Have you ever wanted to make your own fermented soda? It’s easier than you think! This homemade strawberry rhubarb soda is naturally fermented using a ginger bug. It’s a delicious and refreshing springtime beverage!
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Using a Ginger Bug in Homemade Soda
So, you’ve made a ginger bug. Now what the heck do you do with it?
The main end goal of making a ginger bug is to make homemade sodas, ginger ale or otherwise. You can really use any flavoring that you want.
I recently came into a big bunch of rhubarb, and because strawberries are in season at the farmer’s market right now and I’ve already made a strawberry cobbler this week, a refreshing, strawberry rhubarb soda with my ginger bug made sense! It really is so easy.
Fermented Strawberry Rhubarb Soda Recipe
The first step to making this fermented strawberry rhubarb soda is to make a ginger bug, which is actually quite simple to do.
Of course, you can make it a straight ginger brew if you want, but I find it nice to add some flavors to natural sodas as well.
Strawberry and rhubarb go great together and pair well with ginger.
Related: 13 Ways to Use Rhubarb
Make the Strawberry Rhubarb Soda Base
After you have the ginger bug ready to go, the next step is to boil the strawberries and rhubarb in about a half gallon of water for 15-20 minutes.
Then, let the mixture cool slightly and pour it into a wide mouth gallon jar.
Add 1-2 cups of sugar, depending on how sweet you want your soda to be, and stir to dissolve.
Then fill up the jar most of the way with cold, unchlorinated water.
Once it cools down to room temperature, add the ginger bug.
Make sure to add all of it, ginger chunks and all. If you want to keep your ginger bug going, you can leave a little bit out and continue to feed it.
Ferment the Soda
Cover the jar with a clean cloth or cheesecloth and a rubber band and put in an out of the way spot away from direct sunlight.
Stir it up good at least twice a day, or whenever you think of it. It should bubble up nicely!
Taste it as the days go by, as it will continue to ferment and become less sweet.
Bottle the Soda
Once the sweetness level is to your liking, which should take anywhere from 2-7 days depending on temperature (among other things), it’s time to bottle your soda.
First you want to strain out the fruit.
Then use a funnel to put it into bottles. Flip top bottles work best and are easy to use.
Let the bottles sit at room temperature for a day or two, then refrigerate.
If it’s really warm out, you may want to “burp” your bottles once or twice by opening then resealing them to release the pressure.
This wild fermented soda can really produce a lot of bubbles, so you want to make sure that your bottles don’t explode!
It’s a bubbly and tasty treat once it’s done. A little bit sweet, a little bit tart and wonderfully refreshing on a warm spring day!
It’s so nice to know that you can easily make a real, homemade soda without a lot of work!
It’s also a huge bonus that this soda is free of all the horrible ingredients in conventional soda.
Be aware that it does contain a very tiny amount of alcohol, although it is quite minimal.
I love this recipe and think that it would be infinitely adaptable to all kinds of different flavors. I also want to try it with different types of sugars, like honey and maple syrup.
Making things like this homemade strawberry rhubarb soda from scratch makes you realize how easy it can be, but also that it should be a treat to be savored rather than guzzled by the gallon.
Plus, you will also get a whole bunch of good probiotics rather than stripping your body of its health and nutrients.
Time to start drinking fermented soda for your health!
More Naturally Fermented Soda Recipes
Here are some more naturally fermented soda recipes for you to try.
- Fermented Root Beer
- Fermented Elderberry Soda
- Elderberry Soda
- Turmeric Soda
- Sweet Potato Kvass
- Water Kefir Soda
- Winter Herb Kvass
- Apple Ginger Beer
- Pine Needle Soda
- Strawberry Water Kefir Soda
- Fermented Soda with Yarrow
I hope you enjoy it!
Looking for another rhubarb recipe? Give my rhubarb upside down cake, candied rhubarb ribbons or rhubarb syrup a try!
Strawberry Rhubarb Fermented Soda
Equipment
Ingredients
- ginger bug
- 1 pound strawberries sliced
- 3-4 rhubarb stalks sliced
- 1 gallon water divided
- 1-2 cups sugar to taste
Instructions
- Boil the strawberries and rhubarb in about a half gallon of water for 15-20 minutes.
- Let the mixture cool slightly and pour it into a wide mouth gallon jar.
