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Raspberry Ginger Soda

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Raspberry Soda

 

Raspberry bushes hang heavy with their ripe, purple-red fruit this time of year.  We pluck them from wild bushes along neighborhood paths, and I seem to bring home a flat or two with each visit to the weekly farmers market.

We eat our fill fresh, macerating them in honey with a touch of vanilla bean.  I plop them into baked goods, and puree them for popsicles and fruit leather.  Recently, I developed a hankering for raspberry soda and thought I make a version to serve at home.  I wanted something mildly sweet, relatively dry and with a subtle spark of fresh ginger.

How (and Why) to Make Your Own Homemade Probiotic Sodas

You might be one to avoid sodas owing to their high sugar content, but homemade, fermented sodas are another story entirely: they’re light and complex, slightly sweet and somewhat tart.  Best yet, they offer a beautiful sparkle and fizz.

You can make homemade sodas the old-fashioned way by introducing a starter that is inherently rich in beneficial bacteria and wild yeasts.  These bacteria and yeasts consume the carbohydrates in juice, transforming them to beneficial acids like lactic and acetic acid which, in their turn, give homemade sodas like this raspberry soda their characteristic tartness.

Among my favorite homemade sodas are spiced ginger beer and vanilla mint soda (you can find the recipes in my cookbook – The Nourished Kitchen).  Once you have the technique down, you can begin to branch outfrom there to make homemade sodas inspired by what’s available to you locally.

Homemade Sodas Support a Healthy Gut

As these organisms consume those sugars, they also produce B vitamins as well as carbon dioxide gas.  When you culture your sodas in a sealed environment, like a flip-top bottle, that carbon dioxide has no place to go, and it, instead, carbonates your homemade soda, and gives it its fizz and foam.

The result is a fun homemade soda that is easy to make, a source of B vitamins, and a great source for beneficial bacteria that help to build a healthy gut.

Raspberry Soda-3a

How to Use Ginger Bug to Make Homemade Sodas

Ginger bug, a slurry of ginger, sugar and water, acts as a starter culture very similarly to sourdough starter.   As it sits at room temperature, the ginger bug attracts beneficial bacteria and wild yeasts that then populate the bug, which then acts as a starter for other fermented foods like homemade soda.   Kombucha and water kefir also make good starts to homemade sodas.

Once you have your ginger bug going, and it’s lively, yeasty and fizzy (get the recipe here), it’s ready to use to make your own homemade sodas.  Stir it well to aerate it and to evenly distribute the bacteria and yeasts, then strain off enough of the ginger bug’s liquid to provide you with what you need for your recipe, add a bit more water and sugar back to the bug in order to maintain it, and you’re ready to make a homemade, fermented soda.

Why You Should Use Flip-Top Bottles

Many of us begin fermenting by the use of mason jars because they’re easy to find and relatively inexpensive; however, if you find yourself fermenting regularly, it’s wise to invest in a fermentation crock (like this one) for fermented vegetables and a dozen or so flip-top bottles for your homemade fermented tonics and sodas.

Flip top bottles seal tightly, and don’t allow the carbon dioxide built up during fermentation to escape.  Instead, flip-top bottles trap the carbon dioxide inside the homemade soda, and make it bubbly.  Since fermentation is inexact, and it’s tough to gauge just how carbonated your ferment will be, take care in opening your homemade fermented sodas.

Where to Find Flip-Top Bottles

I recommend buying flip-top bottles from a home brew supply store, or online here.  The initial output for good-quality, thick-walled flip-top bottles can be a little expensive; however, they’re sturdy and they last as they’re made to withstand the rigors of fermentation.

Many readers have reached out to me over the years to share that they’ve found flip-top bottles at discount stores in the home goods section; however, keep in mind that while these discounted bottles are less expensive, they are made primarily for decor, and they are not made to withstand the pressure created during fermentation.  This leaves them more susceptible to breakage and the stray exploding bottle.

