?

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH for the weight-based recipe! Makes things so much easier.

Thumbs up for metrics

I would love to see some more uses of ginger bug! I will be attempting making my own soon ☺️

Owkey, I feel like I missed something. After using your bug, do you add the same amount of water as you took out?

Just tried this. I tried a yeast one before and it didn't work out. I used 3/4 cup sugar for the mix. I made 2 liters with brown sugar and 2 liters with white. I did 3 days bottle ferment so far. I opened the white and man.. so good. I added a little ginger juice to the batches before bottled ferment too. I am letting the rest ferment another day or 2. I think I'll have to add some more white sugar to the brown sugar. Loving this endeavor. Thanks so much.

What to do with remaining ginger bug ? Should We feed sugar and ginger every 24hours ?

Excuse me sir I am a proud Barbarian. Also I demand a JW logo hoodie with “This is how I be” on it.

It's been so hot my ginger bug was alive and kicking after day 1 ♨️

Thank You! 1. I love Moscow mules 2. I love ginger 3. All the ginger beers I buy taste more like ginger syrup. I like the ginger spice not sugar so this is so perfect!

2 of my jars shattered less than 24 hours after venting the first time. Craziness

Would it be possible to use something else other than sugar? Like honey, or beet sugar or palm sugar?

What do you do with the remaining ginger bug? Like how do you maintain it... Because ginger is much more expensive than flour is for sourdough starter.

Wanted to pop in and say, I really miss this content. Great work though chef, much respect

Do I have to feed the ginger bug consistently like a sourdough starter to keep it alive and active? Or is there a more economical way to make ginger beer every now and then?

When making beer cleaning is a big part of it, but noticed there was no mention of it with the bottles. They don't need to be scolded or disinfected right before use?

Never fermented anything in my life... HERE WE GO!

I started doing this when I was a 14 year kid.. Worked well... When I got older I started mixing it up in a 60 liter plastic drum. Plastic bottles are a good thing to prevent glass bottles exploding.. Now im an old man and can't move around as I could from injury So I buy it... Nothing like a good Ginger buz .

My bug became fizzy in one day lmao. I held it for three days total and it became slimey, dont be dumb like me, listen to papa carefully. edit: i didnt use it, made another, you should make another too if you had the same problem.

Can someone tell me why RU-vid recommended this video and another one on how to make homemade beer while my country is on Lockdown?

U forgot to mention that u need to leave the skin on! That's where the wild yeast lives

My mum used to make this in the 60’s I still remember the taste❤️

soo cool!! thank you for sharing!! (edit. I'm gonna add Pineapple in there somehow 😂😍)