- Add 1-2 cups of sugar, depending on how sweet you want your soda to be, and stir to dissolve.
- Fill up the jar most of the way with cold, unchlorinated water. Once it cools down to room temperature, add the ginger bug (chunks are ok).
- Cover the jar with a clean cloth or cheesecloth and a rubber band and put in an out of the way spot away from direct sunlight.
- Stir it up at least twice a day.
- Fermentation should take anywhere from 2-7 days depending on temperature, then it’s time to bottle.
- Strain out the fruit then use a funnel to put it into bottles.
- Let the bottles sit at room temperature for a day or two, then refrigerate.
Notes
- If it’s really warm out, you may want to “burp” your bottles once or twice by opening then resealing them to release the pressure. This wild fermented soda can really produce a lot of bubbles, so you want to make sure that your bottles don’t explode!
Just wondering how much ginger bug to put in the recipe?
The entire ginger bug.
Can I freeze the ginger bug?
I haven’t tried, but I guess you could? I just keep mine refrigerated when I’m not using it.
Hello! This recipe looks delicious… I have followed the instructions exactly and I am now a week in and there is no fermentation happening. I’m trying to figure out where I went wrong. The main thing I wanted to ask about is I put the fermentation jar in my basement. My basement stays around 55° and 50% humidity. Is that too cool? Also, a week I and no fermentation, if I move them to a warmer spot in my house, I’d it salvageable? Thanks!
Hi Robert. That may be too cold. I would move it to a warmer location and see if fermentation starts.
Question…why do you need to boil the rhubarb and strawberries first? Couldn’t they just be added with water to the ginger bug?
They’re boiled to extract as much of the juice as possible. The water also needs to be warm to dissolve the sugar in the next step.
Could you use frozen berries and rhubarb? We are 5 months away before we have any fresh produce and then 3 months after that is winter for us. So we freeze as much as we can to have through out the year.
Yes, frozen should still work.
Mine isn’t bubbling after being in gallon jar for 4 days. Is it possible it’s dead? Is it ready only once it’s carbonated? My ginger bug was superb and the mixture was room temp when I combined them.
Hi Robin. Sometimes it can take longer for a ferment to start bubbling depending on the temperature of your house. I would let it go for a week before deciding it’s dead.
Hi, thank you for the recipe! I have made ginger bug and it worked so well I made the same with rhubarb chunks, plain sugar and water. Treated it the same as creating my ginger bug. Have you done this, are there any thoughts you have about using rhubarb instead of ginger to create the carbonation? It has carbonated quite well (as long as I feed it sugar every day or two). I am just not finding any other similar recipes and hope I am not creating rhubarb wine and giving to my kids!
Hi Stacy. I’ve never tried making a ginger bug with rhubarb before, but it seems like you’re onto something! I would try using your fermented rhubarb in a homemade soda and see how it turns out. Let me know!
Hey there! I was just wondering if it’s normal to have sediment in the soda after bottling? Looks like a fine white powder almost. Just wanted to be sure!
Did some digging and looks like it’s perfectly normal! So never mind my question :)
;)
Hello I tried making the soda. It was bubbly when I bottled it. But since bottling it (fully sealed) it has lost its carbonation. Any tips?
Hi Ariel. It’s really hard for me to say because any number of things could have happened. This post has some ideas that you may want to look into.
Thank you so much! I can’t wait to try again
I feel it might be best to bottle right affer adding the ginger big after boiling. I let mine sit only 3 days and all the sugar was eaten so after bottling it wasn’t producing any fizz at all. I added 1.5 cups of sugar to the mixture before letting it sit. Kind of bummed out. I make ginger beer and kombucha frequently and always bottle the ginger beer directly affer making the ginger tea and adding the bug. Good recipe but could be better instructed or detailed. We want the fizz!
Hi! It’s day 2 of the fermentation and I don’t see any bubbles in the strawberry rhubarb ginger bug mixture. Should I be seeing anything???
Hi Rochelle, there are several things to consider. It could take several days before fermentation begins. Are you storing your ginger bug out of direct sunlight in a warm area of your home? If after 5 days, you see no bubbles, there’s a chance your ginger bug had been contaminated. Did you use a sterilized jar? Did you use organic ginger?
