Lightly sweet, mostly dry, and bursting with bubbles, a naturally fermented lemonade soda is one of our favorite probiotic treats to make - particularly in summer when it helps to quench thirst brought on by hot days spent under the sun's bright and warm rays.
Homemade, naturally fermented lemonade is also easy to make. It involves less than five minutes of active time in the kitchen, mostly spent stirring before bottling and waiting for friendly bacteria to do the work for you.
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How to Get Lemonade Naturally Fizzy
This homemade, naturally fermented lemonade soda's fizz depends on the action of friendly bacteria. They gobble up the carbohydrates in the honey. In the end, those bacteria make your natural sodas less sweet, slightly more tart, rich in B vitamins, and naturally fizzy.
The natural fizz comes from the release of carbon dioxide that happens during fermentation. When carbon dioxide is bottled up with no place to go in flip-top bottles, the lemonade becomes naturally fizzy. Depending on how long you allow the lemonade to ferment, that fizziness can range from an effervescent tickle to frenzied foaming.
Pro Tip: Invest in flip-top bottles for fermented drinks and natural, probiotic sodas. These bottles capture the carbon dioxide that builds up during fermentation, making your soda naturally bubbly.
Variations for Your Starter Culture
Of course, the bacteria responsible for all the goodness of homemade sodas needs to come from somewhere, and, in the case of this fermented, probiotic lemonade soda recipe, they come from fresh whey. Fresh whey is the liquid that accumulates on top of your yogurt, and it is also the liquid leftover when you make homemade yogurt or milk kefir and strain it.
You can also use kombucha tea, jun tea, water kefir, or ginger bug in place of whey in this recipe. They’re all a good source of the friendly microbes you need to make homemade, fermented soda.
