Lazy Homemade Fermented Beverages: Ginger Ale, Tea, and Hybiscus . . .

After trying and wildly modifying a terrible recipe for ginger ale that was a ton of work and, randomly, salty (my kids wouldn't drink the first batch), I hit upon a super easy and delicious recipe. Based on my experience with kefir, which grows on the counter while I do nothing but add milk, I thought I could probably do something similar with a ginger ale recipe.

So I added one lime and about a half cup of sugar and some cut up ginger to the jar and filled it with water along with a teaspoon of whey (which I have on hand, the clear part of the kefir that separates from the curds when making kefir). And I knew from experience that the slightly milky coating on the bottom of the jar was full of yeast and bacteria. And so after I finished drinking my first batch of ginger ale, instead of throwing everything out and starting again as I the recipe I looked at suggested, I left the last half inch of liquid on the bottom and kept the same ginger pieces in the jar. Then I added sugar, lemon, and water and left it on the counter overnight. It worked! A little fizzy, sweet, slightly tart, and refreshing!

I passed on my idea with a little whey to a friend at work, and she started making it and drinking it every day. She wanted to know why I haven't tried any variations yet. I was surprised at that, because why would you vary perfect? But that got me thinking and today I started two new batches. One is dried hibiscus leaves with honey and a teaspoon of whey. The other is green tea bags with honey and whey (this one already smells amazing). The key for my method is to leave something in the jar at the end. So I'll leave the hibiscus in the bottom. And I'll probably end up rinsing the tea bags off really well back into the jar before I replace them, maybe every second or third time I make it?

The beauty of this kind of lazy fermenting is that you get the health benefits of the healthy yeasts and bacteria, a drink that is honestly much better-tasting than soda, and the work of only filling a bottle with water and adding some water (and sometimes lemon) and sugar (or honey). Love it!!

I thought I'd pass it on in case anyone wanted to try it!

True confession: I measure nothing, so all above measurements are guesses.