Yes I did all the things correctly. I just needed to be a little more patient!! Thank you so very much for the response!
You’re welcome! Enjoy!
How long does the bottled product stay good?
No more than a week and a half.
Can I bottle this in pint sized canning jars?
Mason jars aren’t made to handle the pressure that occurs during carbonation. You will need to use a swing-top bottle or wine bottle.
Can I make this with the turmeric bug?
Hi Angela. I haven’t tried it, but you totally could. I’m not really sure if turmeric and rhubarb would taste well together, though.
Hi Colleen,
How much ginger bug should I add?
Thanks,
Arum
Hi Arum. You would add the entire ginger made with my ginger bug recipe.
Adding all of ginger bug would be two cups, is this correct? Your other recipes call for 1/4 cup per gallon.
Hi there. Soda recipes will require about ½-1 cup of ginger bug depending on how large a batch your are making. If you’re making a gallon, I would use one cup of ginger bug.
I am looking forward to experimenting with ginger bug, fruits & herbs but we don’t have sugar at home. Can I use coconut sugar or zylitol instead? I love your recipes. Thank you
Coconut sugar would work great!
Trying this with a home made cola Syrup. Can’t wait to see how it goes. I didn’t add more sugar when seeding as the syrup had alot in it already. Is this ok?
re amounts of fruit for strawberry rhubarb ginger soda. Check the other recipes and they will give you an idea of amount of fruit to water. :)
Does anyone have a good estimate of the amount of fruit to be used? I will always adjust recipes to taste. But, what is a good starting point, please?
This seems similar to mead, which doesn’t require a ginger bug (or any bug) that I know of. Is there any benefit to using the ginger bug as in this recipe for soda vs no bug at all as in mead, other than the benefits of ginger (since the fruit in mead is where you get the bacteria like in the bug in the soda recipes, but it seems as if you could skip some steps by making mead)? …I hope that made sense :)
Thanks!
I haven’t done this yet, but I believe the Mead gets a package of yeast to produce more alcohol. The yeast grown from the ginger bug only produces minimal alcohol since it hasn’t been “cultured” for alcohol production.
Your not making alcohol. Just a fermented drink. The Bug is the starting point. It has already fermented. Then your new drink can ferment faster. No yeast.
What herbs would you recommend for making ginger ale or root beer?
Can’t wait to try this in the spring when I can get fresh rhubarb! Until then, have you tried cranberry or any other tart fruit? What have you had good luck with? And when swapping fruits, I’m assuming you use the same quantities. Thanks!
Could you specify how much rhubarb and strawberry you cooked up for this gallon recipe?
I can’t, because I didn’t measure it :) It really doesn’t matter how much you use, more will make it stronger, less will make it lighter in flavor.
That’s understandable, but can you give us some idea? There’s a big difference between a pint of strawberries or a flat?
Hello. My ginger bug is almost ready, I hope. I’m not sure what it should look like but we’re going on day 5 and it bubbles when I stir it. So I’m sure within the next couple days it’ll be good to go! I had never heard of a ginger bug before I found this page, so I’m completely new. And since I’m so new at it, I don’t want to do too much experimenting on my first batch! So do you have the measurements of how much fruit (strawberry and rhubarb) you need to make a gallon? Thanks!
just wondering how alcoholic would this be? i already started a dates bug and raisin bug… they seem to be as bubbly as the ginger bug! i am thinking to start experimenting with soda. just not sure about alcohol control?
There is a small amount of alcohol, but it’s hard to say exactly how much. If you keep it lighter on the sugar it will be less. Any wild fermented drinks will have far less alcohol than if you use commercial brewing yeast.
How do you make a date or raisin bug. Interested to know
I was just reading through your ginger bug and strawberry rhubarb soda posts and want to try this next spring when my rhubarb is ready! I think I missed something though. You say to add all the ginger bug to the soda, does that mean a pint per gallon? And if so then don’t you need to start a new bug from scratch? I guess I thought it would be like a sourdough starter and you always leave some to feed and keep growing.
Once the ginger bug has cultured, it can be used to create fermented sodas and drinks at the ratio of ¼ cup ginger bug starter per quart of sweetened herbal mixtures (for ginger ale or root beer) or diluted fruit juice (for fruit flavored sodas). I hope this helps.
This is amazing Colleen! It sounds so good!,