Ginger Bug/Turmeric Bug

[twobitbob]

I've been reading about making OHN.
The first steps remind me of the Ginger bug
I am curious of one could make a ginger bug then add the alcohol
The main difference I see is when a bug is made its something like
10 grams ginger, 1 Tbl sugar and a cup or so of water
Stir everyday, add tsp or so of sugar every day to feed the bug
it usually starts fermenting pretty good in a few days
Then add alcohol. I'm really curious about the sugar/ginger 1:1 ratio vs. Ginger bug has water in it
If anyone has any good reading material that explains the reason for the 1:1 ratio I'm all ears and would like to understand better. So far I can only see the reason is for Osmotic pressure.
Thanks everyone
I study Herbalism so a lot of this overlaps, OHN reminds me of a herbal cough syrup

 

[H.A.F.]

No clue what a bug is but I'm not joining the KNF cult to learn all the secret nomenclature though - Can you enlighten us in layman's terms?

Don't get me wrong I use some parts of KNF and JADAM, and other stuff I have gotten from elsewhere, but no specific program has a handle on everything we still don't know about organics.

My main issue with any religion is when you preach and preach stuff but then don't accept when a main part of your program debunks the idea that it is part of everything else in a cohesive system.

KNF - local this and local that - but oh, pick up some brown sugar at walmart and a big sack of that rice that ain't local if you ain't in Korea... And no one can tell me that a bean from Colombia and a bean from Afghanistan crossed by some dude in Oregon and grown by another dude in a tent in Bum-fuck Oklahoma give a damn about what microbes Oklahoma dude has in his soil out in the back yard. Or the guy in NYC that has old growth forest in a park somewhere about a $15 cab ride away... There is also the odd fact that if you ask a fungus expert to examine the mold you've collected on your rice in the woods - they'll tell you it is food mold. You can get that leaving the rice on the counter for a few weeks, or from that pear you forgot in the back of the crisper drawer in the fridge.

Sorry, not sorry for the rant, but if you have a piece of the process that works well as a stand-alone product you can make at home I'm all for it.

 

[twobitbob]

Haha
No worries I have a tendency to connect dots from different methods
I like making ginger ale
It’s real easy
Organic ginger (non organic is usually treated with UV killing the surface microbes)
The lacto and wild yeast live on the ginger
So just take a good chunk around 10 or so grams and mince it up
In a pint a jar I put 1 cup of water and a Tbl of white sugar(they always recommend white sugar for a reason I havnt figured out yet)
I have used honey to start it too
Stir it to dissolve sugar
Add a tsp sugar the next day while stirring
For a couple days do this and it will start bubbling
This is the ginger Bug
Basically it’s a starter for the next step
I like to make it in 1 gal wine jugs
1/2 gal water
Make a ginger decoction to your taste add whatever else you like lemon juice is used a lot
I treat it like a beer and add herbs at the end of the simmer of the ginger and let it steep
Strain and add around a cup of sugar per gal
Dissolve add the other 1/2 gal cool water to bring the temp to room temperature “pitch” brewers term add the bug
For 2nd fermentation I usually let it go for a few days the top foam subsides a bit
And then bottle it in grolsch bottles
Let it carbonate for 10-14 days They can carbonate differently depending on temperature refrigerate when you reach desired carbonation
I have done this with dandelion roots and Oregon grape roots
I’ve also used bubble hash water for the water portion successfully
Thereby culturing indigenous microorganisms
Lacto and wild yeast for human consumption

You can use this same concept to make whatever flavors you like
Herbal cough syrup is a good one
I use elderberries Aronia Oregon grapes juniper licorice root osha root(the one that I thought might be related to Angelica)
2 parts honey 1 part decoction for a shelf stable syrup
Add water and bug and it ferments

 

[H.A.F.]

So by itself, this bug would be a soil ammendment? A foliar? IPM?

Not interested in making soda but I am ordering some ginger starts to put out next spring. Having something to do with it for the plants makes it that much better.