Raspberry Soda-2

Raspberry Ginger Soda
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Ingredients
Instructions
  1. Puree the raspberries in a food processor or blender, and then strain them through a fine-mesh sieve or piece of cheesecloth, pressing them to extract about two cups of juice. Discard the seeds.
  2. Stir the ginger bug well to aerate it and to distribute the wild yeast and bacteria it contains, and then strain about a cup of the ginger bug liquid into the raspberry juice. Return any stray bits of ginger that remain in your strainer to your ginger bug container. Whisk water into the raspberry and ginger bug.
  3. Place a narrow-mouth funnel (like this one) into the neck of a flip-top bottle (order them here. Pour two cups of the raspberry and ginger mixture into each of the two flip-top bottles, seal them tightly, and allow them to ferment at room temperature for two to three days, or until bubbles begin to appear when you tip the bottle upside down and turn it right-side up again. Transfer the bottle to the refrigerator, and let it chill for at least one day before serving. Take care when opening the bottle, as its contents are under pressure and it may foam when opened.

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Reader Interactions

What people are saying

  1. This looks good! How would one use kombucha as the starter instead of the ginger bug? Same amount?

    • Just add the strained raspberries and a little cane sugar to your Kambusha or kefir water and bottle! Or you could be lazy like me and add the raspberries straight to the bush with some dissolved cane sugar and strain later. I mash em up with the sugar and put em straight in the bottle. It’s best if the sugar is dissolved so I do so in a smidge of water and then add the rasp and mash.

  2. Is it possible to substitute 1 cup of komucha for the ginger bug?
    I love your newsletter and all your recipes!

  4. How do you feel about carbonation? I’ve been trying to give up sodas not just because of sugar, but I heard that carbonation is bad for your bones.

    • It’s the large amount of phosphoric acid in soda that harms the bones. Phosphorus must be in balance with calcium. Phosphorus acidifies the blood, calcium is pulled from the bones to make the blood pH more alkaline to keep the blood pH within the appropriate range. I believe this is right and it is not related to carbonation. I think carbonation may inhibit digestion.

      • Completely false. While the basic reaction you are describing does occur in our bodies blood, it is an action that maintains the blood at a constant pH. What you eat has little to no effect on this. This buffering process is extremely effective at maintaining blood pH even if you injected a highly acidic or basic solution directly into your veins. This mechanism is incredibly important to our survival because if your blood changed in pH even slightly your blood sells would rupture and you’d die. To suggest that one’s diet (something that often over human evolution has had to adapt based on scarcity) could have any impact on this is ridiculous. Please don’t bastardize science for your misguided agenda.

  5. I’ve made other lactofermented sodas before and while they were good, I found them too sweet. I’m looking forward to trying this (blackberry season is about to take off) and enjoying a drier end result.

  8. remember my parents making home made root beer soda but never tried raspberry soda. will give it a try.

  9. If you bottle some in plastic soda bottles, when they are hard you know they are carbonated enough. Put them in the fridge.

  11. I’m curious what the sugar content of the end result of this product is. I’m currently avoiding sugar in all forms, except for berries and some vegetables (I’m eating carrots but not beets, for instance). Would this be too sweet for me? Could I let it ferment for longer in order to lessen the sugar content? Also, you mentioned that the Ginger Bug attracts wild yeasts… should this be something that I should stay away from while I trying to fight candida?

  12. This a definitely a must try. I make kvass on a regular basis. A couple of question. Your Ginger Bug photo gives the impression it is growing in a sealed mason jar at room temperature. Should the jar be sealed? Or covered with a non porous cloth?
    I have had problems with fruit flies when I use Cheesecloth and have been considering using muslin. What are you using to cover your jars?
    Lorri

    • Hi Lori,

      You don’t want to keep a lid on the bug while it sits on the kitchen counter. You’re right that you just use a cloth, to let air in and out. You want to feed the bug everyday if you’re leaving it a room temperature; 2 TBSP of ginger, water and sugar. If you decide you aren’t going to be using it very much you want to put a tight lid on it and put it in the fridge. When its in the fridge you feed it the 2 TBSP of ginger, water and sugar once a week. I also read that you want to set the ginger bug out of the fridge for at least and hour before feeding it.

      Hope that helps!

