Organic Ginger Beer Starter Bug

Organic Ginger Bug Starter

The organic ginger bug starter produces a very fizzy, traditional sweetshop style ginger beer that is low in alcohol and full of flavour.

Ginger bug is a colony of Saccharomyces florentinus and Lactobacillus hilgardii. The result of a spontaneous fermentation that occurs when ginger, sugar, and water are left to their own devices. The mixture captures wild yeasts and beneficial bacteria naturally from the surrounding environment. The fermented mixture can then be used to add a bacteria boost to homemade ginger beer; using a traditional method centuries old.

Our starter culture comes from our own, very active colony of Ginger Bug. Our Ginger Bug starter culture allows you to get your own colony up and running much faster than starting from scratch. We dehydrate our Ginger bug; you simply add water, sugar and ginger to the starter culture and fermentation begins within hours.

You feed the Ginger Bug sugar and water daily for 7 days. After that time, you drain the liquid off to make Ginger Beer with and repeat the process again. The Ginger Beer produced has a low alcohol content (typically less than 2% A.B.V.) which can be made more alcoholic by increasing the amount of sugar fed during the fermentation stage.

How is GBP different from Ginger Bug?

GBP is like Water Kefir in that it is a gelatinous symbiotic colony of microorganisms, in this case a SCOBY of Lactobacillus and Saccharomyces. However, they are different sub species to the ones found in Ginger Bug and are similar to those found in actual beer production. The main difference is in taste between the two ginger beers produced. GBP has a more tart flavour to it when compared to Ginger Bug, which produces a much sweeter tasting traditional ginger beer. We generally find GBP also seems to be a little more alcoholic in comparison to Ginger Bug.