 

[Zaphod420]

If anyone has any good reading material that explains the reason for the 1:1 ratio I'm all ears and would like to understand better. So far I can only see the reason is for Osmotic pressure.
Thanks everyone
I study Herbalism so a lot of this overlaps, OHN reminds me of a herbal cough syrup

Salute twobitbob, I used to be pretty big into home brewing and while I don't have any reading material to link to that might help answer your 1:1 sugar/ginger ration question a possible reason come to mind. Limiting the amount of sugar would ensure that whatever bug is living on the ginger that ends up eating it would only be able to produce a small/manageable amount of alcohol once it's burned through all the sugar. This would leave their new MASSIVE colony they just made mostly intact and it would just go dormant until more sugar was added. If you added more sugar than you did ginger you would run the risk of the bug doing its job so well it would make so much alcohol from eating the sugar that it would end up killing their colony.

To your question on whether you can add alcohol to an already previously made ginger bug I think that would all come down to how alcohol resistant the yeast/lacto is in your bug. Mead yeast can remain active all the way to 14% alcohol so I would think as long as your final gravity stays under that you would have a decent sized colony still ready to go on whatever you use it for. You could always just try making a ginger bug and then add the amount of alcohol you were considering using then mix it up nice and let it sit for a day or 2. Then maybe pitch it on some fresh 1:1 sugar water with an air lock and see how long it takes for you to get a pulse. If you never get a pulse then you know the amount of alcohol you added was too much and effective killed your bug.

 

[Fiddler's Green]

This is so cool, thanks for sharing amigos.

I rarely drink but making hard cider is a goal of mine. Orchard first, then the cider.

 

[Zaphod420]

This is so cool, thanks for sharing amigos.

I rarely drink but making hard cider is a goal of mine. Orchard first, then the cider

Making Hard Cider is probably the easiest adult beverage to make out of all of them Fiddler's Green

 

[twobitbob]

@Zaphod420
Thanks for the reply.
That is something I have been curious about, I used to brew a lot too so it gets me thinking. I do know the yeast drops out after the alcohol gets too high depending on the strain.
My thought was to just add a little alcohol like they do in the OHN to arrest fermentation.
Maybe it isn't even needed and a quick ginger bug would give good lacto colony and extract a good amount of the active compounds in the ginger.
I have let the soda go too long before too and it turned into vinegar, which I used in a EM-5 recipe
Taking gravity and PH is the only testing I can really do, I like your idea of add more sugar to see if it's alive. Kind of like sour dough

Another method the OHN reminded me of is Honey fermented Garlic
Its basically the same thing fill a jar half full with garlic cloves and cover with honey
The garlic floats at first so you have to move it around to keep it under the honey for a week or so and then it soaks it up and sinks
I've made this stuff for immune boosting food.
I just keep thinking maybe this stuff would be good for plants too in a small amount.
Herbal IPM?

JADAM uses sea salt in their recipes and not sugar, so its a lot like making fermented pickles, or kimchi.
When I ferment vegetables I shoot for 3% salt by weight, The Jadam ferments just smell too much for me to want to use them indoors.

 

[twobitbob]

So by itself, this bug would be a soil ammendment? A foliar? IPM?

Not interested in making soda but I am ordering some ginger starts to put out next spring. Having something to do with it for the plants makes it that much better.

I've been thinking more for IPM
I've been curious what others think or if I'm way off

 

[twobitbob]

I've been wanting to make some small Oriental Herbal Nutrient type ferments using Honey.
Garlic fermented honey, Ginger fermented honey, I have plenty of Licorice and Cinnamon on hand, but not Angelica I'll do some reading to see what active compounds are in it and find another herb to replace it with. I have plenty of honey to experiment with, it's Gravity filtered so it contains pollen and propolis, Honey contains approximately 80% sugar.
FPE pumpkin with just honey and one with water and LABS to compare test the PH and Gravity
I might send some to a Lab and the open nutrient project to see if they can show me what nutrient value may be in it and CFU of the Lacto and Yeast if I can find one that is affordable

 

[1oldfart]

This is so cool, thanks for sharing amigos.

I rarely drink but making hard cider is a goal of mine. Orchard first, then the cider.

watched many deer stand, on their back legs to eat apples from graddads old trees.i have a cherry bark oak in the back yard for a draw for deer,no salt black involved!

 

[1oldfart]

watched many deer stand, on their back legs to eat apples from graddads old trees.i have a cherry bark oak in the back yard for a draw for deer,no salt black involved!

some days i can't spell for shit!