      Heather

  13. I always have a terrible time getting my flip top bottles clean. Can you provide tips or a tutorial on how you keep yours super clean for fermentation? This would be extremely helpful. Thank you so much.

    • Clean ethics Bottle bright effervescent cleaning tablets are the best! All natural and they support international clean water charity

  14. Oh boy. Here’s a warning to all those who want to try this recipe: Get ready for an explosion!

    I followed this recipe exactly, and went to burp the bottles this morning. I use a swing-top bottle, and thought it would be OK after just letting them sit overnight. WRONG! All the contents exploded everywhere! Took me 3hrs to clean up the kitchen, not including the shower I had to take to get raspberry pulp out of my hair. I opened up the second bottle on my porch, which now looks like a murder scene.
    I have made my own ginger ale before and kombucha on a regular basis with no problems, but THIS! I think it was the sugar in the raspberries and the summer weather that made the fermentation go overboard.

    Proceed with caution! (Although, what I had left in the bottles was delicious.)

    • My bottle actually exploded. I’m so glad it happened when we weren’t home because somebody could have been hurt. I’m wondering if I got the wrong type of bottle? They were flip top and said they were for canning, is that different then the ones recommended here? We also had a very messy kitchen to clean up. I’m so bummed I was looking forward to this!

  15. This looks delicious but according to Donna Gates of Body Ecology, you should not consume anything that is derived from wild yeast if you are dealing with Candida.

    • I love BED and think Donna is fantastic; however, it’s hard to take that admonition seriously and to heart when her system for treating “candida” is predicated on buying her starters. There’s an inherent bias there. That said, if you’re following BED try making this with their kefir starter. It works super well and I often use it.

  16. Thanks Jenny, I’ll give that a try for sure. I quit making Kombucha for the same reason. So many different opinions, it gets very confusing for me.

  17. I am confused at the amount of Soda Bug to use….. this recipe has 1 cup of the soda bug for only 3 cups of juice/water combination but the actual Soda Bug recipe uses 4 cups of sweetened herbal tea with only 1/4 cup of the bug.
    Help?

  18. I am confused about the recipe too. Seems like it would only make 2 bottles, is that right?

      • I am still confused about the ginger bug in this recipe. When you follow the link for the ginger bug recipe, it directs you to mix the ginger bug liquid with a quart of sweetened tea at the very end. In the raspberry ginger soda recipe, it asks for an entire cup of ginger bug. Does this mean one cup of the tea mixture from the ginger bug recipe, or one cup from the source not mixed with tea? If it requires ginger bug from what I am only adding 2 tbsp of water to, is there a way to get to one cup faster for this recipe (assuming it is not asking for the tea mixture)? Thank you!

        • Hi Jackie, good food takes good time. First prepare the bug until you can get 1 cup strained liquid, then mix it with the raspberry juice to make this recipe.

  19. Hi Jenny

    Would you please address the two explosion comments and what we can do to avoid it?

    I’d like to try this but I’m afraid that it will be a disaster.

    Thanks

    Bill

    • Like someone mentioned in another comment, I make mine in plastic soda bottles–that way, you can check when the bottle is firm, full of pressure and ready to stop the fermentation. And then at that point, I transfer my soda to the glass flip-top bottles. I usually avoid plastic like the plague, but it’s extremely hard to avoid explosions without being able to push against the plastic and check the pressure.

    • We make ginger beer, as we call ginger soda, every summer in glass flip top bottles. The amount of fizz on opening does vary from batch to batch. We learned the hard way (!) to place the bottle in a large mixing bowl and to hold an inverted jug over the top of the bottle, lifted high enough for a second person to be able to flip off the top. Most of the time this is a big non event… But just once in a while the whooshing up of the soda is then redirected by the jug and caught in the bowl below. Tip the soda back into the jug, and if you are lucky, there might still be a little in the bottom of the bottle!!

  20. I have a question. This recipe calls for 1 cup of ginger bug, but the recipe for ginger bug says to never remove more than ¼ cup at a time. Do you just remove ¼ cup at a time until you have one cup? Or do you quadruple your ginger bug recipe for this? I’m very interested in making this, but I want to do it correctly. Thanks!

