Homemade Probiotic Root beer!!!!

Okay, so our ginger bug is ready!  Here is a pic of it this morning:

I fed it a final day yesterday and it is really nice and bubbly today!

So how do we make root beer?

Step 1:  Make your simple syrup.  I used 2 cups of water, and 1.5 cups of sugar.  Bring it to a boil, until sugar is dissolved.  Take syrup off the heat and stir in 2 tbsp of root beer extract (I used Watkins).  Taste.  Is it flavoured enough for you?  If not, add a bit more flavouring.  It will taste sweet.  Remember that this is just the syrup (you will add water to it) and the sugar will be eaten by the ginger bug to make carbonation and healthy probiotics!!

Step 2:  Fill a jar with 6 cups of hot water and make sure there is still head room!  I do this to make the jar warm enough to prevent breakage once you pour in your syrup water!!

Step 3:  Fill a large measuring cup with 4 cups of hot water (I used bottled water).  Pour your simple syrup into another container and check taste again.  Not necessary but yummy!

water, simple syrup and glass jar with warm water

Step 4:  Pour simple syrup into the 4 cups of hot water.  This should make approx. 6 cups of liquid.  Mix and taste to see that it is root beer flavoured enough for you again at this point.  If not, add a bit more!!

Pour root beer syrup into water

Step 5:  Let mixture cool to room temperature.

Step 6:  Pour water out of glass jar (this was just keeping jar warm).  Then pour your mixture into the jar.

I left some out to make sure there was room for the ginger bug.

 

Step 7:  Strain approx. 1 cup of ginger bug out of your jar into a measuring cup or other container.  Make sure there is no ginger floating since that would probably taste weird!  LOL.

Step 8:  Pour ginger bug into your jar along with your mixture.  Gently stir. Screw lid onto jar and set in a warm place out of direct sunlight.

after adding ginger bug, I topped it up with some of the reserved mixture
but I left head room for the carbonation. 

This will sit for a few days until bubbly!  The longer you leave it, the more sugar will be eaten by the ginger bug and the less sweet it will be.  Taste it once bubbly and see if you want it to sit longer.  Once it tastes perfect put it into the fridge to get nice and cold!  If you don't drink it all at once, make sure to taste it every so often since even in the fridge, the ginger will continue to work (and get less sweet).