  21. I made a ginger bug and it was going great but I forgot to feed it for two days and now it is no longer fizzing. So did I kill it? It isn’t moldy. What do I do? Do I add sugar and revive it? Do I have to start over??

  22. I just wanted to update my above question—I kept feeding it with one tbsp of sugar and a little water and after about five days it started fizzing like crazy again!

  23. I’m sooo glad I stumbled upon you’re site. My old timey dreams have come true! Not only are the recipes great. I don’t have to search for supplies any more. We’re totally doing the raspberry and root beer. Thank you thank you!

    • No, you need to use a caloric sweetener or the soda will not ferment. Carbohydrates are what feeds the beneficial bacteria.

  26. We have been getting Grolsch Beer bottles from the beer vendor. They are very cheap – the price of the bottle deposit, and usually a little extra for the vendor’s inconvenience to dig the bottles out.

    Washing the bottles – It works great to use a bottle washer/rinser used in cleaning wine bottles.

    It’s a little extra work, a lot less money!

  27. Hello, I really liked your reciepe, because it keeps raspberries juice fresh and not pasturised. I’ve tried it, but after 36 hours I found a lot tiny small almost transparent worms floating on the top of the juice 🙁 I think they are fruit worms, but still I am not sure if I filter the drink is it still good for drinking? The color and the smell of the juice are perfectly OK, only these little worms…

    • It sounds like it could possibly be fruit flies. How long did the raspberries sit out before you processed them? Also, did you ferment everything in a closed environment?

      • I bought the raspberries from the market and 4-5 hours after that I rinsed them and then the next steps for fermentation. During these 36 hours of fermentation the jar was covered with a towel.
        After posting my comment here I decided just to try to filter the liquid very well – trough 3 filters. Today it looks there are no more worms and the soda tastes like heaven. Anyway, I am not so brave to drik a lot from it 🙁

        One more question: Have you ever had a thin layer of mold – the same like in sauerkraut – on the top of your fermented sodas or ginger bug?

  28. You can buy back grohlsh beer bottles with flip tops from beverage return centers for only 5 cents each..Soak them in one step to sanitize and you are all set..I have cases of them that only cost me $1.20 each 🙂

    • Hi Jacalyn,

      YES, most fermented drinks will contain alcohol. This is particularly true of yeast-based fermented drinks (NOT lactofermented which will typically have less). Yeast-based ferments include anything fermented with ginger bug, kombucha, etc. Lactofermented drinks include things like whey-based sodas and beet kvass (though not traditional Russian kvass which traditionally uses sourdough rye as a starter).

      The amount of alcohol found in these fermented drinks is relatively tiny. Less than .5% for commercial kombuchas, for example, except those that have been brewed specifically for alcohol and are sold as 21+. For home-brewed fermented drinks, the alcohol level generally hovers between .05% and 1.5%, depending on the type. A good friend of mine tested her water kefir, and it was .64%.

      To put this in perspective, non-alcoholic beers have about .4% alcohol. Freshly squeezed fruit juice is about .1%, and commercial orange juice usually hovers around .2-.5%. Get this: a RIPE banana contains about .9% alcohol (that’s more than what kombucha typically contains) and an over-ripe banana contains up to 4.5% alcohol.

      So, yes, fermented drinks contain small amounts of alcohol, comparable if not less than fruit juice, ripe and over ripe fruit. If you avoid fermented drinks based on alcohol content, I would caution you to avoid ripe fruit, and fruit juice as well. There is a lot of evidence that *small* amounts of alcohol is beneficial.

  31. Can you sweeten the soda mixture before putting it in a flip top bottle? Or will that give the yeasties too much to eat, thereby making bottle bombs?

    • You could try and let us know how it goes, but I recommend following the recipe as written.

  33. I have a question! I just made my first batch of homemade soda, and now it’s teady to drink. Problem is, while I sterilized the bottles and everything, I forgot to sterilize my whisk and funnel that I used to mix and fill. Is there any risk of mold or other pathogens? It looks and smells fine. Thanks for the advice!

    • I don’t sterilize any of my equipment, and don’t find it necessary at all. As long as your equipment is clean, it’s fine to use.